Female Voices and Universal History

The male nature of universal history writing in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages leaves little space for the female voice. Indeed, the combination of explicitly male chronological systems and male writers is a significant factor in the extent to which women are underrepresented in world chronicles and narrative sources from this period. A statistical analysis of a selection of chronicles, histories, and hagiographies has revealed that female representation in most sources is under 10 per cent of the total population. However, these poor results may indicate that the featured women are of disproportionate importance. In examining the representation of women such as the legendary queen Semiramis, we can identify faint glimpses of the realities of women’s lives and hints at the existence of a female voice.