Women's Power in Global Perspective
What does real female power look like?
A panoramic view of female leadership, creativity, wisdom, and courage, around the world and over thousands of years. Max Dashu presents female spheres of power in politics, economics, religion, medicine, arts and letters, featuring a rich tapestry of women famous and anonymous, ancient and modern.
Monuments to Ancestral Mothers. Founders, Chieftains, and Queens. Clan Mothers: Structural Social Power. Mothertech: Builders, Potters, Weavers. Providers: Foragers, Farmers, Fishers and Traders. Female Elders. Seers, Shamans, Priestesses. Healers, Medicine Women, Physicians. Athletes, Warriors, Rebels. Educators and scientists. Revolutionaries, liberators, and activists. Women like:
Libusche • Maria Hebraea • Anacaona •
Walladah bint-al-Mustakfi • Enheduanna • Karaikkalammayar • Yeshe
Tsogyel • Marie de France • Mama Huaco • Abla Pokou • Gabriela Silang •
Lozen • Catalina Erausa • Cecile Fatiman • Matilda Joslyn Gage •
Kartini Solo • Zitkala-Sa • Niuta Teitelboim • Violeta Parra • Mileva
Maric • Anna Mae Aquash • María Candelaria • Samsi of Nabataea • and
more...
Your Instructor
Max Dashu founded the Suppressed Histories Archives in 1970 to research and document global women's history, reflecting the full spectrum of the world's peoples. She uses images to teach, scanning the cultural record: archaeology, history, art, orature, linguistics and spiritual philosophies. From her collection of some 50,000 images, she has created 130 visual talks on female cultural heritages, foregrouding Indigenous traditions, with attention to patterns of conquest and domination. She is internationally known for her expertise on ancient female iconography, matricultures and patriarchal systems, medicine women and shamans, witch hunts, and female spheres of power.
Dashu's legendary visual talks bring to light female realities usually hidden from view, from ancient female figurines to women leaders, priestesses, clan mothers, philosophers, warriors and rebels. Her courses scan the cultural record—archaeology, history, art, orature, linguistics, and spiritual philosophies—making this knowledge more accessible to all education backgrounds.
Dashu has been presenting her visual talks for more than four decades, at universities, conferences, museums, community centers, bookstores, galleries, libraries and schools, in North America, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Britain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Austria, Australia, Mexico and Guatemala.
Max Dashu's book Witches and Pagans: Women in European Folk Religion, 700-1000 (Veleda Press, 2016) has been acclaimed as a sourcebook on European ancestral traditions. Her forthcoming book on women in Hellenic myth and history is Vol II in her 16-volume series Secret History of the Witches.
Dashu has published in various journals and anthologies, including Goddesses in World Mythology (Praeger 2010) and the Encyclopedia of Women in World Religion (ABC-Clio 2018). She created two videos: Women's Power in Global Perspective (2008) and Woman Shaman: The Ancients (2013). Her daily posts on the Suppressed Histories Facebook page are followed by 181,000 people, and 72,000 more have viewed her articles on Academia.edu.