It will come as no surprise that men have dominated the long centuries of recorded Asian and African history just as completely as they have in Europe and the West. Indeed, perhaps even more completely.

Take China, for instance - five thousand years of more-or-less continuous civilization but only one female ruler in her own right, Empress Wu Zetian (r. 690-705). Plenty of consorts and concubines, to be sure, and one infamous Empress Dowager (Cixi, r. 1861-1908) who certainly ruled, but did not reign. Yet taken together, Wu Zetian and Cixi dominated the Dragon Throne for just over sixty years – the other 4,940 years belonging, by and large, to male rulers. Nor is China that exceptional. Japan has had just eight reigning empresses, six in the semi-legendary Kofun and later Asuka and Nara Periods (c. 250-794 CE), and two in more recent times; Meisho, (r. 1629-43) and Go-Sakuramachi (r. 1762-71). Vietnam has produced some remarkable female warrior-rulers, for example the Sisters Hai Ba Trung (40-42 CE) and Trieu Thi Trinh (225-48), as well as the courageous patriot Vo Thi Sau, executed by the French in 1952, when just 17 years old...

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