The Ascent of Woman

Amanda looks at the nomadic worlds of the Eurasian Steppes and the early civilisations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Ancient Greece and Rome as she finds out how early civilisations dealt with the roles and status of women.

Covering a period from the 1st century AD to the present day, Amanda looks at how Asian ideals of feminine virtue and the division of space between the female world of the home and male world of business and politics became a hallmark of Chinese identity. Part of yin and yang, they have cast a long shadow across women’s lives - not just in China, but across Asia.

Dr. Amanda Foreman travels to Istanbul, Germany, Paris and Delhi to explore the stories of women behind some of the most powerful empires of the Middle Ages. From 6th century Byzantium to Medieval Europe, the Ottoman Court to the Mughal Empire, Amanda looks behind the male dominated perceptions of these empires to reveal the strength of women at the heart of power and influence.

In this final episode, Dr. Amanda Foreman looks at the role of women in revolutions that have transformed the modern world: from political uprisings to reproductive rights. Amanda discovers through women like campaigner and writer Olympe De Gouges that the French Revolution’s promise of equality, liberty and brotherhood would be limited to men; Bolshevik radical Alexandra Kollontai would find that while her fellow Russian Revolutionaries may have put women’s rights at the forefront of ideological change, the post-revolutionary world would be as rife with gender bias as the societies they’d helped transform.