What to do

1. Write the following words on the board: pharaoh, queen, president, prime minister, chancellor. Ask students what the connection is between the words. (Answer: They are all positions of power.) In small groups, give students a minute to write people from the past and present who they associate with the words. Now compile a class list on the board. Apart from the list of queens, how many of the names on the board are women? There will probably be very few women on the lists. If this is so, ask why they think this is.

2. Hand out the activity sheet and explain that they are going to read a profile of five women with great power from the present and past. Can they identify the people? Get students to compare their answers in the open class before checking answers with you.

3. Working in small groups, students look again at the profiles and decide who the greatest of the five women is. They should discuss this and note down the reasons for their choice. Then have them put the other four women in order of greatness. They then tell the rest of the class about their choice and why they made it. Is there a general consensus about who the greatest woman is? Finally, make a class list of the top five women. The first on each group's list gets five points, the second four points and so on.

4. Get students in pairs to prepare a brief profile of another great woman, but without mentioning her name. She could be a leader or someone who has been important in another field. Students read out their profile. Can the class guess who it is?

Optional activity
To make the profiles they prepare more interesting and complete, students should go away and research their choice of great woman before the next class. Then they work in pairs on the profile in class and pool their information before presenting it to other students.

Answers
A. Hillary Rodham Clinton
B. Margaret Thatcher
C. Angela Merkel
D. Queen Elizabeth I
E. Queen Hatshepsut