Women With Male Titles

From The Mary Sue comes a series of articles on ten women who took upon the titles of their male counterparts.

While women taking titles normally reserved for men shows up in fiction every once in a while, what’s more impressive is that it’s not a product of fiction — this happens in real life, more often than you’d think, and in pretty high places.

For Women’s History Month, we’ve taken a break from fictional female characters to put the spotlight on a few women who became significant rulers, even kings. Yes, kings. Not queens, not empresses, but kings. Usually reserved for men, these women thought there was no need to separate themselves as an equally effective ruler by taking a gender-specific title. These are real-life examples from history, but a handful of these women are currently running their respective shows.