Most of the images of women in Egyptian art appear in the context of temples, funerary movements, and tomb art. Egyptians, like the Greeks, idealized their artwork.

Royal women were presented as very powerful, since they were so in actuality. Egyptian rule was matrilineal, in order to become a pharaoh, one had to marry a woman of royal family. In both Mycerinus and His Queen and Akhenaten and His Family,the women are balanced in size with the men. Mycernius's Queen stands proud, her arms firm around his waist affirming his power. Nefertiti, Akhenaten's wife, is shown holding one of their daughters. The throne contains a stylized symbol of a unified Egypt leading some to make the assumption that she acted as a co-ruler.

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Akhenaten and His Family c. 1348-1336 BCE Painted limestone relief 12 x 15" Berlin

Nefertiti 1348-1336 BCE limestone height 20 in Berlin

Royal Couple in a Garden 1335 BCE limestone