and trade. When it came to elite women in ancient Egypt there were few women who made it to the top of the hierarchy: to be a pharaoh. As listed before, the two most well known are Hatshepsut and Cleopatra VII. They held the same types of rights and prestige as their male counterparts, but their rule was not the common way of inheritance of the throne. The rights of women in ancient Egypt overall were seen as greater than that of other women of the time, but they still had restrictions to their power. Whether that be through limiting certain public interactions or family negotiations or even having their rights curtailed because of having an adulterous affair, but in a theoretical sense in the biggest ways that count men and women shared a balanced sort of rights within society. Hittite law In Hittite law, there were parts where women had similar rights to men as well as other sections where they were treated differently or unequally. In general, women had just as much right to have their legal cases heard as men did. This is one aspect where they enjoyed the same rights that men did. In addition, Hittite women were also given more freedom in terms of their place in society. For instance, they were not relegated to the household; in fact, they were open to joining every career if they wanted, even the military. They were also seen as more of an equal in terms of marriage and property ownership. The elevated status for women most likely was due to their role in childbirth and subsequent rearing. In other parts of the law, they were less equal. In cases of adultery, there were several distinctions that can be observed. First, if a wife was caught with another man by her husband, he had the right to kill her. The wife did not have this right if her husband was adulterous. Second, there is also a difference between married women and those who were single. Death was the typical punishment for committing adultery if a woman was married, whether it was by the husband when discovered in the act or by the king acting as chief justice after a trial. However, for single women, the same behavior was not considered a crime at all. The husband could also choose to divorce the wife if he decided to spare