According to
Megillath Esther, Vashti was the first queen of
King Ahashverosh (
Xerxes) of "Paras u'Madai" (
Persia-
Media). He threw a huge party, at which he entertained the women and she entertained the men, and on the seventh day of the party, "whem the heart of the king was merry with wine", he commanded her to come and dance for him and his guests, wearing her crown (some say, wearing
only her crown), "for she was beautiful". She refused. Ahashverosh asked his advisors what he should do, and
Memucan told him that since "the queen's deed will go forth to all women, making their husbands comtemptible in their eyes", the king should dethrone Vashti, and take a new queen, and send out an edict to proclaim that "
every man should rule in his own home". All this was done.
(Poor Vashti, she was way ahead of her time.)
Incidentally, the
Midrash, always keen on keeping women in their place- see
the creation of woman- utterly
demonizes Vashti. (The Midrash is a term for a general category of Jewish tradition/story. It uses hyperbole and fiction inserted into the Biblical narrative, to get a message across.) She was so cruel, she forced her Jewish maidservants to work on
Sabbath. And she was lewd, she would have loved to dance naked for her husband and all her guests, except that when he sent for her she grew pimples and a tail. To this day, Jewish children dressing up as Vashti on Purim put on pimples and a tail (as if to say, look at the ugly
feminist). And the general assumption, based on nothing in the text, is that she was executed.