Equal Power in Gender

On October 25, 2011, in London CNN news, British Prime Minister David Cameron said it has been declared that the sons and daughters of British royals will have an equal right to the throne under changes to the United Kingdom's succession laws agreed. The legitimate revolutions would mean a first-born girl has precedence over a younger brother.

The leaders of the 16 Commonwealth countries that have the queen as head of state approved the changes unanimously at a Commonwealth of Nations summit in Australia, Cameron said. The individual governments of those 16 countries still must agree to the changes for them to take effect.

Manners have changed profoundly over the centuries, Cameron said in a televised address, and old-fashioned rules should change with them.

"The idea that a younger son should become monarch instead of an elder daughter simply because he is a man, or that a future monarch can marry someone of any faith except a Catholic -- this way of thinking is at odds with the modern countries that we have become," he said.

"Put simply, if the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were to have a little girl, that girl would one day be our queen."

Britain is not the first European nation with a hereditary monarchy to take steps towards gender equality in its laws of succession.

Denmark changed its rules to make them gender neutral in 1953, allowing the current monarch, Queen Margrethe, to succeed to the throne.

Sweden followed suit in 1980, three years after the birth of Crown Princess Victoria, the current successor to the throne. Norway also accords equal rights of succession to royals born after 1990.

Queen Elizabeth is in Australia for the three-day Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. The Commonwealth is an association of 54 nations with ties to the United Kingdom. Only 16 share the queen as head of state.

I was very excited to hear this news since it showed that women are finally getting the equal right and power to rule the monarchy. Before people would just have the male heir run the royal business, now the women heir can have the chance to take control too! Even though this news was mainly aimed for countries that still have the monarchy system, it can still probably increase the possibility for the United States to elect women for president!