Doesn't the idea of male heirs to the British throne leap-frogging women send out entirely the wrong message

Question

Right, I will start by saying that I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in the royal family. None at all. They stand for privilege and the idea that it is alright for birth to bestow you certain privileges.

However, the idea vis-a-vis succession to the phone that male prospective heirs take precedence over women troubles me.

Currently first in line is Charles followed by his children, then Andrew and his, then Edward, and then Anne. But Anne is older than Andrew and Edward, and so should be above them. She is only below them because she is a woman and so gets automatically shunted down the list. This is blatantly sexist, and something that should be unacceptable in a country that (at least should be trying) to be modern and progressive and not at all discriminatory against any particular social groups.

Answer 1

You obviously do not keep current with events.  The queen changed that years ago and Anne was in line to the throne after Charles way before William was born.

Answer 2

The succession is governed by the act of settlement from 1701. To change this would require an act of Parliament. At present this is a moot point because even if we had equality, the first three people in the Line of succession are male and would remain so.

It will remain irrelevant if William's oldest legitimate child is a boy, if it's a girl then there may be discussion about changing the Act of Settlement to give equal rights to girl inheriting the throne, some other European Royal families have changed their laws recently.

Answer 3

1st:England is not discriminatory, the succession has always been like that and it will stay like that because of tradition

2nd:In modern times it would be really strange that HRH Prince Charles,HRH Prince WIlliam and HRH Prince Henry die,so it doesnt matter which of the sibilings of Charles comes after HRH Prince Henry.

Answer 4

If you "have absolutely no interest whatsoever in the royal

family" -- then butt out and go play with something you do

have an interest in.  And, by the way, that should be "throne".

rather than "phone."

Answer 5

Right, I will start by saying that I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in the royal family. None at all.

No point me answering then is there!

Answer 6

I don't know very much about the British throne but Queen Elizabeth herself was the only heir to the throne....so women can be Queen. Her husband is a Prince.  

So, if you are a male heir and you have a wife she's a Queen.  If you are a Queen and have a husband (like Elizabeth) then the husband is a Prince.

That's not fair either.  LOL

Answer 7

Prince Charles is in line to the throne ahead of Princess Anne as he is the eldest. there hasnt been a case of a female being passed over for a male since mid 1800's (Queen Victorias children) and you may find that now, the title may just pass to a female rather than bypass her in favour of the male.

The crown is passed down through the eldest unless they have no children in which case it returns to their oldest living sibling and if they are all deceased (or were a only child) it moves to the person with greatest claim to the throne (whoever is most closely related to the current king/queen)

Answer 8

I believe as time goes by, more and more monarchy nations will enact the "Equal primogeniture" policy, which is inheritance by the oldest surviving child without regard to gender. It is also known as (full) cognatic primogeniture today. This form of primogeniture was not practiced by any monarchy before 1980. Currently, there are only four European monarchy nations that changed it to equal primogeniture since 1980, they include Sweden (Crown Princess Victoria is the only heiress apparent in the world), Netherlands, Norway, and Belgium.

Countries like Spain, Japan and Denmark and their governments are proposing of adopting equal primogeniture in the near future. As time progresses, hopefully more and more monarchy nations will follow, and provide equal rights for females and males. Inheriting the throne is one issue, but also changing the traditional of "inheriting titles and styles" through the male-line only. Women should also be allowed to pass on their royal titles and styles to their children, whether or not they marry to a commoner.

Answer 9

Primogeniture has been in force in England ever since the Norman Conquest.  The custom is for the throne to past to the oldest male heir, and to a daughter only if there is no male heir.  However, the royal succesion in England has always been less sexist than in many other countries, many european countries fo rinstance had the Salic law which meant that a female could not inherit at all.

In the case of Princess Anne it is largely irrelevent now anyhow, since Prince Charles has two healthy sons and there is virtually no chance of Anne inheriting the throne now even if she was next in succesion to Charles.

Answer 10

Yeah, right !!

Absolutely no interest at all - so why are you even bothering to ask the question ??

Don't worry, because Gordon Brown will soon have us in the United States of Europe, with Tony B'Liar as President, so the issue of who is King/Queen will matter even less.

God help us !!

Answer 11

Correct.   I vote we have a revolution to put Anne fourth in line.

Answer 12

You are right. Nobody has mentioned that ten years ago the government promised to change this system after consulting the other realms of which the British monarch is sovereign (Canada, New Zealand, etc), after Jeffrey Archer tried to change the law in the Lords. Nothing has been heard since, and I doubt the govt has actually raised with them.

To show how silly this is, if the Queen Mother had been pregnant when her husband died, Elizabeth wd have become queen, but her newborn baby brother would have taken her place as soon as he was born!