Girls rule: 300 years of British royal gender discrimination ends

by The 1 | October 28, 2011 at 06:21 am

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Queen hails women power as change brings equality to succession.

A really old law that means boys in the Royal Family will always get to the throne before girls could be changed.

At the moment, the law says that a king or queen's son will always get the top job, even if he has older sisters.

But some politicians think this is unfair and want to change the rules so the monarch's oldest child gets the crown whether they're boy or girl.

The Queen took the throne when her father King George VI died, because she has no brothers.

As Commonwealth politicians unanimously agreed dramatic reform to royal succession laws dating back more than 300 years, the Queen said the untapped potential of women and girls should be set free. The symbolic constitutional change means that if the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's first child is a girl, she will become queen.

The monarch said at the opening of a major summit of the 53 Commonwealth countries in Perth, Australia: "The theme this year is Women As Agents of Change."

"It reminds us of the potential in our societies that is yet to be fully unlocked and it encourages us to find ways to allow all girls and women to play their full part. We must continue to strive in our own countries and across the Commonwealth to promote that theme in a lasting way beyond this year."

The British Monarchy