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Women and Public Policy Program’s Research Seminar Series

From ‘Right to Rule’ to ‘Right to Reign’? The Problem of Female Monarchy in Victorian Britain


October 6, 2016
11:40am - 1:00pm
Women and Public Policy Program, Harvard Kennedy School, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
October 6, 2016
11:40am - 1:00pm
Women and Public Policy Program, Harvard Kennedy School, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

Historians have long suspected that Queen Victoria’s gender played a role in the rise of constitutional (e.g. ceremonial) monarchy in 19th-century Britain. But what was the nature of this role? In this seminar, Arianne Chernock takes on this question through an archival-based approach by exploring Victoria’s centrality to the early women’s rights movement in Britain – especially in inspiring women to demand the right to vote. Chernock argues that recognizing Victoria’s role in the women’s rights movement allows us to see the shift towards a more restricted Crown as an attempt to contain radical thinking about women, agency, and power to create a more democratic and transparent British state.

Sponsors

  • Department of History, Boston University

This event is co-sponsored by:

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