Now girls rule--literally!--in British monarchy--that is, if 16 national parliaments concur

The 16 Commonwealth nations have just voted to change the rules for royal succession; so if all goes according to plan, after Prince William, Britain's hereditary monarch will become the next queen or king strictly on the basis of birth order, not gender.  http://t.co/VD6qv8v
Buckingham Palace has always refrained from commenting on this political issue, saying it’s a matter for the British and Commonwealth governments to decide.  Rather, it was Britain’s Prime Minister, David Cameron, who successfully urged leaders of the 15 other Commonwealth nations to agree today that Britain’s royal family should scrap the antiquated system of succession by male primogeniture (after the Belgian, Dutch, Swedish, and Norwegian monarchies have already canned it.)
But before this overdue reform can actually go into effect, it must also be approved by the national legislatures of all 16 Commonwealth countries—and the slowness and complexity of this process has been enough of an obstacle to prevent such reforms in the past.  Additionally, I have to wonder how many of the 16 Commonwealth legislatures have a fair proportion of female members, who will be inclined to push for female heirs taking precedence over their younger brothers and other girl-friendly legislation.  (Please see page 34 of my March-2011 column in PrintAction for a more detailed discussion of why having proportional representation of females in government definitely matters.)
https://www.box.net/shared/gy0bmq180s
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/12/royal-succession-reform_n_1007210.html

2 new resources on how women are faring professionally & globally

A couple of interesting links I’ve discovered this week:
One is a new study by Catalyst revealing how women are assessed differently for promotion than men.  Evidently, women seeking to advance professionally need a proven track record, while men get promoted based on their perceived "potential".  http://www.torontosun.com/2011/10/13/women-blameless-in-pay-inequity-study

The second is “Newsweek’s” recent ranking of the world’s 10 best and 10 worst countries in which to be a woman.  Although they ranked Canada the world’s third best country for females in terms of justice, health, education, and economics, we still scored low in giving women political power.  You can found out whether and where your own country placed on the lists at:  http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/09/22/women-winning-map.html
More fascinating details on the status of women globally at: 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/galleries/2011/09/18/the-best-places-to-be-a-woman-photos.html

http://www.thedailybeast.com/content/dailybeast/articles/2011/09/18/best-and-worst-countries-for-women-from-iceland-to-the-u-s-to-pakistan-and-afghanistan.html