In response to one of my earlier blog postings about the monarchy, Jim made a comment about what other countries with monarchies have done – pointing out that the rules have been changed in other countries so that women are no longer discriminated against when it comes to choosing who gets to be monarch.

That’s a good point, which I’ve been looking into further. Here’s a summary of some of the changes:

• Sweden: changed in 1980
• The Netherlands: changed in 1983
• Norway: changed in 1990
• Belgium: changed in 1991
• Nepal: government proposed changing the rules in 2006
• Spain: government says it will change the rules
• Denmark: part-way through the process for changing the rules

If countries like these can change their rules to stop sexism being built-in to their monarchies, why shouldn’t we?

P.S. Another piece of reporting of the story – over on the Haringey Independent’s blog.