Queen Elizabeth & Female Autonomy

As a little girl in the 1970s, Queen Elizabeth II was a very different female role model to the women I saw on TV

When I was a little girl, I once asked my mother: who would you rather meet? The President of the United States, or the Queen of England?

“The President of the United States of course,” my mother replied. A first-generation American, my mother was a proud US citizen who was a passionate believer in civics, civil duty, and democracy (as it was defined in 1976, rather than the current variation Americans experience today).

I did not reply. I felt a little guilty, like a bad American. As a little girl who knew nothing about the workings of politics, monarchies, the world in general, but who was the only girl in a family of four children and who saw first-hand the privileges of boys and men, the Queen was far more interesting to me.

As a little girl, Queen Elizabeth II was the only example in my entire world of a woman with full autonomy and the power to determine her own path and make her own choices. But it wasn’t power in itself that I was so interested in; it was agency, autonomy. It was being in a female body and not only acknowledged but also respected as a woman unto herself, without being defined by her relationship to…