United Queendom: Legacies of Gendered Power in the Early Modern British World

Five queens regnant ruled across England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and the spaces they claimed as colonies during the Tudor and Stuart monarchies. For many people living in that time, bowing to a woman on the throne was a more familiar gesture than was bowing to a man. And yet submission to female rule remained controversial, despite its commonplace; many British contemporaries viewed female rule as a cause for anxiety and antagonism rather than accommodation and acceptance, a situation often exacerbated by examples of powerful, successful queenship in the Americas, in the Ottoman Empire, and among European rivals. Early modern British discomfort with female rule was an influential paradigm, and one that, perhaps, continues to resonate today. UN Women, the UN organization dedicated to gender equality, has found that there are only 29 countries in the world in which women serve as Heads of State and/or Government. At the current rate, we will not achieve global gender equity in our highest positions of power for another 130 years. This conference calls together an interdisciplinary community of scholars working on power, femininity, race, authority, and queerness in the early modern British world, to join in assessment of both the early modern experience of gendered power and its longer legacies. 

Funding provided by the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute and The William French Smith Endowment. 

Key Details

• Conference registration is good for both days and includes general admission to The Huntington.
• Lunch reservations close on Feb. 20 at noon. A limited number of lunch tickets will be available for purchase at the conference.