The Queen has reigned for 66 years, surpassing Queen Victoria as the longest-reigning British monarch. She has seen vast changes in society through the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, including the sexual revolution and the rise of increasing gender equality in Britain. However, a royal expert says that the Queen’s “greatest mistake” was not engaging with the world of women, which had particular consequences for her son Prince Charles.
BBC Radio 4’s “In Our Time”, in an episode which originally aired in 1999, heard from author and journalist Bea Campbell.
She debated how the monarchy has survived in Britain for hundreds of years and how Elizabeth II approached monarchy in the twentieth century.
Ms Campbell said: “What she has been, is very much her father’s daughter.
“And what she has implemented is a regime which represents the last bastion of patriarchal power.
Queen Elizabeth II has "failed to connect with theowrld of women", according to a royal author (Image: Getty)
