Being political is not something that’s generally attributed to the royal family, but Meghan Markle has once again turned expectations around.
Wednesday’s first annual Royal Foundation forum was the first to publicly bring together Prince Harry, Prince William, the Duchess of Cambridge, and Meghan Markle. Here, Markle showed open support of women’s issues and movements such as Time’s Up, and Me Too, claiming that these were great times for women to be empowered and for their voices to be heard.
I hear a lot of people speaking about girls’ empowerment, finding and knowing their worth, and women’s empowerment as well. You’ll often hear people saying but you’re helping women find their voices. I fundamentally disagree with that because women don’t need to find a voice, they have a voice, they need to feel empowered to use it and people need to be urged to listen.
There is no better time to really continue to shine a light on women feeling empowered and people really helping to support them, men included in that. It makes such a tremendous difference.
The Huffington Post claims that these types of statements are very strange coming from royals, who generally stay away from political stances or biases. William Hanson, British etiquette expert, says that royalty is meant to be above politics and related matters. He continued saying that Markle “may need to slightly adjust her forthrightness when she marries Prince Harry in May.”
While it may be breaking protocol, it’s refreshing to see Markle standing next to monarchs and taking a stance on something that she obviously cares about. Maybe it’s time for the royal protocol to evolve, and to be more in touch with reality and day-to-day events.
Markle has been known to take an interest in women’s issues since the beginning of her career, publicly stating her opinions and being an advocate for UN Women.
