Talk:Gristol/@comment-93.199.77.96-20130424214040/@comment-27202257-20130505184617

Probably because she was the only one in line to inherit the throne. This is a monarchy, so if there's only one heir or all the heirs are of the same gender, it's not like they can do much to switch it up. There are plenty of historical examples of women becoming rulers of male-dominated societies (and doing it well), largely based on the chain of succession.

It also depends on a lot of factors we don't know--for instance, was Jessamine ever married? How does succession work in those cases? There are many countries where if a female heir marries before she takes the throne, her husband becomes Emperor, but if she marries after, he becomes the Empress' Consort. Is this how the Empire of Isles does things, or do they take a different route? Was Emily officially born from some arrangement other than marriage? Basically, we're wanting for a lot of information as to how Jessamine got to where she is, so the best we can really say is that she was just the only heir to the throne and she held tight to that power.

On a final point, saying women are barred from "certain occupations" doesn't mean they're chained up in the basement or something. A society can be oppressive and restrict access to employment for certain groups without it being a blanket ban on them doing anything. For instance, since Abigail Ames and a few other female laborers (based on the names listed here) work in a slaughterhouse, we can assume that women are allowed to work in the industry; however, they are barred from working on the ships. There's also probably a lot of cultural aspects involved (my guess is a lot of Dunwall society doesn't really mind women learning math, the Overseers are just fanatics) as well as invisible restrictions. The life and work of England's first professional female literary writer is a fascinating real-world story in that, I believe.