Women have been called queens a long time, but the kingdom given them isn’t worth ruling.

The line is a pointed critique of the hollow flattery often offered to women—calling them “queens”—while denying them substantive power, rights, or rewarding spheres of action. “Kingdom” here functions as a metaphor for the social domain allotted to women (domestic life, ornamental status, moral influence) which may sound exalted but is constrained and undervalued. The contrast between regal title and impoverished realm exposes how praise can mask inequality: symbolic elevation substitutes for material agency. Read in the context of nineteenth-century debates about women’s education, work, and legal status, the sentiment aligns with feminist arguments that women need real opportunities and autonomy rather than sentimental reverence.