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The rank of reigning monarch goes to the eldest son through male descendants to the eldest female.
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Wikipedia tells me there's been some discussion about changing the succession laws to reflect the fact that we no longer live in a paternal chauvinistic society, but there are two complications. One, due to the nature and structure of the Commonwealth, all the various Realms would have to change their laws at the same time to avoid successions of different people to different "crowns", and secondly there aren't any women in the senior line of succession (Chuck, Wills and Harry) so it doesn't actually make a difference at the moment.
Other European monarchies like Denmark* have either made these changes or are in the process of making them so that the Crown descends to the eldest child of the monarch, regardless of gender (it only took the Numenoreans about ten or twelve High Kings to figure this out).
* your mileage may vary. I don't have the Wikipedia article in front of me, so it might be Norway or Luxembourg or Belgium rather than Denmark.