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Plan to axe feminism from A-level politics triggers protest | |
(about 2 hours later) | |
A move by the UK government to drop feminism from the A-level politics syllabus has triggered outrage among campaigners and students. | |
The section on feminism in a revised version of the course put to consultation by the Department for Education has been removed, along with the topics of sex/gender, gender equality and patriarchy. Furthermore, only one woman, Mary Wollstonecraft, appears in a list of seven political thinkers in the draft. | |
The open consultation on the proposal for the AS and A-level syllabus will run to 15 December and campaigners and students are urging the public to oppose them. | The open consultation on the proposal for the AS and A-level syllabus will run to 15 December and campaigners and students are urging the public to oppose them. |
Student June Eric-Udorie has launched a petition to urge Nicky Morgan, the education secretary and women’s minister, against going ahead with the changes and urged her to add more female thinkers to the A-level politics syllabus. | |
She writes: “When women are underrepresented in society, the government should be working to address this problem. As a young woman and student, it is imperative that girls and boys get the full picture at school, or we are doing them a disservice. It has been said that you cannot be what you cannot see. Female role models are important.” | She writes: “When women are underrepresented in society, the government should be working to address this problem. As a young woman and student, it is imperative that girls and boys get the full picture at school, or we are doing them a disservice. It has been said that you cannot be what you cannot see. Female role models are important.” |
The proposal comes after student Jessy McCabe succeeded in her campaign to have female composers included on an A-level music syllabus after realising it featured an all-male list of 63 composers. | The proposal comes after student Jessy McCabe succeeded in her campaign to have female composers included on an A-level music syllabus after realising it featured an all-male list of 63 composers. |
Jacquelyn Guderley, co-founder of Stemettes, an organisation that seeks to inspire girls into science, technology, engineering and maths, said the move would “silence the women’s voices of the past”. | Jacquelyn Guderley, co-founder of Stemettes, an organisation that seeks to inspire girls into science, technology, engineering and maths, said the move would “silence the women’s voices of the past”. |
She writes on her blog: “If we know nothing of key social and political milestones – women gaining the right to matriculate and graduate from many universities in 1920 and gaining the right to vote in 1928 – how can we learn from them and progress? How can we be thankful but hungry for more? | She writes on her blog: “If we know nothing of key social and political milestones – women gaining the right to matriculate and graduate from many universities in 1920 and gaining the right to vote in 1928 – how can we learn from them and progress? How can we be thankful but hungry for more? |
“This can’t happen and it won’t happen. The government hase a responsibility to all of us … to be a progressive force for change; to allow this country and this world to march towards betterment. Women’s voices are often silenced. Let’s not let them silence the women’s voices of the past too.” | |
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