Woman in A-level politics: consultation

Today is our last chance to stop Nicky Morgan from cutting women’s history from A-level politics: the government consultation closes on Tuesday. So far over 40,000 people signed the 38 Degrees petition – now it looks Nicky Morgan is starting to back down.

This week she insisted the plans weren’t set in stone – and she’s considering putting more women in the textbook. Let’s make sure that alongside the petition she hears thousands of our voices demanding women’s political achievements are celebrated, not cut from textbooks. Let’s force her to drop the unpopular plans entirely.

Over 3,500 38 Degrees members have written in to the consultation to tell Nicky Morgan why they think important moments in history – like the Suffragettes movement – should be part of A-level politics classes. Click here to join them.
If we only study one woman out of a sea of men and cut how much students learn about movements like the Suffragettes, we’ll teach young people that women have no impact on politics. At a time when fewer than one in three MPs are female this is a dangerous message.

Nicky Morgan won’t be expecting thousands of people to take part in her consultation. Back in 2013 thousands of us wrote to Education Secretary Michael Gove demanding he dropped plans to stop teaching about climate change in schools. His department backed down then, let’s make sure Nicky Morgan does the same thing now.

Today we handed the petition signed by over 40,000 people into the Department for Education as a submission to the consultation. We sent a clear message to Nicky Morgan – young people should be learning about the achievements of both men and women.