Change.org, January 2016
It's great news! It's a VICTORY! Last night, during a Commons debate, the Minister of State for Schools Nick Gibbs confirmed that "the final Politics A-Level will give all students the opportunity to study the core ideas of feminism". He also noted that the government had not properly recognised the role of female political thinkers in the drafting of the proposed syllabus.
WE DID IT! I'm incredibly pleased about this and I couldn't have done it without you. So, thank you. Thank you to my local MP, Rupa Huq for leading a fierce debate in parliament after I emailed her in December and she promised to act. Thank you to the fantastic team at Change for all their support, including the incredible Nadia Gilani. Thank you to Catherine Mayer and Sophie Walker at the Women's Equality Party for taking up the issue in a meeting with Nicky Morgan MP. Thank you to EVERYONE who signed and shared, felt my rage, filled in the consultation and made some noise about it. Removing women and feminism from the syllabus would have been an insulting move. Women have and will continue to contribute to their societies and their contributions must be recognised and seen for how valuable they are. I'm pleased to say that they will be returned to where they rightfully belong, and that boys and girls will learn about the women who shaped political ideologies, movements, their countries and the world. As Helen Lewis noted in the New Statesman, when you erase women, "you only get half the story".
We did it. We did it together. All of us.
-June
@juneericudorie