Finding Women in History Assessments in Secondary Schools: An interim report on 2023 History GCSE and A-Level assessment papers in England

This report examines the representation of women across all time periods, topics and options offered in History GCSE, AS and A-Level exam papers issued in June 2023 by the three largest exam boards in England: AQA, Edexcel and OCR. It reveals that women are critically underrepresented in comparison to men in GCSE/Key Stage 4 (KS4) and A- Level/Key Stage 5 (KS5) assessments. In 991 questions across 219 exam papers, students were directed to discuss women in their answers for 6% of questions, whereas they were directed to discuss men in 36.5% of questions. Out of 357 instances of individuals being named in questions, only 31 instances were women, and 326 were men. 9 of these female instances were the same person – Elizabeth I – who was the most frequently named woman across all exam documentation. The named women who featured most regularly in the exam papers were typically royal women, modern political leaders, or suffragettes. Most questions on women were focused on the suffrage movements of the twentieth century, demonstrating a significant lack of named women in pre-modern topics. The representation of non-elite women and women from outside the UK and Europe was minimal. This report follows initial findings published in November 2024 on behalf of the Teaching Medieval Women group, which focused on women in the medieval exam content for years 2022–2023.1 The present report, covering exam content from all time periods issued in 2023, found that women are underrepresented at all exam levels by all the exam boards, and confirmed that medieval topics require the most urgent revision. Our current report calls for a systematic reform of assessments at KS4 and KS5 to ensure that equal, representative and inclusive History is being taught in schools. It provides a series of recommendations to improve the visibility of women across all exam content offered to History GCSE, AS and A Level students.