Gender neutrality and the war on women’s literature

Education has become embroiled in a culture war and rather than extricating itself politely, it just keeps digging. What gets taught has long been subject to debate: move beyond the basics and you rapidly head into dangerous terrain (although, look hard enough, and you will find those prepared to argue that even maths and spelling are racist). Now it’s not just taught content but the name of modules that is under the woke microscope.

One of the UK’s leading exam boards, OCR, has proposed renaming the ‘Women in Literature’ section of its A level English courses. It is taking votes on new titles: ‘gender in literature’ or ‘representing gender’.

But ‘women’ and ‘gender’ are not simply interchangeable: they mean entirely different things. ‘Women in Literature’ suggests novels, plays or poems written by women or focusing on the experience of womanhood. There is a vast quantity of excellent work that fits this criteria.