Petition · past parliament · Department for Education
Introduce Gender and Race equity for GCSE English Literature set texts
Closed
6,125 signatures
What the petition asks
The UK Government should be doing more to ensure that books written by women and by BAME authors are not only on the English Literature GCSE curriculum, but also become required reading.
The curriculum states that students should study:
- at least one play by Shakespeare
- at least one 19th century novel
- a selection of poetry since 1789
- fiction or drama from the British Isles from 1914
Based on the current reading list, it is too easy for students to only read white male authors.
The following two statements should be added to the curriculum:
- at least one selected text should be written by a female author
- at least one selected text should be written by a BAME author
- at least one play by Shakespeare
- at least one 19th century novel
- a selection of poetry since 1789
- fiction or drama from the British Isles from 1914
Based on the current reading list, it is too easy for students to only read white male authors.
The following two statements should be added to the curriculum:
- at least one selected text should be written by a female author
- at least one selected text should be written by a BAME author
Timeline
| 16 Jun 2020 | Petition opened for signatures |
| 16 Dec 2020 | Closed to new signatures |
Key facts
Signatures
6,125
Status
Closed
Department
Department for Education
Opened
16 Jun 2020
Closed
16 Dec 2020
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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.