The Government is to make a U-turn on plans to drop feminism from the new A-level syllabus, reports suggest.

Last November, a row broke out when it emerged that the Department for Education was consulting on a proposal to remove the feminism section from the politics A-level in Britain, with the move to come into effect in September 2017.

Sources now suggest that feminism will be restored to the syllabus and more female thinkers included.

Under the proposal, the current section on feminism – which includes issues around sex and gender – was to be removed. Some elements, such as the Suffragettes, remained but were to be squeezed into other topics, such as that relating to ‘pressure groups’.

The only woman on a list of 15 political thinkers for sixth-form and college students to study was Mary Wollstonecraft.

Nicky Morgan and Mary Wollstonecraft

The existing syllabus requires students to have knowledge of the core ideas, doctrines and theories of feminist thought, of tensions within feminism and of competing feminist traditions’.

It encompasses the subject areas of sex/gender, gender equality, patriarchy, public/private divide and essentialism. Last year’s AQA politics and government exam paper asked students to: ‘Explain the term patriarchy in the context of feminism.’

At the time, the Department for Education said feminism could still be studied as part of the reformed sociology A-level, and explained that the proposed move ‘tied in with school autonomy and trusting heads’.

But a backlash saw campaigns by activists, including Jacquelyn Guderley, co-founder of Stemettes and a high-profile petition started by 17-year-old June-Eric Udorie, which gained 47,000 signatures.

Shout-out to everyone who signed and shared, to politicians for supporting, to my local MP @RupaHuq and to @JacsGud. — june eric-udorie (@juneericudorie) January 10, 2016

On Change.org, she wrote: "The problem with erasing and writing women out of history is that we only get half the story.

“When women are underrepresented in society, the government should be working to address this problem. As a young woman and student, it is imperative that girls and boys get the full picture at school, or we are doing them a disservice. It has been said that you cannot be what you cannot see. Female role models are important”.

Last month, it was suggested that education secretary Nicky Morgan planned to intervene in the row and would add more women thinkers to the proposal. Suggested named included activists Rosa Luxemburg, Eleanor Marx and Emma Goldman, and writers Simone de Beauvoir and Audre Lorde.

But, according to the latest report, the Department for Education intends to go further and teaching feminism at A-level will now ‘be compulsory’.

The current politics A-level syllabus Credit: DfE

A source told the Independent on Sunday: “Female thinkers have played a key role in shaping political theory not just in the UK but across the world, it’s obviously right that students should have an opportunity to study their work. Consultation responses clearly backed this change.”

Sophie Walker, leader of the Women’s Equality Party, recently met with Nicky Morgan to discuss the proposal. She welcomed the rethink, saying:

“WE are delighted that June and Jacquelyn’s voices have been heard, along with the more than 45,000 people that supported this petition.

“The Education Minister and I discussed the need to make sure feminism stays on the A-level curriculum, and also the need to offer more female role models in all of the subjects we teach so that we can encourage girls to study subjects like maths and science that are too often seen as only for boys.”

The announcement came ahead of a House of Commons debate on the issue today, led by Rupa Huq, Labour MP for Ealing Central and Acton, who said: ‘We must not write out women’s perspectives and contributions to our political history.” The party had earlier accused Nicky Morgan of downgrading feminism to ‘a section on pressure groups’ in the A-level syllabus.

Labour Adjournment debate tonight led by @RupaHuq urging the govt to reinstate feminism on the A Level politics syllabus #teachfeminism — Labour's W&E Team (@LabourEquality) January 11, 2016

Morgan was also urged to reconsider plans in an open letter, published last month in the Independent. It was signed by and signed by Labour MPs, campaigners and union bosses, including TUC head Frances O’Grady, Laura Bates of the Everyday Sexism Project, Caroline Criado Perez, shadow education secretary Lucy Powell and shadow equalities minister Kate Green.

Green said that women were ‘an afterthought’ for the Tories:

“This government’s policies are not developed from the perspective of women, and the impact on women is not properly considered”.

The victory comes weeks after student Jessy McCabe succeeded in her campaign to have female composers included on an A-level music syllabus, after realising there were no women among the 63 compositions selected by the Edexcel examining board for her exams next year. More than 3,000 people signed her petition and she won the backing of academics and musicians.