Let me set the scene for you.

A new political party is stirring up Westminster with bold moves to tackle unequal pay, end violence against women, and get women’s voices heard in politics and working life.

Vast chunks of the electorate are embracing this new movement for equal rights, tired of a daily tide of sexism and gender inequality. A blockbuster film, Suffragette, is bringing audiences to outraged tears with its depiction of the hardships endured by women fighting for the vote nearly a hundred years ago.

And yet, the Government has decided it’s time to sweep feminism under the carpet.

Yes, you read that last bit right.

"When we heard about it in the Women’s Equality Party office, we couldn’t believe it was true". Sophie Walker

The Department for Education recently published proposals to remove the current teaching on feminism from the syllabus of the Politics A-level, along with the topics of sex/gender, gender equality, and patriarchy.

It proposes, instead, to shoehorn feminism, one of the most important and ongoing political movements in modern history, under the banner of ‘pressure groups’ – along with the suffragettes.

When we heard about it in the Women’s Equality Party office, we couldn’t believe it was true.

The Government is planning to drop 'feminism' from A-level politics Credit: Alamy

Those women who fought – and died – for the vote, were not a ‘pressure group’, any more than the radicals who were killed at the Peterloo massacre in 1819.

Like those men in Manchester who were campaigning for parliamentary reform, the suffragettes sought enfranchisement. Like those men, they wanted political representation as a basic right. Like those men, their efforts were deeply and unequivocally political.

And yet, unlike those men, they are not listed on the proposed syllabus under ‘democracy and participation’.

By removing feminism as a separate topic, the proposed new syllabus will eliminate study of sex and gender, gender equality and patriarchy.

"It’s a telling example of the gender bias so prevalent in our education system, and in our culture". Sophie Walker

It also proposes to remove teaching on the distinctive features of liberal feminism, socialist/Marxist feminism and radical feminism, and more recent formulations of what we might call feminism’s ‘fourth wave’.

In short, it will stop teaching women’s politics.

We cannot accept that. We cannot accept that the new syllabus contains only one explicit reference to a woman – Mary Wollstonecraft – alongside a list of male politicians, activists and philosophers. It’s a telling example of the gender bias so prevalent in our education system, and in our culture.

The political history currently taught to our children is hugely biased in favour of men’s achievements and institutions.

So as shocking as the proposals are, I shouldn’t have been surprised by them.

Mary Wollstonecraft is the only female 'political thinker' explicitly given Credit: MARY ON THE GREEN

The recent debacles over excluding women from the designs of our passports and our currency show that women are repeatedly, systematically, casually erased from history. Women’s stories and perspectives are already on the margins; their names forgotten.

I know I’m not alone in thinking this.

Since Sandi Toksvig and Catherine Mayer co-founded the Women’s Equality Party (WE) just six months ago, their idea has resonated with over 45,000 members and supporters. We have set up more than 70 local branches.

And we have just launched a crowdfunding campaign so we can field our first candidates in elections in London, Scotland and Wales in 2016.

"There is time to add your voice to the e-consultation document to persuade the Government to drop these proposed changes". Sophie Walker

Creating an equal and representative education system is one of our key priorities. By becoming an electoral force, WE will challenge for power so that we can make sure girls and boys learn about women’s histories, as well as men’s. When WE succeed at the ballot box, we will be able to tackle this kind of sexist bias in education head-on.

I know that young women and men – indeed, women and men of all ages – are desperate for us to get started on our work to change the political landscape. They’re incredibly keen to embrace feminism in a bid to counter endless examples of everyday sexism. And they want to learn about the UK’s political past.

There is time to add your voice to the e-consultation document to persuade the Government to drop these proposed changes (https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/gcse-and-a-level-reform-geology-and-politics-pe-short-course). We have until December 15 to remind our politicians, once again, that we will no longer stand for the silencing of women’s voices.