How often are the experiences and contributions of women featured within your subject area? I would imagine the general consensus is somewhere between sometimes and occasionally.
There have certainly been strides made in this area, with successful campaigns to include women within the politics and music curriculum (BBC, 2016). But how often are they women of colour? Ask the students and they will tell you that it is alarmingly few, if any.
In this article, I use the term “women of colour” as opposed to “Black, Asian and minority ethnic” (BAME) due to personal preference. I feel “women of colour” is more inclusive and appropriate for the context I am writing about. It is a term which Rupi Kaur, who is on my (in)visible gallery wall – see later – uses frequently (see also Ford, 2015).
With more calls for intersectionality within mainstream media, is it not time that we tried to make the secondary school experience more representative? My focus here will be on women, particularly British women of colour, whose stories are often not invisible within the secondary school experience. The key issue here is time. With more content to teach at GCSE and A level what can we do to explore these marginalised voices meaningfully and realistically?
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