Edexcel A-Level Politics | Paper 2 | 2027 Predicted Paper | Question 5(a) Mark Scheme
Question 5 Mark Scheme: Feminism
Question 5 is a 24-mark Political Ideas essay, worth 8 marks each for AO1, AO2 and AO3. The command phrase “To what extent” requires students to compare areas of agreement and disagreement within feminism, use prescribed feminist thinkers to develop those comparisons, and reach a supported judgement about the degree of unity or division.
Pearson requires candidates to consider both sides of the debate and to refer to specific thinkers from the relevant specification section. If either requirement is absent, the response cannot progress beyond Level 2. The specification requires liberal, socialist, radical and post-modern feminism, together with Gilman, de Beauvoir, Millett, Rowbotham and bell hooks. It explicitly includes patriarchy, equality, intersectionality and the relationship of feminist ideas to the state, society and economy.
Levels of response
Level | Marks | Characteristics |
Level 1 | 1–4 | Superficial knowledge, limited comparison, descriptive argument and largely unsupported conclusions. |
Level 2 | 5–9 | Some accurate knowledge and some comparison, but analysis and evaluation are uneven or only partly developed. |
Level 3 | 10–14 | Mostly accurate knowledge, generally focused comparison and some substantiated judgements. |
Level 4 | 15–19 | Accurate, carefully selected knowledge, coherent comparative analysis and mostly substantiated evaluation. |
Level 5 | 20–24 | Thorough and effectively selected knowledge, perceptive and sustained comparative analysis, and consistently substantiated judgements leading to a fully focused conclusion. |
These are Pearson's current levels for the 24-mark non-core Political Ideas questions.
Question 5(a)
Question
To what extent is feminism divided over the significance of intersectionality in explaining women's experiences of patriarchy?
The key word here is “significance”. Students should not simply define intersectionality and explain bell hooks. They need to judge whether intersectionality fundamentally changes feminist explanations of patriarchy, or whether it develops an existing feminist agreement that women experience structural gender oppression.
The specification defines intersectionality as the argument that black and working-class women's experiences of patriarchy in the state, society and economy differ from those of white, middle-class women, and specifically requires students to understand its impact on wider feminist thinking. The glossary adds that intersectionality challenges the idea that gender is the single factor determining a woman's experience.
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