Edexcel A-Level Politics | Paper 2 | 2027 Predicted Paper | Question 5(b) 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(b)
Question
To what extent do feminists agree that the state can be used to achieve gender equality?
The key issue is the role of the state as an instrument of feminist change. Students should compare the reformist liberal view with the more radical criticisms developed by socialist, radical and post-modern feminism. They should also distinguish agreement over the goal of overcoming women's disadvantage from disagreement over whether state action is sufficient to achieve that goal.
The specification requires all feminist core ideas to be understood in relation to the state, society and economy. Liberal feminism sees individualism as the basis of equality, socialist feminism locates gender inequality in capitalism, radical feminism regards gender inequality as society's biggest problem, and post-modern feminism argues that patriarchy operates differently according to race and class.
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