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A row has been rumbling over the composition of the politics A-level syllabus after government proposals to remove feminism from the course.

A consultation by the Department for Education prompted 50,000 people to sign an online petition demanding that women and feminism be put firmly at the centre of the course - and even the Girl Guides got involved.

Labour MP Rupa Huq, who backs the inclusion of feminism in the syllabus, told the Daily Politics: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want a gender-blind curriculum.

"This is not some tangential airy-fairy thing鈥� women are 50% and we can鈥檛 just delete them from the syllabus.鈥�

But Times columnist and guest of the day Melanie Phillips dismissed it as 鈥渋deological pressure group politics鈥�, saying feminism was 鈥渘ot in the same category鈥� as socialism, conservatism or liberalism.

"When I hear the words 'gender-blind curriculum' I really want to reach for the sick bag,鈥� she added.