Notable researchers, from those writing in the Harvard Educational Review (bit.lyHarvardReview) to Beth Graue at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US, highlight that end-of-course tests, such as those proposed by England’s education secretary Michael Gove for GCSEs, discriminate against girls.

Combine this with an assault on teaching assistants (often low-paid, part-time women), attacks on English (in which girls continue to outperform boys) and sidestepping the legal requirement to conduct robust equality impact assessments on policy initiatives, is it now time to ask: “Gove, what have you got against women?”

Christine Blower, general secretary, NUT; Liz Brighouse, leader of Labour Group, Oxfordshire County Council; Gaby Weiner, University of Sussex; Michele Paule, Oxford Brookes University; Emma Renold, Cardiff University; Kate McKenzie, Labour Women in Education; Sally Campbell Galman, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Gabrielle Invinson, chair, Gender and Education Association; Miriam David, Institute of Education, University of London.