With the summer holidays drawing to a close, for students all around the country this means one thing. Results. But one seventeen-year-old girl had other things on her mind.

Jessy McCabe noticed a distinct lack of female representation on the Edexcel A-level music syllabus, with 63 male composers and no females, despite including a variety of genres and eras.

She contacted Edexcel’s Head of Music, who claims “given that female composers were not prominent in the Western Classical tradition (or others for that matter), there would be very few female composers that could be included [in the A Level specification]”. McCabe dismisses this statement. She argues that there are over 6000 female composers in history and BBC Radio 3 managed to programme a full day of music written by women in honour of International Women’s Day.

And it would appear that she is not alone in her opinions. Over 1700 people have already supported her online petition.

This topic certainly has sparked lively debate from both sides. What do you think? Tweet us at @WildKatPR or comment on our Facebook page.

Seventeen-year-old Jessy McCabe
Photo credit: The Independent