My ideas for research and development of my project
My initial idea for my EPQ was to do an essay on the history of sexism and how it affects the prevalence of rape in today’s society. Originally I was very sure on my title and topic and actually chose to do the EPQ because I wanted to write an essay about this title. The title combines three topics that I am passionate about; history, women’s rights and equality, and modern politics regarding rape in our society.
I have enjoyed history throughout school, and it has always been one of my strengths. However, the time period I enjoy studying the most is ancient history, in particular the Ancient Egyptians and Ancient Greeks which is an interest I have had from primary school, however, it is not a topic I have ever had the opportunity to cover in history lessons at school. Therefore, I would have enjoyed doing an EPQ project on it to explore my curiosity in a more academic way. However, I couldn’t think of a question that would be specific enough for me to go into an appropriate level of detail whilst also being broad enough to include a suitable amount of historical context and sources. The biggest problem with the ancient history concept is that because it was so long ago, our specific knowledge is incredibly lacking therefore to have enough evidence to reach a justified and supported conclusion for any essay question, an incredibly broad time period is required.
Women’s rights and equality is a topic which I am fascinated by and it also influences many of my political opinions and beliefs. It is also a very controversial topic today in both political and social environments, which can be seen in the many feminist movements from 2018 alone, like ‘Time’s up’, #MeToo, and movements against Judge Kavanaugh and Donald Trump who have multiple rape and sexual assault accusations. Its proximity in society both inspires and provokes me to be more vocal about my opinion on the position of women in today’s society. Another aspect of women’s rights that I wanted to cover in the essay was the corruption of the word feminism, and how it has gone from being a way of summarising women’s fight for equality to be used as a tool against true feminists as a result of misandrists using feminism to justify their extremist actions and opinions. I personally feel affected by this evolution of the concept of feminism and therefore was eager to write about it in the essay. This also links to my interest in modern politics regarding rape in our society.
I planned to split the essay in two sections; firstly, analysing history and then focusing on the politics and modern day. For the first section, I was going to use secondary resources, for example, the books ‘Mary, Queen of Scots’ by Jenny Wormald. Also, an extract on Pandora from ‘The Greek and Roman Myths: A Guide to the Classical Stories’ by Philip Matyszak inspired me to start the analysis of history in the time period of ancient history, as I thought her legacy was the epitome of women’s position throughout ancient and medieval history. As a result of including Ancient Greek history in my essay, I also researched ancient Egyptian women, and as a result of this, found particular interest in Hatshepsut and Cleopatra. I planned to write about these two Queens because of the great contrast between the ways they both ruled. They both had the same responsibility of ruling Egypt and also both had the extreme difficulty of ruling as a woman. Therefore, they’re contrasting techniques of meeting these challenges intrigued me greatly.
For the second topic of the essay (modern politics on rape) I planned to do primary research in the format of a questionnaire or survey. The questions I had in mind centred around the difference in opinion of girl’s safety in public at night time against boys. Also, I planned to look at some secondary research as well, including surveys already done by other people (for example, the AAU Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct (2015) was one I found particular interest in), books, magazines, representation in the media, statistics, and any other relevant information I come across when doing my main research. Another source that inspired me is a novel I recently read called ‘Lucky’ by Alice Sebold which tells the story of her experience with rape, and going through the trial and the long healing process. I planned to use this as part of my introduction in the second part of my essay. I hoped that by using this broad range of both modern and historical sources and research techniques it would demonstrate a vast array of skills that would appeal to the EPQ specification as well as allowing me to broaden my horizons in the skill set of research and essay writing.
I hoped to achieve a justified conclusion of how much blame can be placed on sexism for the massive issue of rape crime in modern society and also analyse how far humanity has realistically come to achieve true equality for both males and females. Furthermore, I hope that by combining the study of history and politics, I can show and share with other people my belief on the importance of using historical knowledge and understanding to move forward with modern politics.
As a result, I decided that for the history section of my essay, I wanted to cover 7 Queens throughout history (Cleopatra, Hatshepsut, Mary Queen of Scots, Catherine de Medici, Elizabeth I, Victoria I and Elizabeth II) and focus my research and analysis on how gender roles of that time period affected their rule. I plan to apply to a history course at university, and I am also studying history at A-level at the moment, therefore I believe doing an EPQ on a history-based topic will broaden my knowledge and skillset of exploring history in an intellectual way.
I have enjoyed history throughout school, and it has always been one of my strengths. However, the time period I enjoy studying the most is ancient history, in particular the Ancient Egyptians and Ancient Greeks which is an interest I have had from primary school, however, it is not a topic I have ever had the opportunity to cover in history lessons at school. Therefore, I would have enjoyed doing an EPQ project on it to explore my curiosity in a more academic way. However, I couldn’t think of a question that would be specific enough for me to go into an appropriate level of detail whilst also being broad enough to include a suitable amount of historical context and sources. The biggest problem with the ancient history concept is that because it was so long ago, our specific knowledge is incredibly lacking therefore to have enough evidence to reach a justified and supported conclusion for any essay question, an incredibly broad time period is required.
Women’s rights and equality is a topic which I am fascinated by and it also influences many of my political opinions and beliefs. It is also a very controversial topic today in both political and social environments, which can be seen in the many feminist movements from 2018 alone, like ‘Time’s up’, #MeToo, and movements against Judge Kavanaugh and Donald Trump who have multiple rape and sexual assault accusations. Its proximity in society both inspires and provokes me to be more vocal about my opinion on the position of women in today’s society. Another aspect of women’s rights that I wanted to cover in the essay was the corruption of the word feminism, and how it has gone from being a way of summarising women’s fight for equality to be used as a tool against true feminists as a result of misandrists using feminism to justify their extremist actions and opinions. I personally feel affected by this evolution of the concept of feminism and therefore was eager to write about it in the essay. This also links to my interest in modern politics regarding rape in our society.
I planned to split the essay in two sections; firstly, analysing history and then focusing on the politics and modern day. For the first section, I was going to use secondary resources, for example, the books ‘Mary, Queen of Scots’ by Jenny Wormald. Also, an extract on Pandora from ‘The Greek and Roman Myths: A Guide to the Classical Stories’ by Philip Matyszak inspired me to start the analysis of history in the time period of ancient history, as I thought her legacy was the epitome of women’s position throughout ancient and medieval history. As a result of including Ancient Greek history in my essay, I also researched ancient Egyptian women, and as a result of this, found particular interest in Hatshepsut and Cleopatra. I planned to write about these two Queens because of the great contrast between the ways they both ruled. They both had the same responsibility of ruling Egypt and also both had the extreme difficulty of ruling as a woman. Therefore, they’re contrasting techniques of meeting these challenges intrigued me greatly.
For the second topic of the essay (modern politics on rape) I planned to do primary research in the format of a questionnaire or survey. The questions I had in mind centred around the difference in opinion of girl’s safety in public at night time against boys. Also, I planned to look at some secondary research as well, including surveys already done by other people (for example, the AAU Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct (2015) was one I found particular interest in), books, magazines, representation in the media, statistics, and any other relevant information I come across when doing my main research. Another source that inspired me is a novel I recently read called ‘Lucky’ by Alice Sebold which tells the story of her experience with rape, and going through the trial and the long healing process. I planned to use this as part of my introduction in the second part of my essay. I hoped that by using this broad range of both modern and historical sources and research techniques it would demonstrate a vast array of skills that would appeal to the EPQ specification as well as allowing me to broaden my horizons in the skill set of research and essay writing.
I hoped to achieve a justified conclusion of how much blame can be placed on sexism for the massive issue of rape crime in modern society and also analyse how far humanity has realistically come to achieve true equality for both males and females. Furthermore, I hope that by combining the study of history and politics, I can show and share with other people my belief on the importance of using historical knowledge and understanding to move forward with modern politics.
As a result, I decided that for the history section of my essay, I wanted to cover 7 Queens throughout history (Cleopatra, Hatshepsut, Mary Queen of Scots, Catherine de Medici, Elizabeth I, Victoria I and Elizabeth II) and focus my research and analysis on how gender roles of that time period affected their rule. I plan to apply to a history course at university, and I am also studying history at A-level at the moment, therefore I believe doing an EPQ on a history-based topic will broaden my knowledge and skillset of exploring history in an intellectual way.
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