Oxford University is embroiled in a sexism row after its history department said allowing students to sit exams at home would help close the gender gap.
History students will be able to sit one of their five final-year exams at home from the start of next semester, the faculty has announced.
It was claimed the policy would help female students improve their results.
But historian Amanda Foreman blasted the change as insulting and said it implied women were the “weaker sex”.
She told The Telegraph: “I think it is extremely well intentioned and I applaud them for taking the matter seriously. But it is so insulting.
"You are saying that the girls can’t take the stress of sitting in the exam room, which does raise one’s anxiety levels.
“I don’t think girls are inherently weaker than boys and can’t take it. Women are not the weaker sex.”
Ms Foreman said the main reason why men outperformed women in the subject was that males were encouraged to be risk-takers.
According to a document seen by the Sunday Times, the history course had one of the largest gender gaps for results.
The document stated: “As women and men perform more equally in submitted work, it was proposed that a take-out exam with questions similar to that in a timed exam should be implemented.”
An Oxford University spokesman defended the policy, saying: “Timed exams remain an important part of the course, testing skills to complement the other assessed elements.
“This change is part of a broader goal of diversifying the history course in response to a number of factors, including the need to test a greater range of academic skills.
“The gender gap was also a consideration in this change, although research shows that the causes of the gap are broad do not lie solely in methods of assessment.”
