Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-09-19

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

The position of women has changed a great deal in many societies over the past 50 years. But these societies cannot claim to have achieved gender equality

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

In the past 50 years indeed women have changed a great deal in many societies over the past half a century and have achieved gender equality in many societies.

Women have earned countless rights over the years, giving them the same rights and freedom of speech that men had. Women are given their right to vote, to make decisions for themselves and have their voices heard. However different societies have had different reactions to these changes.

In many societies women do have a voice which is heard and respected same that of a man and in some cases are actually given more respect than that of a man considering how much they have struggled to earn these rights. They have managed to achieve gender equality in countless societies over the past 50 years, and new laws are made to protect and speak in favour of women too. Gender discrimination laws are set which ban and prohibit businesses to discriminate between paying one gender more than the other. Women have social media to speak out against gender discrimination and make people embrace gender equality through kind words rather than it feeling forced.

However gender equality is seen as a threat in backward or third world societies where women are opressed and stripped of their basic rights. Basic women's rights such as the right to vote and the right to have freedom of speech do not exist, especially for women. This shows how certain societies see gender equality due to lack of education and people there usually have a misogynistic approach. And even though in most societies women's right and gender equality exists, in other societies there are no laws to protect women's rights and are in dire need of education as even women there are unaware that their basic human rights are being stolen and stripped from them.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing the extent to which gender equality has been achieved over the past 50 years, presenting a clear position that while progress has been made in many areas, certain backward societies lag behind. The introduction and body paragraphs attempt to tackle the prompt, but the arguments suffer from some repetition and lack deep elaboration. For instance, the student states that 'women have earned countless rights' and repeats the idea of voting rights and freedom of speech multiple times across paragraphs. While the main parts of the task are addressed, the ideas tend to over-generalize without concrete examples from specific contexts or real-world events. Therefore, this performance aligns closely with the Band 6 descriptors, as it addresses all parts of the task with relevant ideas, though some parts are slightly under-developed and repetitive.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear stance split between progressive and traditional societies. Paragraphing is utilized, separating the introduction, general advancements, and contrasting traditional societies. However, cohesion is at times faulty and mechanical. The student relies heavily on repetitive transitional phrases or basic conjunctions like 'However' and 'And even though' to connect ideas. Furthermore, referencing is occasionally unclear, such as in the concluding sentence where the pronoun antecedent becomes blurred ('women's rights and gender equality exists, in other societies there are no laws to protect women's rights and are in dire need'). While the logical progression is generally understandable, the clumsy mechanical transitions and occasional referencing errors prevent it from reaching a higher band, placing it solidly at Band 6.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, attempting some less common lexical items such as 'misogynistic approach', 'gender discrimination', and 'stripped of their basic rights'. However, there are noticeable word-choice errors and imprecise phrasing throughout the text, such as 'women have changed a great deal' (where it is society or the position of women that changed) and 'opressed' (spelled with a single 'p'). Other phrases feel repetitive, such as the frequent reuse of 'countless societies', 'gender equality', and 'basic rights'. Although these lexical errors do not seriously impede communication, the lack of flexibility and occasional inaccuracies limit the vocabulary to a Band 6 level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over grammar. Examples of complex structures include 'And even though in most societies women's right and gender equality exists, in other societies there are no laws...' However, these complex attempts are frequently marred by structural errors, missing subjects, or punctuation issues. For instance, the sentence '...in other societies there are no laws to protect women's rights and are in dire need of education' lacks a clear subject for the second clause. There are also pluralization inconsistencies, such as 'women's right' instead of 'women's rights'. While communication is rarely impeded and the errors do not overwhelm the text, the frequency of grammatical slips keeps the performance at a Band 5.5 level.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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