Course Name: Fertility in the context of women empowerment.
Methodologies and Learning Goals: This course is consists of lecture-based and discussion-based classes. During the lecture-based meetings, students will be introduced to the fertility trend before and after the industrial revolution, learn about changes in developed countries that gave rise to women’s social status. During the discussion-based meetings, the student will examine the effects of maternity leave policies, fertility incentive policies, and public pre-school programs have on women’s ability to achieve economic progress. Students will also discuss the cultural effects patriarchial societies have on women in different countries(Ex. India, China, Finland, America)
Readings:
- The decline of fertility in Europe by Ansley Johnson Coale
- Women’s empowerment and fertility changes by LY PHAN
- Below-Replacement Fertility in Nineteenth-Century America by Warren C. Sanderson
- The Timing of Childbearing and Women’s Wages by Hiromi Taniguchi
I really like this idea for integration of both discussion classes and lecture classes because you’re using lectures to give the students the sort of base that they need, then allowing them to use the history or the new base that they have received to discuss present issues that affect people daily.
This is something that is great for combating misogyny, as well as teaching men like me about international women’s status and issues. There might be some controversy about this class over the fact that “if women get such a class, then why not men”, but it’s more of raising awareness and being open-minded that these issues do in fact plague our world.
This seems like a very investing course and one that is very much not really being talked about. However, one concern I have is that the course is too broad and general. Specifically, the course discusses analyzing the changes of fertility rates across different countries and cultures, evaluating how various policies could aid in woman economic progress, and understanding the affects of a male patriarchal society. In my opinion, all of these learning objectives could be studied in its own course; thus, the course would be an ineffective method of providing detailed information about the study of fertility rates but rather just an overview of all 3 courses.