This course focuses on women’s health and human rights issues from infancy through old age, including information about positive interventions relating to those issues. Learners are encouraged to interact with each other through interactive discussions. It is important to us that this course be available to all learners. We encourage you to apply for Coursera's financial aid (see link to left) if the cost of the course certificate is difficult for you to afford. Please note that you may view all materials in this course, and participate in it, without purchasing a certificate. The course was co-created by Consulting Professor Anne Firth Murray and Kevin Hsu. Anne Firth Murray is the Content Director of the course; Kevin Hsu is the Design Director of the course.
Introduction to Education
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來自 Stanford University 的課程
International Women's Health and Human Rights
206 個評分
與講師見面
Anne Firth Murray
People often ask me when thinking about empowering women, or
improving women's health, what the one intervention is that will work
to fix the major problems that we face as we try to improve the world?
And most people would come up with education for girls as the key
intervention, the magic answer to the huge problems that we are trying to solve,
that are epitomized, highlighted by the United Nations Millennium Goals.
And that we take up as we move through the weeks of thisclass.
And true enough, education of girls comes as close as almost anything
to being that magic intervention.
This week as we begin to look at the issues of childhood,
we focus first on education.
The World Bank, a major funder of international development programs,
concluded that they would focus on girls' education.
Because it had been shown to lower rates of HIV/AIDS, reduce teenage pregnancy,
improve maternal health, reduce infant mortality, not to mention, improve
the economies of countries in which girls' education programs were being implemented.
And so, in recent years, there has been a tremendous focus on girls' education.
As a result, more girls and
boys are going to school in virtually all countries in the world.
There are still gaps between girls' and boys' education, but
a lot of progress has been made.
These successful development accomplishments
are certainly to be appreciated.
But I want to stress, as I have in previous commentaries during this class,
that if we wish to transform the situation of humankind,
we should be supporting girls' education not just to meet these development goals,
but also because to educate girls is the fair thing to do.
It is only just that girls should have equal
opportunities with boys to get a good education.
Education is not only a powerful means to solve economic problems,
it is also a route toward a more just society.
Please read the first half of chapter three in my book, From Outrage to Courage.
In this chapter, I discuss the hope of education and
provide background about what is happening with regard to this issue
in various countries around the world.
At the end of the chapter,
there are examples of women's groups that are focusing on girls' education.
You may know of other groups that are doing similar work in your part of
the world, and if you do, you might want to write to us on our forums, to tell
us about them, and share that information with our students around the world.
