Personal Professional Development (Public Health and Primary Care) / Course details

Year of entry: 2025

Course unit details:
Global Women's Public Health

Course unit fact file
Unit code POPH62411
Credit rating 15
Unit level FHEQ level 7 – master's degree or fourth year of an integrated master's degree
Teaching period(s) Semester 1
Available as a free choice unit? No

Overview

This unit will be of interest to students from all over the world. It has implications for health professionals, policy makers and researchers. A number of health and clinical topics will be introduced each week. Students do not need to be health professionals to take this unit, and links will be provided to give clinical information for those students who are interested. 

In 2015 Dr Flavia Bustreo the WHO Assistant Director General for Family, Women’s and Children’s Health stated that In 2015, “in too many countries, women’s empowerment remains a pipedream - little more than a rhetorical flourish added to a politician’s speech. Too many women are still missing out on the opportunity to get educated, support themselves, and obtain the health services they need, when they need them.”  This unit is going to look critically at the 10 most pressing issues that Bustreo highlighted. Taking a public health perspective we will also examine the burden of the problems and critically appraise the quality of data that is available to support decision making on women’s health. We will explore how social determinants of health, for example poverty, education, working and living conditions impact on a women’s life and health throughout her life course. Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals is to ‘achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’ and we will look throughout the life course at the impact of discrimination (UN 2015).

This is an interactive online course. Students must work through the online course material. Students are encouraged to use the Blackboard discussion boards to ask questions and check their understanding of the course material.

Aims

To understand the burden of women’s global health and the factors affecting it. 

Syllabus

  1. Being Young
  2. Reproductive health and sexually transmitted infections
  3. Maternal health
  4. Family courts, systems abuse and health
  5. Violence against women and girls
  6. Mental health
  7. Non communicable diseases
  8. HIV
  9. Cancer
  10. Older Adulthood

Teaching and learning methods

The majority of the course material to be covered is provided through the written course unit, links to journal articles, web sites and digital book chapters. Some weeks the students will work on an exercise individually or in a group towards discussion boards (not graded), which will inform their final assignment (graded at 100%). This unit will encourage students to share their experiences and use examples from their own practice or area of interest.

There will be regular interaction with the tutors through scheduled webinars (which will be recorded and made available) and through the online discussion boards. Students will be encouraged to use self-reflection to think about the ideas discussed, and take part in discussion board activities. Students should work through the unit in a logical sequence. The individual course unit timetables will guide what should be done and when. Participation in the discussion boards is greatly encouraged, and can help enhance your learning experience and prepare you for your assessment.

In line with guidance from the Office for Students and Quality Assurance Agency, the programme will be augmented by the Programme Director Seminar Series to deliver study skills, written English, academic writing, research skills, critical thinking and understanding arguments, careers and employability skills, revision/assessment/examination skills including time management. 

Knowledge and understanding

  • To understand the role gender equality and women’s empowerment in global women’s health.

Intellectual skills

  • To assess the changing burden of women's global health in a global context. 

Practical skills

  • To apply an understanding of environmental social and economic determinants of health to women's global health issues. 

Transferable skills and personal qualities

  • To critically appraise the level of evidence available to support decision making in women's global health. 

Employability skills

Analytical skills
At master's level we expect students to be able to apply what they know to other contexts, often their own. In this unit students will have the opportunity of doing this in their final assignment.
Group/team working
Team working is important for all health professionals and especially Public Health specialists. This unit requires students to work together in small groups to curate two discussion boards during the unit.

Assessment methods

Method Weight
Written assignment (inc essay) 100%

Feedback methods

Students will be provided with personalised written feedback within 20 working days for their final summative assignment (2,500-3,000 words or equivalent). 

There will be a specific webinar to prepare students for the final assignment.

Recommended reading

Women’s health priorities and interventions (2015)

http://www.bmj.com/content/351/bmj.h4147

Women and Health: the key for sustainable development (2015)

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673615604974

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
eAssessment 50
Seminars 12
Independent study hours
Independent study 88

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Elizabeth Dalgarno Unit coordinator

Additional notes

FBMH faculty marking criteria will be used to grade final assignments. but students will be given guidance beforehand. 

There will be a specific webinar to prepare students for the final assignment. 

For further information please watch this video from our  Course Unit Leader.

If you have any questions about the content of this unit, please contact the course unit leader, Elizabeth Dalgarno, via email at elizabeth.dalgarno@manchester.ac.uk. If you have any other queries, please contact the PGT programme administrators via email at shs.programmes@manchester.ac.uk.

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