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8 Women’s Empowerment Courses Available Online

Women Empowerment can be defined as a process by which women gain power and control over their own lives and choices. It is key to economic growth, political stability and social transformation. Empowered women are able to participate actively in political, social, economic and cultural decisions. Women empowerment is essential for human rights and it concerns all areas of life including Education, Health, Work, Economics and Politics. We have collected a list of women empowerment courses you can audit for free. You can also choose to obtain a verified certificate by one of the top universities offering the courses for an extra fee.

Women in Leadership: Inspiring Positive Change

This online course takes approximately 8 hours to complete and is offered by Case Western Reserve University. The course aims to empower women and men across the world to engage in purposeful career development and take on leadership for important causes. The course will equip you with skills and knowledge to lead change with more conviction and confidence to make your communities and workplaces a better environment for everyone. In this course you will unravel complex organizational dynamics, increase your self-knowledge and explore your own values and vision shaping your competencies as contributor, manager or leader.

International Women’s Health and Human Rights

This course is offered by Stanford University and takes roughly 64 hours to complete. It will explore women health issues through a human rights lens and investigate topics such as female genital mutilation, childbirth, domestic violence, women in war, sex trafficking and child marriage. In the first week of the course you will learn why women’s rights are human rights and how human rights can be applied to women’s issues. This action-oriented online course includes several assignments that will empower you to engage your own community to initiate change.

Feminism and Social Justice

This women empowerment course is offered by University of California Santa Cruz. It takes around 7 hours to complete. In this course you will learn what feminism is and how it became key to social change. Throughout this course you will learn about historic events and crucial moments in feminist history from the early 1960s until today. Together with your peers you will discuss some of the most pressing social justice issues of our time and explore ways forward for the feminist movement. The course is taught by the scholar-activist Bettina Aptheker who is well known for her activism and academic work in feminist studies.

Seeking Women’s Rights: Colonial Period to the Civil War

This online course will explore the history of women rights in the United States. In this course you will examine the customs, cultures, and ideologies that governed women’s lives in Colonial America and the early 19th Century. You will learn how women rose from slavery and injustice and about their fight for individual rights. This course takes roughly 30 hours to complete and is offered by Columbia University. This course is part of a series of courses that also includes Fighting for Equality: 1950-2018 and Wage Work for Women Citizens: 1870-1920.

Women Making History: Ten Objects, Many Stories

This Harvard University course will explore how American women created, confronted, and embraced change in the 20th century taking ten objects from Radcliffe’s Schlesinger Library as reference. The course explores crucial issues such as intersectionality, equality, inclusion and political participation. You will learn how ordinary people created change, what central role women played in American history and how objects can embody stories of change.

Confronting Gender Based Violence: Global Lessons for Healthcare Workers

The core curriculum of this course introduces participants to global perspectives on gender based violence, including the global epidemiology of gender based violence and the WHO Guidelines on responding to violence. You will learn about clinical best practices for prevention, support and management of gender based violence and you will be able to articulate challenges and strategies to confront gender based violence. A dedicated honors module explores specific scenarios such as gender based violence in humanitarian settings, during sex trafficking and against sex workers. The course takes 22 hours to complete and is offered by Johns Hopkins University.

Psychology of Political Activism: Women Changing the World

This course is offered by Smith College and explores what drives prominent women to be involved in activism. You will learn about the psychological theories why people stand up against injustice and what sparks the desire to create change. Throughout this course you will meet nine powerful women who engaged in efforts and movements in the United States from the 1960s to the 1990s. The movements include the LGBTQ movement, the reproductive justice movement and the civil rights movement. Together with your course participants you will debate how psychological theories can explain activists’ motivations and conclude where theories are or are not applicable to create new understandings and analyses.

Gender and Sexuality: Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace

This course is offered by the University of Pittsburgh and takes around 17 hours to complete. In this course you will learn to distinguish between the most important terms surrounding sex, gender, sexuality and explore how they relate to our workplaces. You will utilize a variety of interdisciplinary tools, concepts and methods to better understand and analyze how identity shapes our experiences in culture and in the workplace. This course will be helpful for any profession, for understanding the world around us and to confront gender based discrimination at the workplace.

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Human Rights Careers

Human Rights Careers (HRC) provides information about online courses, jobs, paid internships, masters degrees, scholarships and other opportunities in the human rights sector and related areas.

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