Futurelearn course on gender and development- has anyone done this?

[WhattheChuff]

Im a long time lurker and occasional poster (still learning) on FC and saw the course advertised. Now it looks interesting but as it is using 'Gender' instead of 'Sex' do you think it will be a bit hard to follow? In terms of statistics they might use I mean? I find the term gender a bit woolly and unhelpful now.

Do you know of the course leader? I tried to look at her twitter but I couldn't really gauge much from it.

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/gender-and-development?utmsource=newslettersegment&utmmedium=futurelearnorganicemail&utmcampaign=fljuly2017&utmterm=10072017firstnamegetafreeintrotoonlinedegrees

It's free, and only meant to be 6 hrs in total, so I'd sign up and see what you think!

I might start it and see how it goes. If if gives me the rage I can always drop out.

FFS, 3 chapters in and someone on the course is mansplaining and another is insisting that biological sex is "on a spectrum".

WhattheChuff

I feel your pain. Womansplain back. Intersex is not a third sex

I think the person insisting on biological sex being "on a spectrum" has drunk the kool aid and I would get nowhere. I'm tempted to ask her what she means though.
Mansplainer was saying good things up until he started making misogyny all about his hurt feelings and I actually think he's going to show his true colours and declare all feminists as meanies. I 'see' him.

Ask them to define the word woman.

I'd love to, I want to expose the muddled thinking but the course is using my real name.

Mansplainer has rather unsurprisingly struggled with the 'white male privilege' section...

A list of her publications

Ah, great thanks Slug will have a look.

Why is this course free? What's in it for them?

They're free because they're taster sessions for Open University - if you want a certificate of participation they're £79 I think. I haven't done any that are recognised qualifications. I guess they think people might be more open to doing a degree or such like.

They've been pretty good in the past. This one is starting to get weird though.

OP you can change your username- I did this as I did a course related to my work and wanted to be sure I was anonymous.
I've done several of the courses and they vary hugely, some are great others OK, some very technical others too easy (for me I mean)- but what I usually enjoy especially on development oriented courses is the variety of participants from different countries.
I would deffo ask for a definition of 'woman'. If they are looking at development issues this is usually where all the gender/identifying bollocks falls apart - you will not escape FGM by 'identifying' as male.

Ah, didn't know that. I might just do it. I like the courses generally and you're right about the variability of them. There's certainly a global audience with some interesting ideas!

you will not escape FGM by 'identifying' as male
^^
Well exactly, their sex wasn't a "spectrum" for them.

Oh right. If you could change your username i would have a lot of fun saying things like "woman is an identity not a biological state? that's nit very intersectional!"