Introduction to Finnish Gender Studies
Course feedback from students last year
"It was my first web course – I did not know how demanding this course might be. I have learned a lot of interesting facts about Finland, Finnish citizens and society. Thanks a lot for this course."
"It was also my first on line course so at the beginning i was a bit confused but then all went really smoothly and partly becasue of great organization of the course. Namely, texts and all study materials were easily accessible what facilitated a lot. Anyway, I was suprised how much work and time it needed, I think it was very demanding course due to lots of reading and intensive discussions. But I am happy that I was able to participate in it as I think I learned a lot from the texts and our discussions and also teachers's comments. Moreover, the texts were interesting."
"I simply loved this course, and that for many reasons: First of all, I was very happy about the huge variety of themes and subjects we discussed during these seven weeks. As I personally am pretty interested in literature and the arts I had a lot of fun to be introduced in the subkect of contemporary finnish women's studies by interpreting photographs, poems and short stories, and still get to know that many facts about it in an academic way. I mostly liked, that we had to discuss so many different subjects which were seen by different eyes and interpreted in different ways, both in the way of their medium and the personal feelings and background of their interpreters."
"Just after the introduction i realized it seems the students were selected for a purpose. All levels of the educational spectrum were represented (from Bachelor to PhD). All the continent as well represented. I like the careful way the articles were selected. Though some of them were very hard above the level of this course i suppose. Discussions were frank, though some of the topic were too biased. I will recommend that next time an articles on domestic violence in Finland could be included. My favorite theme was 'Challenging domestic femininity'. I'm glad to be part of the course and hope it does not become a nine days wonder. I love the cultural and political pick of the articles."
"After I got used to the web side I found it very clear and friendly. When I was taking the course my approach to gender studies was very trivial and I didn’t expect such fascinating articles and discussions. Lots of ideas have never come to my mind before. For example I have never thought about the design of kitchens in gender way. Thanks to the course I realized that it is quite obvious. It was good that we started this course with more general issues as Finnish approach to gender cases or gender in some pieces of art. Then we went to more difficult and particular issues as stereotypes and legislation. This order prepared us to more and more serious discussion."
"I was really surprised at the warmly discussion by my mates in the group. Almost everybody in the beginning wrote that he hadn’t experiences with gender studies yet, but the discussion was sophisticated and that everybody thought hard about the texts. I have learned a lot by reading their posts. The themes of the texts and discussions covered many aspects of feminism. My favorite themes were about advertising and changing of the form and role of kitchen in family. Those themes were most discussed and advertising is my hobby. I was also surprised how many people feel discrimination in advertising, I have never thought about this."