Minor Overview

About this minor

A person's health is influenced throughout their lifespan by many factors. Some of the most important factors include sex, gender, racial ethnicity, culture, environment, and socioeconomic status. Researchers are discovering the critical roles that sex (being male or female) and gender identity (including social and cultural factors) play in health, wellness, and disease progression.
This minor explores determinants of women's health across the lifespan: from conception, through childhood, into the reproductive years and beyond. The trans-disciplinary approach adopted for this minor will foster collaborative and creative thinking towards addressing the grand and global challenge of gendered health outcomes and the pursuit of just and equitable societies.
At level 1, students will learn the basic skills of health promotion and factors informing health decision making. At level 2, students will learn the importance of evidence-based practice in women's health. At level 3, students will apply their skills to research in women's health.
There are three alternate pathways to completion of this minor. Students wishing to apply their learning in a local context may take the unit in Aboriginal Health and Well-being. Students wishing to further their understanding of the biological determinants of women's health may take Human Reproductive Biology. Students wishing to learn more about the role of women in STEM fields may take Sex, Gender, Science and Technology.

Outcomes
Students are able to (1) explain how sex and gender relate to key determinants of women's health across the lifespan; (2) describe how key stakeholders in women's health interact during decision making process for both individual and community health needs; (3) identify, in a global and cultural context, sex and gender differentials in morbidity, mortality and health outcomes for the female fetus, girl child, female adolescent, reproductive woman, and adult and older women; (4) identify and discuss the impact of local, national and global policies in women's health; (5) examine indicative case studies relating to local, national (including Indigenous) and global women's health issues; (6) analyse the scientific understanding of selected major diseases and health problems confronting women throughout their lifespan; (7) demonstrate a broad understanding of the role of women's health research in advancing knowledge and policy development; and (8) present an argument for women's health research using evidence from the research literature.

Units

Key to availability of units:
S1 = Semester 1; S2 = Semester 2
Take the following unit:
Availability Unit code Unit name Unit requirements
S2 IMED1108 Issues in Women's Health Across the Lifespan
Prerequisites:
Nil
Co-requisites:
Nil
Incompatibility:
Nil
Take the following unit:
Availability Unit code Unit name Unit requirements
S1 IMED2208 Issues in Women's Reproductive Health
Prerequisites:
nil
Co-requisites:
Nil.
Incompatibility:
Nil.
Take the following unit:
Availability Unit code Unit name Unit requirements
S2 IMED3301 Issues in Women's Health Research
Prerequisites:
IMED2208 Issues in Women's Reproductive Health and Successful completion of 48 points
Co-requisites:
Nil
Incompatibility:
Nil
Take unit(s) to the value of 6 points:
Availability Unit code Unit name Unit requirements
S1 AHEA2201 Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing
Prerequisites:
for the Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing major: INDG1150 Aboriginal Encounters: Strangers in our Backyard;
or
INDG1160 Boodjar Moort Katitjin: Introduction to Indigenous Heritage and Knowledge;
for the Population Health major: PUBH1101 Health and Illness in Human Populations;
or
PUBH1102 Health and Globalisation;
for pre-2012 courses: HIST1100 Aboriginal History; for the Women's Health minor: IMED1108 Issues in women's health across the lifespan.
Co-requisites:
Nil.
Incompatibility:
IMED2293 Aboriginal Health, IMED3393 Aboriginal Health
S2 ANHB2216 Human Reproductive Biology
Prerequisites:
Successful completion of one Unit(s) ANHB1101 Human Biology I: Becoming Human
or
Unit(s) ANHB1102 Human Biology II: Being Human
or
Unit(s) BIOL1130 Frontiers in Biology
or
Unit(s) BIOL1131 Plant and Animal Biology
or
Unit(s) SCIE1106 Molecular Biology of the Cell
or
Unit(s) IMED1108 Issues in Women's Health Across the Lifespan
Co-requisites:
Nil
Incompatibility:
Nil
S1 GEND2903 Sex, Gender, Technology and Science
Prerequisites:
Completion of 48 points of study.
Co-requisites:
Nil.
Incompatibility:
Nil.