Course Content and Outcomes Guides (CCOG)

CCOG for COMM 237 Winter 2025


Course Number:
COMM 237
Course Title:
Gender and Communication
Credit Hours:
4
Lecture Hours:
40
Lecture/Lab Hours:
0
Lab Hours:
0

Course Description

Examines the similarities and differences in masculine, feminine, and androgynous communication styles and patterns. Discusses the differences between sex and gender and the impacts on perception, values, stereotypes, language use, nonverbal communication, and power dynamics in human relationships. Covers the influence of both interpersonal and mass communication on the social/cultural construction of gender identities, performances, and gender roles. Offers strategies for improving communication in gendered relationships. Prerequisites: WR 115, RD 115 and MTH 20 or equivalent placement test scores. Audit available.

Intended Outcomes for the course

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

  1. Identify how gender influences our perceptions of – and communication about – personal, social, cultural and political problems.
  2. Explain key theoretical approaches to gender development and how they may shape our understanding of gender identities, performances, and gender roles.
  3. Create and manage relationships through an understanding of gender communication theories.
  4. Communicate with people who have diverse gender identities, expectations, and viewpoints.

Integrative Learning

Students completing an associate degree at Portland Community College will be able to reflect on one’s work or competencies to make connections between course content and lived experience.

General education philosophy statement

Communication is essential to being human. Communication courses inherently provide a foundation for understanding human interaction. While all humans use some form of communication to navigate the societies in which we live, each culture has its own set of ethical and social communicative norms. This course examines those norms by teaching students how to organize and make meaning of their own and others’ experiences, and meet personal goals in a variety of communication situations.

Course Activities and Design

Course outcomes and objectives are met in the face-to-face and online modalities with a combination of: lectures, online modules, in-class application activities, out-of-class experiential learning activities, reflection papers and journals, group and individual projects and presentations, discussion and discussion posts, artifact posts, exercises, exams, community-based learning projects and critical analysis of mass media texts related to gender.

Outcome Assessment Strategies

This course will have at least one self-reflective component and at least one research-based analysis component.

Instructors may use the following assessment strategies:

  • Qualitative examinations
  • Quantitative examinations
  • Essays
  • Journals
  • Research papers
  • In-class dialogue
  • Portfolios projects
  • Oral presentations
  • Group work
  • Case studies
  • Media analysis
  • Community-based learning

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

  • Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)
  • Gender & Communication Theories
    • Muted group
    • Genderlect
    • Queer theories
    • Cultural and social construction of gender
    • Rhetoric of social movements
    • Nature vs nurture
  • Perception
  • Self concept
  • Gender identity
  • Cultural variables
  • Stereotyping
  • Verbal communication
  • Nonverbal communication
  • Power
  • Conflict management
  • Violence
  • Sexism
  • Organizations
    • Education
    • Workplace
  • Mass communication
  • Relationships
    • Friendships
    • Family
    • Courtship/romantic
  • Communication competence

A textbook is required. Suggested texts are listed below.  Alternative texts need Department/SAC Chair approval.

Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender and Culture, Julia Wood

GenderSpeak, Ivy; Pearson