Course Content and Outcomes Guides (CCOG)

CCOG for SOC 218 Winter 2025


Course Number:
SOC 218
Course Title:
Sociology of Gender
Credit Hours:
4
Lecture Hours:
40
Lecture/Lab Hours:
0
Lab Hours:
0

Course Description

Covers how sociological theory and research are used to examine how gender is socially constructed through social institutions, social interaction, and the formation of a gendered identity. Considers how gender interacts with additional social categories, such as race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, and social class, to shape major social institutions and personal experiences. Emphasizes the nature of power, privilege, and oppression with regard to gender. Explores how gendered arrangements can be transformed. 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. Explain the social construction of gender through social institutions, interaction, ideology, and identity formation utilizing sociological theory and research to analyze gender as an organizing principle in human group life.
  2. Articulate the significance of gender as an organizing principle within the socio-historical context of society, including individual experiences, social institutions, and the process of social change.
  3. Identify how gender intersects with additional socially constructed categories (such as race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, and social class) with regard to individual experiences, collective action, and established institutions.
  4. Identify gendered social phenomena using the sociological imagination in order to understand human behavior, foster personal growth, and better appreciate the diversity of the social world
  5. Apply sociological knowledge and research skills to address contemporary problems in social institutions related to gender difference and gender inequality, using public policy and collective action.

Social Inquiry and Analysis

Students completing an associate degree at Portland Community College will be able to apply methods of inquiry and analysis to examine social contexts and the diversity of human thought and experience.

General education philosophy statement

Sociology offers a unique perspective that helps us understand how our lives are connected to each other and the larger society. Sociologists use scientific methods to study how societies are organized, why they change, and the different ways that social forces impact people’s lives. The sociological perspective allows us to understand personal troubles as public issues, through the power of social contexts, with varying structures, cultures, and groups shaping our opportunities, attitudes, behaviors, and identities.

Aspirational Goals

We hope that the careful study of gender will empower learners to develop the insights, empathy, and skills to analyze and address social issues.

Outcome Assessment Strategies

In addition to following guidelines for assessing General Education outcomes, instructors will assess student learning of course-level outcomes by using various assessment tools, per instructor discretion, such as:

  1. Class participation in discussions and/or in small groups (on-line or on campus) 

  2. Short analytical homework assignments on specific concepts or issues

  3. Response papers or journals reflecting on life experiences or social events

  4. Research papers, using analyses of academic sources (i.e., signature assignments)

  5. Quizzes and/or exams

  6. Oral histories and interviews

  7. Oral or video presentations

  8. Community-based learning projects, involving learning objectives, service to community, and reflection

  9. Group research and presentation projects

  10. Additional assignments, as deemed appropriate for assessment of learning objectives

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

  1. The Sociological Imagination

  2. Comparison of binary gender as a social construct to nonbinary gender

  3. Intersectionality

  4. Best practices for inclusive sociological research on gender

  5. Historical and cross-cultural comparisons regarding gender within social institutions, such as the economy, politics, family, education, religion, health, sports, and media, and interactions across and between institutions.

  6. Topics related to gender dynamics, such as coloniality and post-coloniality, power, stratification, and social movements.