Course Content and Outcomes Guides (CCOG)

CCOG for HST 204 Winter 2025


Course Number:
HST 204
Course Title:
History of Women in the U.S.: Pre-colonial to 1877
Credit Hours:
4
Lecture Hours:
40
Lecture/Lab Hours:
0
Lab Hours:
0

Course Description

Examines the lives of women in terms of family relations, religion, culture, sexuality and reproduction, and work roles. Also covers educational opportunities and social reform activities. Explores diversity in terms of class, race, ethnicity, legal status, and region. History courses are non-sequential and may be taken in any term and in any order. Prerequisites: WR 115, RD 115 and MTH 20 or equivalent placement test scores. Audit available.

Intended Outcomes for the course

Upon completion students should be able to:

  • Articulate and interpret an understanding of key historical facts and events in U.S. History from pre-European settlement to 1877, and their particular impact on women.
  • Identify the influence of culturally based practices, values, and beliefs to analyze how historically defined meanings of difference affect human behavior.
  • Identify and investigate historical theses, evaluate information and its sources, and use appropriate reasoning to construct evidence-based arguments on historical issues.
  • Construct a well-organized historical argument using effective, appropriate, and accurate language.

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

This course requires students to focus on the history of women in the United States from the pre-colonial period until 1877 from a variety of different perspectives, considering the ways in which the experiences of people in the past have been shaped by factors like social class, gender, race, religious belief, and ideology. Students must also evaluate relationships between different cultures, whether defined in terms of political identity (such as interactions between the people of two or more nations) or in terms of cultural groups within a larger society. One of the key goals of this course is to provide a perspective on the contemporary world that is grounded in a robust and accurate understanding of the past, ultimately in the name of encouraging a greater sense of social responsibility.

Outcome Assessment Strategies

Assess by using any combination of the following:

  • Exams
  • Essays
  • Oral Presentations
  • Research projects
  • Book critiques
  • Journals
  • Class participation and discussion in small and large groups
  • Other creative assignments

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

Competencies and Skills:

  • Analyze and evaluate the position of women in American society
  • Analyze, evaluate, and connect issues of gender, race, ethnicity, and class as they apply to women           
  • Compare and contrast the experience of diverse groups in American society
  • Analyze, interpret, and evaluate written, artistic, or other evidence in its historical context
  • Recognize and identify historical roots and parallels to current issues
  • Listen to and appreciate the experience of students from a variety of backgrounds
  • Communicate effectively orally and in writing an understanding of a variety of historical topics, the historical process
  • Evaluate how concepts or values change over time
  • Analyze and evaluate primary and secondary sources
  • Evaluate different interpretations of past events and construct your own interpretation
  • Think critically about the relationships between past and present events and issues
  • Demonstrate college-level communications skills with an emphasis on writing (and may include listening and speaking)

Themes, Concepts, and Issues:

  • Contrasting gender-based roles in a variety of cultures (American Indian, Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo-American)
  • Relationships between indigenous peoples and Euro-American women
  • Patriarchal family system
  • Matrilineal family system
  • Sexuality and reproduction
  • Gender-based work roles
  • Religion (Shakers, Salem with trials)
  • Variations in women’s lives based upon race, class, ethnicity, region, religion, ideology
  • Racism, nativism, ethnocentrism
  • Expanding educational opportunities
  • Technological developments
  • Influence of individual rights philosophy on women
  • Impact of Revolutionary War and developing new republic on women
  • Political and economic changes on family relationships and work roles
  • African Diaspora
  • Social, religious, and political movements