WGST 260 - Gender Communication [GEUS]

Gender Communication is communication about and between men and women. It is communication between men and women because gender communication is reflected in everything around us. From the time we are born important people in our life communicate our society’s gender expectations to us. While individuals vary in the extent to which they accept or reject those messages, we all “do gender” by expressing our views about what we believe is normal or natural for a member of our sex. Since gender is a social construction that changes over time, it is important that we systematically study it to determine how it affects us, the people with whom we interact, and the world in which we live. Gender communication is also communication between men and women. In the United States, interactions between women and men occur every hour of every day. The sheer number of contacts we have with the opposite sex heightens the need to study the effects of gender on the communication process.

CTAC 260 and WGST 260 meet the U.S. diversity  requirement of General Education  because it allows students to examine their gender identity and relate it to the gender identity of others. This ultimately leads to an understanding of the many different ways people view gender and communication in the United States. Attention is also focused on the communication-related causes and consequences of social intolerance toward individuals who deviate from normative sex and gender roles, and how that intolerance relates to racism, ethnocentrism, and exclusion in the United States. Last but not least, students explore the association between gender and income distribution, economic opportunities, political participation and the U.S. democratic process, and how those variables impact communication between and within the sexes.
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Equivalent Courses CTAC 260

Summer 2024 Course Sections

Fall 2024 Course Sections