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Sexual Dialectics, Sexual Selection, and Variation in Reproductive Behavior

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Book cover Feminism and Evolutionary Biology

Abstract

Evolutionary biologists are increasingly enamored with emerging “female perspectives” on social behavior. Yet, at this writing, to my mind, despite the pioneering work of Hrdy (e.g., 1981, 1986), we still have a way to go for full incorporation of proactive female agency in our hypotheses about social behavior. Here I outline some of the problems with our basic theories as I see them and suggest one alternative perspective that places females and their interests in the center of discussions about the evolution of social behavior. At the outset, I think it worth noting that I am not claiming that the ideas derived from the alternatives I see are cure-alls for our general theoretical and empirical failings in regard to females. I think these new perspectives are useful because the focus on females does suggest novel empirical approaches to investigations of the selective forces favoring this behavior or that. If this view has merit, more attention to variation among females will result. I see this effort as an ongoing process, and I look forward to the day when gender-neutral notions characterize our theories and empirical investigations. In this chapter I have tried to suggest gender-neutral ways to conceptualize some of the ideas that have appeared to short-shift females in the past, and some of the newer ideas that have enamored me about females and female agency.

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Authors
  1. Patricia Adair Gowaty
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Ecology and Women’s Studies Program, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA

    Patricia Adair Gowaty

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Gowaty, P.A. (1997). Sexual Dialectics, Sexual Selection, and Variation in Reproductive Behavior. In: Gowaty, P.A. (eds) Feminism and Evolutionary Biology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5985-6_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5985-6_15

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