Skip to main content

Possible Implications of Feminist Theories for the Study of Evolution

  • Chapter
Book cover Feminism and Evolutionary Biology

Abstract

The past twenty-five years have witnessed unprecedented growth and fundamental theoretical changes in both feminism and the study of evolutionary biology. Fueled by the second wave of the feminist movement, the first academic women’s studies program was founded in 1970 at San Diego State University (National Women’s Studies Association, 1990). Since that time, over 621 similar programs (NWSA, 1990) have been established at colleges and universities throughout the United States, resulting in what the Chronicle of Higher Education described as one of the most influential phenomena in twentieth-century higher education (McMillen, 1987). Feminist scholars have elaborated a variety of theories useful for explaining data within specific disciplines and within the interdisciplinary field of women’s studies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 189.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Acton, H. B. 1967. What Marx Really Said. London: MacDonald.

    Google Scholar 

  • Association for Women in Science. 1993. A Hand Up: Women Mentoring Women in Science. Washington, DC: Association for Women in Science.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arditti, R., P. Brennan, and S. Cavrak, 1980. Science and Liberation. Boston: South End Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ardrey, R. 1971. The Territorial Imperative. New York: Dell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ardrey, R. 1976. The Hunting Hypothesis. New York: Atheneum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barinaga, M. 1994. Surprises across the cultural divide. Science 263: 1468–1472.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biology and Gender Study Group. 1989. The importance of feminist critique for contemporary cell biology. In N. Tuana (Ed.), Feminism and Science, pp. 172–187. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Birke, L. 1986. Women, Feminism, and Biology: The Feminist Challenge. New York: Methuen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blackwell, A. 1976. The Sexes Throughout Nature. Westport, CT: Hyperion Press. (Original published in 1875).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bleier, R. 1979. Social and political bias in science: An examination of animal studies and their generalizations to human behavior and evolution. In R. Hubbard and M. Lowe (Eds.), Genes and Gender II: Pitfalls in Research on Sex and Gender, pp. 49–70. New York: Gordian Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bleier, R. 1984. Science and Gender: A Critique of Biology and Its Theories on Women. Elmsford, NY: Pergamon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bleier, R. 1986. Sex differences research: Science or belief? In Feminist Approaches to Science, R. Bleier (Ed.), pp. 147–164. Elmsford, NY: Pergamon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buchanan, A. 1972. Marx and Justice: The Radical Critique of Liberalism. Totowa, NJ: Littlefield, Adams.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buffery, W. and J. Gray. 1972. Sex differences in the development of spatial and linguistic skills. In C. Ounsted and D.C. Taylor (Eds.), Gender Differences: Their Ontogeny and Significance. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calkins, M. 1896. Community of ideas of men and women. Psychological Review, 3(4): 426–430.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chodorow, N. 1978. The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cixous, H. and C. Clement. 1986. The Newly Born Woman. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Corea, G. 1985. The Mother Machine: Reproductive Technologies from Artificial Insemination to Artificial Wombs. New York: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darwin, C. 1871. The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex. London: John Murray.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Darwin, C. 1967. On the Origin of Species: A Facsimile of the First Edition. New York: Atheneum. (Original work published 1859).

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawkins, R. 1976. The Selfish Gene. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Beauvoir, S. 1974. The Second Sex. Trans. and ed. by H.M. Parshley. New York: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dinnerstein, D. 1977. The Mermaid and the Minotaur: Sexual Arrangements and Human Malaise. New York: Harper Colophon Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dubois, E., G. P. Kelly, E. Kennedy, C. Korsmeyer, and L. S. Robinson. 1985. Feminist Scholarship: Kindling in the Groves of Academe. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dworkin, A. 1983. Right-Wing Women. New York: Coward-McCann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fausto-Sterling, A. 1992. Myths of Gender (2nd edition, 1992). New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fedigan, L. 1984. Sex ratios and sex differences in primatology (book review of Female primates). American Journal of Primatology 7: 305–308.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fee, E. 1982. A feminist critique of scientific objectivity. Science for the People 14(4): 8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fee, E. 1986. Critiques of modern science: The relationship of feminism to other radical epistemologies. In R. Bleier (Ed.), pp. 42–56. Feminist approaches to science, Elmsford, NY: Pergamon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Firestone, S. 1970. The Dialectic of Sex. New York: Bantam Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fossey, D. 1983. Gorillas in the Mist. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freud, S. (1924). The dissolution of the Oedipus Complex. Standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud. 19. London: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedan, B. (1974). The Feminine Mystique. New York: Dell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedan, B. 1981. The Second Stage. New York: Summit Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giddings, P. 1984. When and Where We Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America. New York: Morrow.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldman, E. 1970. The Traffic in Women and Other Essays on Feminism. Albion, CA: Times Change Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodall, J. 1971. In the Shadow of Man. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gorski, R., R. E. Harlan, C. D. Jacobson, J. E. Shryne, and A. M. Southam. 1980. Evidence for the existence of a sexually dimorphic nucleus in the preoptic area of the rat. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 193: 529–539.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Goy, R. and C. H. Phoenix. 1971. The effects of testosterone propionate administered before birth on the development of behavior in genetic female rhesus monkeys. In C. H. Sawyer and R. A Gorski (Eds.), Steroid Hormones and Brain Function, pp. 193–201, Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffin, S. 1978. The Death of Nature. New York: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grimshaw, J. 1986. Feminist Philosophers: Women’s Perspectives on Philosophical Traditions. Sussex, UK: Wheatsheaf.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gunew, S. 1990. Feminist Knowledge: Critique and Construct. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haraway, D. 1978. Animal sociology and a natural economy of the body politic. Signs 4(1): 21–60.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Haraway, D. 1989. Primate Visions. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harding, S. 1986. The Science Question in Feminism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartman, M. and L. Banner, Eds. 1974. Clio’s Consciousness Raised. New York: Bantam Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hein, H. 1981. Women and science: Fitting men to think about nature. International Journal of Women’s Studies 4: 369–377.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hennig, M. and A. Jardim. 1977. The Managerial Woman. New York: Anchorage-Doubleday.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hollingsworth, L. S. 1914. Variability as related to sex differences in achievement. American Journal of Sociology 19(4): 510–530.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holloway, M. 1993. A lab of her own. Scientific American 269(5): 94–103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hooks, B. 1981. Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black. Boston: South End Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hooks, B. 1983. Feminist Theory from Margin to Center. Boston: South End Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hooks, B. 1990. Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics. Boston: South End Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hrdy, S. B. 1977. The Langurs of Abu: Female and Male Strategies of Reproduction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hrdy, S. B. 1979. Infanticide among animals: A review, classification and examination of the implications for the reproductive strategies of females. Ethology and Sociobiology 1: 3–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hrdy, S. B. 1981. The Woman That Never Evolved. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hrdy, S. B. 1984. Introduction: Female reproductive strategies. In M. Small (Ed.), Female Primates: Studies by Women Primatologists, pp. 13–16. New York: Alan Liss.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hrdy, S. B 1986. Empathy, polyandry, and the myth of the coy female. In Ruth Bleier (Ed.), Feminist Approaches to Science, pp. 119–146. Elmsford, NY: Pergamon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hrdy, S. and G. C. Williams. 1983. Behavioral biology and the double standard. In S. K. Wasser (Ed.), Social Behavior of Female Vertebrates, pp. 3–17. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hubbard, R. 1979. Introduction. In R. Hubbard and M. Lowe (Eds.), Genes and Gender II: Pitfalls in Research on Sex and Gender, pp. 9–34. New York: Gordian Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hubbard, R. 1990. The Politics of Women’s Biology. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaggar, A. 1983. Feminist Politics and Human Nature. Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Allanheld.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaggar, A. and P. Rothenberg (Eds.). 1992. Feminist Frameworks. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keller, E. F. 1982. Feminism and science. Signs 7(3): 589–602.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keller, E. F. 1983. A Feeling for the Organism. San Francisco: Freeman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keller, E. F. 1985. Reflections on gender and science. New Haven CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kristeva, J. 1984. The Revolution in Poetic Language. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kristeva, J. 1987. Tales of Love. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn, A. and A. M. Wolpe. 1978. Feminism and Materialism: Women and Modes of Production. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lancaster, J. 1975. Primate Behavior and the Emergence of Human Culture. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leavitt, R. 1975. Peaceable Primates and Gentle People: Anthropological Approaches to Women’s Studies. New York: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leibowitz, L. 1975. Perspectives in the evolution of sex differences. In R. Reiter (Ed.), Toward an Anthropology of Women, pp. 20–35. New York: Monthly Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd, G. 1984. The man of Reason: “Male” and “Female” in Western Philosophy. London: Methuen.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lorde, A. 1984. Sister Outsider. Trumansburg, NY: Crossing Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lowe, M. 1978. Sociobiology and sex differences. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 4(1): 118–125.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lowe, M. and R. Hubbard. 1979. Sociobiology and biosociology: Can science prove the biological basis of sex differences in behavior? In R. Hubbard and M. Lowe (Eds.), Genes and Gender II, pp. 91–111. New York: Gordian Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacKinnon, C. 1982. Feminism, Marxism, and the state: An agenda for theory. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 7(3): 515–544.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacKinnon, C. 1987. Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marx, K. 1963. Early Writings (trans. and ed. by T.B. Bottomore). New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marx, K. 1973. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. New York: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matyas, M. and S. Malcolm. 1991. Investing in Human Potential: Science and Engineering at the Crossroads. Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science.

    Google Scholar 

  • McMillen, L. 1987. More colleges and more disciplines incorporating scholarship on women into the classroom. Chronicle of Higher Education, A15–A17. vol. 34, #2, Sept. 9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merchant, C. 1979. The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution. New York: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mill, H. T. 1970. Enfranchisement of women. In A. S. Rossi (Ed.), Essays on Sex Equality, pp. 89–122. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mill, J. S. 1970. The subjection of women. In A. S. Rossi (Ed.), Essays on Sex Equality, pp. 123–242. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Millett, K. 1970. Sexual Politics. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.

    Google Scholar 

  • National Science Foundation. 1992. Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering: An Update (NSF 92-303). Washington, DC: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • National Women’s Studies Association. 1990. NWSA Directory of Women’s Studies Programs, Women’s Centers, and Women’s Research Centers. College Park, MD: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Brien, M. 1981. The Politics of Reproduction. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Connell, A. and N. Russo. 1983. Models of Achievement. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rayman, P. and B. Brett. 1993. Pathways for Women in the Sciences: The Wellesley Report. Part I. Wellesley, MA: Wellesley Center for Research on Women.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rich, A. 1976. Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience. New York: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, H. and S. Rose. 1980. The myth of the neutrality of science. In R. Arditti, P. Brennan, and S. Cavrak (Eds.), pp. 17–32 Science and Liberation, Boston: South End Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosser, S. V. 1982. Androgyny and sociobiology. International Journal of Women’s Studies 5(5): 435–444.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosser, S. V. 1988. Women in science and health care: A gender at risk. In S. V. Rosser (Ed.), Feminism Within the Science and Health Care Professions: Overcoming Resistance, pp. 3–15. Elmsford, NY: Pergamon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosser, S. V. 1990. Female Friendly Science. Elmsford, NY: Pergamon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rossiter, M. W. 1984. Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothfield, P. 1990. Feminism, subjectivity, and sexual difference. Feminist knowledge: Critique and Construct, pp. 121–144. Sheja Gunew (Ed.) New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rowell, T. 1974. The concept of social dominance. Behavioral Biology 11: 131–154.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rowell, T. 1984. Introduction: Mothers, infants and adolescents. In M. Small (Ed.), Female Primates, pp. 13–16. New York: Alan Liss.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sacks, K. 1975. Engels revisited: Women, the organization of production and private property. In R. R. Reiter (Ed.), Toward an Anthropology of Women, pp. 211–234. New York: Monthly Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sargant, L. 1981. The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism: A Debate on Class and Patriarchy. London: Pluto.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slocum, S. 1975. Woman the gatherer: Male bias in anthropology (originally published as Sally Linton, 1971). In S. E. Jacobs (Ed.), Women in Perspective: A Guide for Cross-Cultural Studies, pp. 9–21. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith-Rosenberg, C. 1975, Autumn. The female world of love and ritual: Relations between women in nineteenth-century America. Signs 1: 1–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spanier, B. 1982, April. Toward a balanced curriculum: The study of women at Wheaton College. Change 14: 31–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sperry, R. W. 1974. Lateral specialization in the surgically separated hemispheres. In F. O. Schmitt and F. G. Wardon (Eds.), The Neurosciences: Third Study Program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. pp. 5–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swisher, C. C. III, G. H. Curtis, T. Jacob, A. G. Getty, A. Suprijo, and Widiasmoro. 1994, February. Age of the earliest known hominids in Java, Indonesia. Science 263: 1118–1121.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tanner, A. 1896. The community of ideas of men and women. Psychological Review 3(5): 548–550.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tanner, N. 1981. On Becoming Human. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tanner, N. 1987. The chimpanzee model revisited and the gathering hypothesis. In W. G. Kinzey (Ed.), The Evolution of Human Behavior: Primate Models, pp. 3–27. Albany: State University of New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tanner, N. and A. Zihlmann. 1976. Women in evolution. Part I. Innovation and selection in human origins. Signs 1: 585–608.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tapper, M. 1986. Can a liberal be a feminist? Supplement to the Australasian Journal of Philosophy. Supp. 64, June pp. 37–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tiger, L. 1977. The possible biological origins of sexual discrimination. In D. W. Brothwell (Ed.), Biosocial Man, London: Eugenics Society. pp. 23–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tiger, L. and R. Fox. 1974. The Imperial Animal. New York: Dell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tong, R. 1989. Feminist Thought: A Comprehensive Introduction. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trivers, R. L. 1972. Parental investment and sexual selection. In B. Campbell (Ed.), Sexual Selection and the Descent of Man, pp. 136–179. Chicago: Aldine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vetter, B. 1988. Where are the women in the physical sciences? In S. V. Rosser (Ed.), Feminism within the Science and Health Care Professions: Overcoming Resistance. Elmsford, NY: Pergamon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vetter, B. 1992. What is holding up the glass ceiling? Barriers to women in the science and engineering workforce. Occasional paper 92-3. Washington, DC: Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vetter, Betty. M. (1996). Myths and Realities of Women’s Progress in the Sciences, Mathematics, and Engineering. In The equity equation Cinda Sue Davis, Angela B. Ginorio, Carol S. Hollenshad, Barbara B. Lazarus, Paula M. Rayman, and Associates (Eds.) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, E. O. 1975. Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, E. O. 1978. On Human Nature. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wollstonecraft, M. 1975. In C. H. Poston (Ed.), A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, New York: W W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yentsch, C. and C. Sinderman. 1992. The Woman Scientist. New York: Plenum Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yerkes, R. M. 1943. Chimpanzees. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zihlman, A. 1985. Gathering stories for hunting human nature. Feminist Studies 11: 364–377.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zihlman, A. and J. Lowenstein. 1983, April. A few words with Ruby. New Scientist, pp. 81-83.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zihlman, A. and N. Tanner. 1978. Gathering and the hominid adaptation. In L. Tiger and H. Fowler (Eds.), Female Hierarchies, pp. 163–194. Chicago: Beresford.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Rosser, S.V. (1997). Possible Implications of Feminist Theories for the Study of Evolution. In: Gowaty, P.A. (eds) Feminism and Evolutionary Biology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5985-6_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5985-6_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-412-07361-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-5985-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics