Patriarchy

Patriarchy #

Humans have a uniquely unequal gender relationship #

• Men historically had most power, and were able to keep it
• Men particularly interested in controlling female sexuality and reproduction
• Evolutionary success results from dual inheritance
• Material wealth inequality drives male control

In leadership: #

• Implicit bias — women judged as less competetive, independent (no evidence in practice of performance difference)
• Female leaders are more egalitarian and democratic
  • Women have more power in egalitarian societies (Chimani)
    • Major role in mediating conflict
  • Increased wealth → increased gender equality

Male Aggression is Cultural #

• Yanomamo (Amazonia): hunting society w/ lethal fighting
  • Violent female coercion
  • No paternal childcare
  • Polygyny
• Aké (West Africa): foraging society
  • No male-female aggression
  • Monogamy
  • Highest levels of paternal care

— Evidence for dual inheritance theory: gender differences depend on culture

Mammalian Leadership #

Gorillas #

• Single male w/ several females
• Male defends groups from other males
• If defeated, infanticide occurs

Chimps #

• Multiple related males (brothers)
• Strong male alliances
• Aggression v/ other groups, incl. females
• Females mate w/ all males
  • Population differences: some aggression in forced mating

Baboons #

• Very independent: single male w/ multiple females
• Variations: some let females be independent, others are very controlling (hamadryas baboon)
  • Olive baboon: females form alliances to protect themselves, counteract body size differences

In other social species: #

• distributed leadership (multiple leaders)
• attribute based leadership (sex, age, personality, social status…)
• multiple roles
  • group travel initiator (adult females w/ knowledge of feeding areas)
  • forager / hunt leader
  • conflict resolver

Very few species have a single female dominant to single male, but many leadership roles given to females

Killer Whales #

• grandmothers / alloparents
• matrilineal social structures
  • pods consist of multiple matrilines (up to 4 generations)
• menopausal females lead hunts, train sons

African Lion #

• only social cats
• females are philopatric — stay w/ family, while males disperse
  • matrilineal
  • lionesses coordinate hunt
  • conflict within pride is rare

Elephants #

• females are philopatric
• similar social org to whales (multiple related matrilines)
• fission-fusion: join / break up of individual matrilines
• oldest female (matriarch) leads group movement

Spotted Hyena #

• specialized to eat bones
• females are larger than males
• females dominant to single male

Bonobo #

• “make love not war”
• males are philopatric (females have power, males disperse)
• female-biased leadership
• rare between-group conflict resolved by both sexes
• unrelated females form alliances to maintain egalitarian society

Why are female alliances only in bonobos? #

• very rich ecology
• less competition to acquire resources
• no competitors west of Congo river
• gorillas, chimps fight for resources and have wealth differences

Patriarchy: How (6 factors) #

Reduction in female allies #

• females disperse from kin
• no alliances b/tw non-kin females (Bonobo only)
• solitary females prone to male coercion
  • → strengthen female alliances

Elaboration of male alliances #

• purpose: control and accumulate wealth
• in chimps: high degree of relatedness, most elaborate male alliances
• functions:
  • organize hunts, raids
  • → strengthen institutional protection of women

Increased male control of resources #

• more food → more male control
• increased reliance on cumulative culture, cooperative hunting, breeding
  • ↳ rise of gendered labor: males hunt, females forage
    • females more dependent on males to provide for altricial babies
    • feedback loop: dependence ↔ power
• → increase female economic independence

Increased hierarchy formation #

• unequal relationships among men (allowed by material wealth)
• wealth used to increase reproductive success of most powerful men
  • ↳ allow additional control of women
  • ↳ demanded higher paternity certainty (want to know children are theirs): additional control over bodies
• → decrease economic/power inequality

Females enforce male control #

• to increase reproductive success, must follow the norm
• once patriarchal system was set in place, female alliances no longer increased reproductive success
  • ↳ example: favor sons due to higher potential in hierarchy
  • ↳ daughters have chance of marrying wealthy man
• → change female behaviors that support patriarchy

Evolution of language and ideology #

• ideologies invented to maintain patriarchy (ex. men are born virtuous…)
• Bible, others used as guide on how to behave in presence of material wealth
• → change ideologies

Human Leadership #

Why are females underrepresented in human leadership?

Phylogeny #

• ↳ sex differences are a product of sexual selection
• ↳ in other species, matrilines, alliances exist

Function #

• ↳ sex differences in leadership
  • leader starts hunt, but dominant individual gets best share
• ↳ males, females benefit differently from leadership

Bateman-Trivers Paradigm #

• female cost per offspring is higher
• males have higher potential reproductive rate
• operational sex ratio: more males available, must physically compete for access to females
• female need: parental investment from males

What limits reproduction? #

• females: resources for offspring, safety
• males: access to females

→ result: female leadership focuses on leading group to food/resources, foraging decisions (bonobo, zebra, lemurs…)

male leadership protects fertile females

• leads to intergroup conflict
• intragroup conflicts to increase rank in group, increase mating

Costs of leadership #

• predation (first to enter area)
• retaliation
• injury: females more risk-adverse → less benefit to lead
• loss of reputation on failure
• opportunity costs

Sexual Selection of Leadership #

• males: leadership status predicts reproductive success
• females: desire leadership positions that improve child survival

sexual selection influences cultural transmission but does not determine or justify behavior

Five implications of policy #

1. encouragement of women to act like men is ineffective

   • different goals
   • more democratic leadership in women

2. call attention to poor male strategy

   • self promotion, overconfidence, exaggerating competence
   • large social networks with weak ties
   • toxic competitive practice

3. emphasize other motivations for leadership

   • prestige over power of norms, dominance
   • institutional requirements for gender diversity

4. make work compatible with childcare

   • remove gendered labor
   • increase paternity leave (reduced testosterone → change behaviors)

5. diversify leadership styles

   • some situations need covert, empathetic competition
   • prioritization of healthcare, welfare, education (success of offspring)

Competition Differences Between Sexes #

WEIRD Men: #

• fast, large scale coalition building
• larger group socializing
• hierarchies
• respect competitiveness
• structure to compete against other groups of men

WEIRD Women: #

• Competition modes are low injury risk
  • indirect aggression: gossip, social exclusion
• Seek stable sources of social support
• levelling mechanism to counter aggressive individuals
• egalitarian small networks
  • less political influence (smaller, closer alliances)

Competitive Styles #

• men: contest competition (public, zero-sum, rituals)
• women: scramble competition (everyone competes against themselves, adaptive to alloparenting)

Leadership #

• followers prefer physically dominant leaders over prestige-based traits

The Precarious Manhood Belief #

• manhood is hard to earn, easy to lose, must be proven repeatedly by action
  • more prevalent in less developed countries: less material wealth ⇒ more relational wealth
  • correlated w/ gender inequality
  • fear of paternity uncertainty ⇒ high homicide rate of intimate partners

In typical polygynous mammals: #

• males “run for office” by visiting fertile females in her territory
  • evidence for episodic memory
  • compete w/ other males to see who can navigate most accurately
• females choose males based on familiarity
  • good genes: offspring will have good spatial ability

→ polygynous males have better maze solving ability → no diff. in monogamous (territories overlap)

• Sex differences in space use predict hippocampus differences

males → females → food (low res map of large space) (high res map of small space)

In humans: #

• males are better at mental object rotation
  • recognition of distant landmarks
• females are better at relative object position memory
  • track locations of food plants
  • more valuable foods are remembered more (SB farmers market experiment)

Twe Tribe (Namibia): #

• both sexes forage, men take longer trips to find honey
• men visit other camps more (politics, mating, alliances) → foraging for mating opportunities
• result: men outperformed women in all memory tasks
  • WEIRD female advantage not present

Yucatec Maya: #

• highly monogamous
• sex difference in mobility only exists after marriage because men increase travel, travel alone

Tsimane Tribe: (Bolivia) #

Gender differences in distance traveled

• childhood, after marriage: no difference
• adolescence: males travel further to find mates
  • overall, no difference found in spatial cognition
  • richer, more schooling → better mental rotation, poorer pointing accuracy

Mobility is a signal of status in historical societies #

• wealthy restricted mobility w/ heels to show they didn’t need to walk
• foot binding → increases

Human: