Evolution and Gender: Why It Matters for Contemporary Life

Arguing that men and women are different is risky business as the social demand to eliminate the gender binary increases. However, in her latest book Evolution and Gender: Why It Matters for Contemporary Life, Dr. Rosemary L. Hopcroft, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, not only delves into the question of how men and women are different, but also explores how they became different. Hopcroft takes an " evolutionary approach to gender " exploring the development of the binary (p. 3). She argues that the differences have been evolving due to physical pressures, focusing on the roles of the two sexes in child rearing, and social pressures. Hopcroft begins by exploring the mating strategies of the two sexes. Using the point of view of an anthropo-morphized gene, she explains the ultimate goal of a partnership is to have their children reach reproductive age to perpetuate the gene's lineage. As such, a woman's partner choice depends on his ability to aid in rearing the child, be it by financial or other means. Men, on the other hand, can either invest in a long-term mate, to ensure their children have the greatest chance of survival, or have many short-term mates to have a larger cohort of children, increasing the likelihood that their genes will continue on in his lin-eage. These differences drive many of the social differences between men and women. Hopcroft continues to explore other physiological and cognitive differences between the sexes, such as strength and ability to deal with strong emotions, arguing different evolutionary pressures developed these differences. She repeatedly ensures readers she is not trying to build a stereotype of man and woman; instead she is describing an average. Importantly, Hopcroft describes the social changes leading to predominantly patriarchal societies. Before farming, men and women played an equal role in obtaining food, hunting and gathering, respectively. After the agricultural revolution, " men are still able to use their roles in defense (and offense) to gain power, but the nature of [these] agrarian societies means they now have other means of controlling others, including women, " because men took over the entire means of managing food, eliminating women's social roles other than childcare (p. 89). Tackling politically triggering topics is difficult to do. Hopcroft is able to use evolution and biology to explain that indeed, men and women are physically different and traditionally serve …