What Primates Can Teach Us About Gender
Frans de Waal’s new book "Different" shows us how similar we really are.
This week on the Nature & Nurture Podcast, I interviewed the renowned primatologist Frans de Waal.
Find the podcast on YouTube and Spotify. See also my recent Psychology Today article reviewing Dr. de Waal’s most recent book, Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist.
We talked about Different, comparing and contrasting sex and gender differences amongst humans, chimpanzees, and bonobos. Chimpanzees are patriarchal, competitive, and aggressive; while bonobos are matriarchal, peaceful, and highly sexual. Humans are somewhere in-between. We talk about how the field of primatology evolved over the decades, especially during the feminist revolution, and how old views of human and primate evolution focusing on male-dominance and violent competition, rather than egalitarian cooperation, have gone out of fashion. We talk about the role human moral values play in shaping the behavioral sciences, both for good and for bad. Lastly, we talk about how understanding which gender differences are natural and which are socially constructed allows us to reduce sexism and discrimination.