An evolutionary account of women's workplace status

Abstract

Although many believe that women's low representation among top executives and lower average income is primarily a result of socialization and discrimination, findings of psychology, biology, and anthropology suggest that evolutionarily derived temperamental sex differences exist that may explain much of these disparities. Stereotypes of men as more competitive and more inclined to take risks than women, and stereotypes of women as more attached to their children and more risk averse than men are true as generalizations. Traits for which average sex differences exist, such as aggressiveness, desire for status, and risk preference, are highly correlated with workplace outcomes. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mathematically facile adolescents with math-science aspirations: New perspectives on their educational and vocational development.

“…Degree groups did not differ significantly in primary or family income or in how they spent their time each week, allotting a similar number of hours to work, family, socializing, and leisure. However, significant sex differences did emerge on primary income, the number of hours spent at work, and the number of hours spent with family, consistent with findings from other studies indicating sex differences in focus on career versus family (Browne, 1998). The relationships among these three variables must be considered to fully understand these findings: For both degree groups, men worked significantly more hours and spent almost reciprocally fewer hours with family than women.…”

Men and women, work and family: A test of competing perspectives.

“…Numerous factors have been set forth to explain women’s greater tendency, compared to men’s, to work less upon having young children. Most explanations are devoid of any discussion of biological differences in temperament or priorities (but see Browne, 1998, and Rhoads, 2004, for exceptions). Instead, emphasis is given to factors such as discrimination, lack of education, workplace structure that lacks family-friendly policies toward parental leave and flexible schedules, childcare costs, lower earning potential relative to spouse, unequal division of household labor, sex-segregated occupations, and devaluation of women’s work (Kreider & Elliott, 2010; Perkins & DeMeis, 1996; U.S.…”

The evolutionary neuroandrogenic theory of criminal behavior expanded

“…These connections all follow from evidence that brain exposure to androgens promotes competitiveness, risk taking, and sensation seeking (Apicella et al, 2008;Fink, Neave, Laughton, & Manning, 2006;Sapienza et al, 2009;Stenstrom, Saad, Nepomuceno, & Mendenhall, 2011). In addition, the evolutionary reasoning at the heart of the theory argues that androgens have actually evolved to promote competitiveness and risk taking in males as a way for them to succeed in attracting mates (also see Browne, 1998).…”