Is Sociobiology Amendable? Feminist and Darwinian women biologists confront the paradigm of sexual selection

Abstract

Is it possible to be a socio-biologist and a feminist? Socio-biology has been accused of being a macho ideological arsenal, which seems to exclude in advance any possibility of amending it. However that was the project of several female researchers (in particular S. B. Hrdy and P. A. Gowaty), who suggested adopting the science’s theoretical framework in order to change it from within. This has been expressed in a change of focus: an appeal to take account of female strategies and their evolution as well as the “sex war” at work in process of reproduction. This opening out of socio-biology’s theoretical framework has not been undertaken in the name of the privilege of a “female perspective” but it has without a doubt been nourished by the researchers’ marginal position in their discipline as well as their political involvement. “Male” contributions, such as W. G. Eberhard’s work on the “female’s cryptic choice”, are also part of this movement though they do not claim allegiance to it. Similarly, a critical study has been carried out on the vocabulary of socio-biology: not in order to exercise a “politically correct” ideological tyranny but to improve the efficiency of the conceptual tools introduced by the science. Today some feminists think feminism should incorporate socio-biology’s results but resistance still remains strong. Though many feminists think feminism has more to bring to biology than the reverse, many biologists consider that feminism is just an ideology that should remain apart from scientific work.

Gender and evolutionary theory in workplace health promotion

“…However and in line with other feminist critique (see e.g. Allen et al, 1975;Hoquet, 2010;Kelly, 2014;Rose and Rose, 2001), the analysis of the lecture in Intervention 3 illustrates how the Stone Age discourse risks reproducing an essentialist, deterministic and androcentric notion of gender that is potentially limiting, damaging and denigrating for both women and men. On the one hand, the Stone Age discourse in this context positioned women as inferior and problematic, resonating with Birke's assertion that biomedical practices in general have been "notoriously negative in its descriptions of women's bodies" (Birke, 2003: 43).…”

“…Evolutionary theories, EP and sociobiology have been scrutinised and problematised by feminists within philosophy and science studies as well as by feminist psychologists (Allen et al, 1975;Choi, 2001;Fehr, 2012;Hoquet, 2010;Hrdy, 1981;Hubbard, 1983;Jackson and Rees, 2007;Rose and Rose, 2001;Sokol-Chang and Fisher, 2013). This study makes a contribution to this work by bringing the critique to bear on practice and also to the field of evolutionary health promotion.…”

“…From within the field of evolutionary theory, feminist evolutionary psychology (FEP) and feminist sociobiology is critical of the paucity of focus on, and the minimisation of, women in human evolution (Fehr, 2012;Hrdy, 1981;Hubbard, 1983; and see also Sokol-Chang and Fisher, 2013), Critiques have also been concerned with how evolutionary theories, specifically EP and sociobiology, tend to be essentialist, deterministic and androcentric (see e.g. Allen et al, 1975;Fausto-Sterling, 1992;Hoquet, 2010;Kelly, 2014;Rose and Rose, 2001),with political consequences that have the potential to exacerbate social injustices (Higgs and Jones, 2003;Jackson and Rees, 2007; see also Choi, 2001). Jackson and Rees (2007) argue that in the context of the "siren" narratives of human development in evolutionary accounts, "[c]ultural complexity and behavioural diversity are sidelined, becoming irrelevant as the 'universal' elements of human development are revealed" (Jackson and Rees, 2007: 922).…”

Re-imagining Reproduction: The Queer Possibilities of Plants

“…Theories such as cryptic female choice highlight female-driven morphological, behavioral, and physiological mechanisms ( Eberhard 1996 ; Firman et al 2017 ). But many other feminists continue to insist on a fundamental incompatibility and “irreconcilable differences” between feminism and sociobiology ( Tang-Martinez 1997 ; Hoquet 2010 ).…”