Feminism and Evolutionary Biology Boundaries, Intersections, and Frontiers

About this book

Standing at the intersection of evolutionary biology and feminist theory is a large audience interested in the questions one field raises for the other. For example: have evolutionary biologists worked largely or strictly within a masculine paradigm, seeing males as evolving and females as merely reacting passively or carried along with the tide? Would our view of nature `red in tooth and claw' be different if women had played a larger role in the creation of evolutionary theory and through education in its transmission to younger generations? Bound to be controversial.

Contents

Boundaries and Intersections. Part I: Parity issues and evolution. A feeling for the organism? Gender and animal behaviour research; Hiring selection: A method for visualizing the effectiveness of affirmative action policies. Part II: Epistemology and methodological Issues: Deconstruction and reconstruction; Possible implications of feminist methodologies for the study of evolution; The evolution of sex; Impact of sociobiology on feminism: A double-edged sword?; Feminism and the study of animal behavior; Reinventing evolutionary epistemology; The mask of theory and the face of nature: The case of cooperative breeding birds. Part III: Feminist evolutionary biology. Power between the sexes: Where evolutionary biology and feminism converge?; Female genital mutilation: Evolutionary models of function; The evolutionary psychology of mate-guarding and the risk of homocide in homo sapiens; Dialectics of sex, sexual selection, and variation in mating behavior; Non-passive evolutionary history of human patterns of parental investment in relation to population growth and social inequality; In the belly of the monster: Feminism, developmental systems, and evolutionary explanations; Trading sex for safety and resources: The benefits of sexual alliances to female animals. Part IV: Criticism, response, and frontiers.

Customer Reviews