Gender differences caused by evolution

The argument

The evolutionary account holds that the differences between men and women are the product of natural selection rather than of upbringing. On this view the two sexes faced different problems over the course of human development and were shaped by them differently: through natural selection women have evolved to be the carers of children, while men have evolved to be the providers for their families. The division is presented not as a convention that societies adopted but as something selection arrived at and fixed. Proponents argue that behavioural differences follow from this directly. A disposition that fits the task a sex was selected for would itself be selected for, so the behaviour and the role are not separate things that happen to coincide. On this account the evolutionary characteristics held by women include being more caring, protective and loyal than men, traits suited to the sustained attention that raising a child requires. The characteristics attributed to men are the complement: being more aggressive, competitive and dominant than women, traits suited to securing and defending resources for a family. Each cluster is explained by what the role demanded rather than by what either sex was taught. The consequence drawn is that gender roles rest on a biological foundation rather than a social one. If these differences were instilled by culture, they would be expected to vary as cultures vary and to disappear wherever they were not taught. If instead they were produced by natural selection, they are part of what each sex is, and the roles built around them reflect something already present rather than creating it. This is why the differences are said to have so big an impact on gender role: the role is downstream of the disposition. Because gender differences are caused by evolution, on this account gender is determined by biological factors.

Context

The theory of evolution was popularized by Charles Darwin in the nineteenth century by his work on natural selection, a change in heritable traits of a population over generations.

Premises

Counter-arguments

The sexual division of labor has been proposed as an explanation for various noted cognitive differences between sexes, however individual differences are greater than the average differences between sexes, and furthermore these differences become void with very short training. These small observed cognitive differences could very easily be the result of socialization, instead of a minor evolutionary adaptation.

Rejecting the premises

Any perceived evolutionary gender differences play a nugatory role in shaping personality in the 21st century.