Women are primates, too.

Why would women tolerate male-led governments limiting their reproductive choices?

A primatologist offers a possible answer.

Throughout much of human history men have dominated women. Men are generally larger and stronger than women, giving them an advantage physically, but women control reproduction. One way males try to control females is by limiting their reproductive choices.

Today's Guest Post is the third in a series by Hogan Sherrow, an anthropologist and primatologist. Women, like men, are mammals, and in the family of great apes. Sherrow notes that women negotiate some of the same problems that female gorillas and chimpanzees face. He is a Fulbright Scholar and has a Ph.D. in Evolutionary Anthropology from Yale University. He has studied the behavior and ecology of humans and other animals on three different continents. Hogan now consults for individuals, organizations, and campaigns, here in the Rogue Valley as Owner of You Evolving, LLC, www.you-evolving.com.

Guest Post by Hogan Sherrow

Texans and the Taliban III: The Female Paradox

In my first two contributions I discussed the stone-age laws enacted by the men of the Taliban and Texas in an attempt to control the sexual behavior and reproduction of women. I said they were displaying primal, evolutionary male behaviors that have no place in modern society. I also said giving voice and power to females, and individuals with other perspectives was our best chance to rein in bad male behavior. However, I left out what other roles women play in both situations. What do they want? How are they working to get what they want?

Some women in Texas and Afghanistan have rallied around laws designed to control and limit their behavior and reproductive options. In Afghanistan, women fully covered in traditional garb recently organized and counter-protested in Kabul, in support of the Taliban. Women rally supports Taliban They wanted traditional values upheld, including segregation of men and women in public settings. They also wanted women opposing the Taliban to stop claiming to represent all women in Afghanistan.

This may seem impossible, when viewed through a western lens, after all, how could any women support the Taliban? We need to remember, though, that in 2016, Donald Trump received 47% of the vote from white women. Pew Research.  (That number increased in 2020 with 53% of white women supporting Mr. Trump. Pew: 2020) Another Pew poll found 52% of Texas women felt abortion should be illegal in nearly all cases. Pew, abortion view by gender

Why would women support policies that explicitly restrict or attack their rights? Cultural forces are important. Religion serves to reinforce the subjugation of women and the dominance of men, further institutionalizing patriarchy. Seventy-nine percent of all adults who believe that abortion should be illegal in all cases also believe in God. Beyond religious motivations, in Texas ethnic identity strongly influences beliefs around abortion as well. 

Cultural influences don’t fully explain why the majority of white women voted for a known, admitted misogynist for President in 2020. Although direct comparisons aren't possible, it is enlightening to consider why non-human female primates support male behavior, even when it’s dangerous or goes against their apparent interests. Among over 350 non-human primates species, each with their own distinct behaviors, similar circumstances often elicit similar behaviors. For example, in some species males are twice the size of females and can easily dominate them one-on-one. This is common in gorillas, along with multiple old world monkey species. Those large males are potentially dangerous to females and their infants. Why do those females choose to mate with large, dangerous males and raise their offspring? One explanation is that large, powerful males can protect females and their infants from predators, and other bachelor males.

In chimpanzees, males bond together to defend territories, and females benefit from the resources inside those territories. As a result, males are large and very aggressive, and they regularly dominate and coerce females. Despite the frequent violence and stress experienced by female chimpanzees, most of them choose to mate with high-ranking, aggressive males, many of whom are directly responsible for the violence and stress those females experience. Chimpanzee females are attracted to bellicose males, despite the inherent risks involved because they provide territorial defense.

Both gorilla and chimpanzee females leave the groups they were born into and attach themselves to one or more males. However, the groups are open and females can leave at any time, although that carries with it its own risks namely infanticide. Both male chimpanzees and gorillas engage in infanticide, attacking and killing unrelated infants, and there is evidence that it has had a strong impact on female behavior. It is a dangerous world and primate females often must seek protection. Powerful males are one way females can find safety and females appear to cooperate with those males in order to gain a competitive advantage in the struggle to survive and produce living offspring.

In both the Taliban’s Afghanistan and Governor Abbott’s Texas, powerful men control resources and some women seem willing to support them, despite the obvious threats their sexist laws and policies present to the health and safety of all women. Combined with the cultural influences mentioned above, females adopt a strategy of accepting and supporting the domination of males as the price of surviving in a society in which dominant males are the primary danger.