====== A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Behavior of Women and Men ======
Wendy Wood and Alice H. Eagly\\
A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Behavior of Women and Men:\\
Implications for the Origins of Sex Differences\\
Psychological Bulletin, 2002, Vol. 128, No. 5, 699–727\\
{{:papers:wood02_cross-cultural_analysis.pdf|(read this paper)}}
This article evaluates theories of the origins of sex differences in human behavior. It reviews the
cross-cultural evidence on the behavior of women and men in nonindustrial societies, especially the
activities that contribute to the sex-typed division of labor and patriarchy. To explain the cross-cultural
findings, the authors consider social constructionism, evolutionary psychology, and their own biosocial
theory. Supporting the biosocial analysis, sex differences derive from the interaction between the
physical specialization of the sexes, especially female reproductive capacity, and the economic and social
structural aspects of societies. This biosocial approach treats the psychological attributes of women and
men as emergent given the evolved characteristics of the sexes, their developmental experiences, and
their situated activity in society.
The research that we have reviewed reveals that a universal feature of
nonindustrial societies is a sex-typed division of labor or coordination
between men and women in the performance of daily life
tasks. This division is evident in that, within societies, the majority
of tasks were performed primarily by one sex. However, which sex
performed a particular task varied substantially across societies.
The allocation of specific tasks across societies appears to be
flexible, with the majority of tasks not uniquely associated with
one sex. Yet, across societies some activities were almost always
performed by men (e.g., hunting of large animals), and other
activities were almost always performed by women (e.g., cooking
of vegetal food).
The data also revealed systematic patterns of sex-typed contributions
to subsistence and child care. Although men on the average
contributed more to subsistence than women in nonindustrial societies,
women contributed a substantial amount (e.g., Aronoff &
Crano, 1975, estimated 44%). Furthermore, the relative contributions
of the sexes varied with the local ecology, and women contributed
more than men in societies dependent primarily on gathering. For
child care, mothers predominated in the care of infants, but they
substantially shared the care of young children with others in the
family and the community. Fathers contributed to child care more
than to infant care, but their contributions were almost universally less
than those of mothers (Crano & Aronoff, 1978).
This is a review of literature related to cross-cultural comparisons of [[analysis:nature:sex_differences]] in behavior and develops the //Biosocial// theory to explain certain aspects of division of labor that seem nearly universal.
According to our biosocial analysis, consistency across societies
should be found in the performance of activities most closely
enabled or constrained by sex-typed physical attributes and reproductive
activities. In this view, sex-differentiated social arrangements
emerge because women’s childbearing and nursing of infants
enable them to efficiently care for very young children and
cause conflict with roles requiring extended absence from home
and uninterrupted activity. Similarly, men’s greater speed and
upper-body strength facilitate their efficient performance of tasks
that require intensive bursts of energy. Thus, the cross-cultural
pattern of each sex’s activities should reflect women’s reproductive
roles and men’s size and strength.
The biosocial analysis also anticipates considerable variability
in sex-typed activities. In this view, sex-typed behavior emerges
from the efforts of biologically specialized individuals to maximize
the rewards and minimize the costs of the outcomes available
to them within a particular society and local ecology. Specifically,
behavioral sex differences should vary systematically across cultures
with societal and ecological conditions that diminish or
enhance the impact of reproduction on women’s activities or of
size and strength on men’s activities. For example, in societies that
practice early supplemental feeding of infants, women should be
freed to perform some tasks characteristic of men in other
societies.
From this biosocial perspective, patriarchal social structures
reflect the fit between the biological specialization of the sexes and
the activities that yield status within a society. To the extent that
men and women are biologically specialized to efficiently perform
different activities, the sex that can more readily perform the
activities that yield status and power is advantaged in a gender
hierarchy. Thus, patriarchy is not a uniform feature of human
societies but instead emerges to the extent that, for example,
women’s reproductive activities conflict with the behaviors that
yield status in a society. Finally, given the cross-cultural variability
in sex differences that is anticipated by our biosocial model, it is
likely that extensive socialization is required to orient boys and
girls to function differently insofar as they are expected to occupy
different social roles within their society.
This describes a mechanism where cultural similarities in gender roles are created by convergent [[analysis:social:cultural_evolution]]. See also [[wp>convergent evolution]].
Another way to put this is that some aspects of gender roles, such as maternal child care and male hunting are [[analysis:evolution:forced_move | forced moves]] in cultural evolution. Commonalities exist not because nothing else is possible, but because nothing else works nearly as well. The immediate cause of the behavior difference is cultural, but culture is indirectly constrained by human nature.
The idea of a [[analysis:evolution:forced_move]] in cultural evolution is a coherent and plausible mechanism to explain any kind of cultural similarities, and is not new in this paper. We believe that this mechanism probably does operate to some degree, but reject the view that this paper seems to implicitly endorse: "Men and women have no differences other than the obvious physical and reproductive ones." We believe there are both strong theoretical reasons and some pretty good evidence that men and women have some innate differences in their thought processes, motivations and mental aptitudes. See [[analysis:nature:sex_differences]].
{{tag>nurture culture}}