A Theoretical Proposal for Examining the Integration of Cooperative and Competitive Mothering Behavior

Fisher, Maryanne L.

doi:10.22330/heb/321/006-016

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…In contrast male-male competition is more likely to impact only sporadic mating behaviors 14,94 . Further study of competition between mothers seems warranted, as others have recommended 95,96 . Importantly, these results also demonstrate that women are more positive than men with respect to resource differentials in the other sex.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Married women with children experience greater intrasexual competition than their male counterparts

Benenson

Markovits

2023

Sci Rep

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Human males are considered to be more competitive than females. However, females must also compete for resources necessary for their own and their offsprings’ survival. Since females use more indirect forms of competition than males, comparing observable forms of competition may be misleading. One critical driver of competition is resource asymmetry. Since competition occurs primarily within sex, reactions to resource asymmetry with same-sex peers should provide an important measure of competitiveness. We asked 596 married participants, 25–45 years of age with at least one child from three different countries to evaluate how same-sex individuals they know would react to a target individual who had a valuable resource that the same-sex individuals did not have. Half the participants evaluated reactions to same-sex targets, while the other half evaluated reactions to other-sex targets. Participants reported that women would react more negatively than men to resource asymmetry with same-sex targets, but not other-sex targets. These results suggest that women may be even more competitive than men in contexts when important resources related to reproductive success are at stake.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Married women with children experience greater intrasexual competition than their male counterparts

Benenson

Markovits

2023

Sci Rep

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“…Given the parameters of female relationships, responsibilities, and resources, an entirely new set of important attributes emerge. The skills needed for raising children and ensuring the survival of the entire family would involve strategies in foraging, competition, cooperation within and beyond the family, teaching independence and skills to children and reciprocating allomothers (readers are directed to Fisher, Garcia, & Sokol-Chang, 2013 and Fisher et al, 2017 for further reading).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…I also argue that there is more to the female life span than ingénue and grandmother, but the “grandmother hypothesis” is often the only way older women are discussed in EP research. I would also argue that the caregiving detailed in the grandmother hypothesis reflects behaviors that women engage in throughout their lives; investing in siblings, nieces and nephews, other relatives, and friends to ensure their safety and health, and receiving care for their own children in kind from other allomothers (Fisher et al, 2017). This isn’t a new purpose.…”

Section: Older Womenmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In short, not only has this bias existed for 50 years, knowledge of the bias has existed for nearly that long. There is a substantial literature on how women (a) consistently procure food for the family, (b) recruit female caregivers far more often than fathers in childcare, and (c) spend a large amount of time without males present (Fisher, Burch, & Sokol-Chang, 2017; Sokol-Chang et al, 2017). The data show that a high status male would be less important to every day survival than commonly thought, and women are more important than previously thought.…”

Section: Dependence On Men For Survivalmentioning

confidence: 99%

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More than just a pretty face: The overlooked contributions of women in evolutionary psychology textbooks.

Burch¹

2020

Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences

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A great deal of evolutionary psychology (EP) texts and research emphasize the attractiveness of women over other skills or qualities. I would argue that given the parameters of the evolutionary landscape, the skills and strategies women used after mating and birth (particularly because it is widely argued that almost all women have an opportunity to mate) would be more important to their evolutionary success. To only focus on youth and beauty omits major portions of the human life span and human behavior and ignores the definition of fitness: the number of offspring who survive to reproduce. To this end, I examined introductory EP textbooks for the following content: if physical attractiveness was listed as a factor in female evolutionary success, if intelligence/resourcefulness or other traits were listed as factors, if skills and strategies women use after mating and birth were discussed, and if the role of older women was mentioned. The majority of EP texts discuss female attractiveness in detail, omit female intelligence and resourcefulness, overemphasize the role of men in feeding families, and neglect older women. Overall, this gives an incomplete and biased view of the human species. I then explore what female skills and strategies would play a large role in the survival of the species and should be discussed in introductory textbooks. Public Significance StatementEvolutionary psychology textbooks are the doorway to the discipline. How they depict humanity sets the framework for both future research and public perception. An examination of several textbooks shows that the majority discuss female attractiveness in detail, omit female intelligence and resourcefulness, diminish the role of women in provisioning and neglect older women. Overall, this gives an incomplete and/or biased view of the human species.

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Female-Female Competition

Fisher¹,

Burch²

2019

Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

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A Theoretical Proposal for Examining the Integration of Cooperative and Competitive Mothering Behavior

Abstract: ABSTRACT

Cited by 7 publications

References 33 publications

Married women with children experience greater intrasexual competition than their male counterparts

Married women with children experience greater intrasexual competition than their male counterparts

More than just a pretty face: The overlooked contributions of women in evolutionary psychology textbooks.

Female-Female Competition

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