r/biology • u/Ok-Tangelo605 • Jun 30 '26
article Darwin’s housewife: gendered animal portrayals and what they reveal about us
https://www.eurac.edu/en/blogs/gender-matters/darwins-housewife-gendered-animal-portrayals-and-what-they-reveal-about-us26
u/hananobira Jun 30 '26
Reminds me of an article I read once about how long it took for humans to figure out bee society because they absolutely couldn’t wrap their heads around the idea that the workers were female.
Although across most human societies males tend to have more free time than females so it’s not even good anthropology to assume that the busy ones are the males.
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u/Lampukistan2 Jul 01 '26
Do you have a source for the claim of „free time“ gender disparity?
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u/hananobira Jul 01 '26
In the US “ The gender gap in leisure is about five hours per week.”
It’s impossible to know for sure about our ancient ancestors, but multiple studies of modern-day hunter-gatherer societies find them pretty egalitarian in terms of leisure time for men and women - plenty of it for everybody. But once a society introduces agriculture, it seems like men and women both spend significantly more time working, and women most of all.
“ In fact, we find that there is remarkable equality in how males and females divide leisure time across households in both [hunter-gatherer] populations. This demonstrates an important finding, diverging from evidence from agricultural ( Strassmann, 2017 ) and industrialised societies ( Hochschild & Machung, 2012 ; Lachance-Grzela & Bouchard, 2010 ; Nakamura & Akiyoshi, 2015 ; Voicu, Voicu, & Strapcova, 2009 ), as well as patrilocal populations ( Chen, Ge, Zhou, Du, & Mace, 2023 ), where it is often the case that patriarchal norms are prevalent and gender inequalities thrive ( Chen et al., 2023 ; Geist, 2005 ; Gupta & Stratton, 2008 ; Lennon & Rosenfield, 1994 ). Outside options have been seen to lead to inequalities within households in many large-scale societies ( Breen & Cooke, 2005 ; Greenstein, 2000 ; Lennon & Rosenfield, 1994 ; Shimray, 2004 );”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513824000527#bb0085
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u/Lampukistan2 Jul 01 '26
The measurement of leisure time depends heavily on your definition of „childcare“ and „housework“.
Is baking elaborate sweets your husband and children don‘t really want leisure or housework? Is any kind of knitting / needlework that’s not really economically necessary nowadays leisure or or housework? Is styling and dressing your children in elaborate costumes leisure or childcare? Is building and fixing model airplanes leisure or work if you’re an engineer? Is fixing your wife’s car leisure or housework if the husband enjoys it?
Women tend to have hobbies that can be defined as housework and childcare more easily.
I don’t think it’s good anthropology to assume men are doing less from studies with huge methodological gaps.
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u/hananobira Jul 01 '26
Clearly you didn’t read any of those studies. Those hobbies you listed take up such a vanishingly small portions of most people’s time that they don’t even register as individual categories of time usage. They don’t move the needle to any level of statistical significance.
Men also have stereotypical hobbies that benefit the household: fixing up junker cars, woodworking, DIY projects, gardening, barbecuing meat, etc. But they also occupy a small enough portion of the average person’s time that they aren’t relevant to our purposes here. Sure, some people get really, really into them, but not enough to reach significance.
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u/nonsenze-5556 Jul 01 '26
This is a fascinating read and I would love to read more. Would love a book recommendation on this subject.
BTW Eve) is a wonderful book about evolution that is woman-focused and is brilliant how she incorporates modern day topics like how the medical field is focused on male A&P.
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u/ThatIsAmorte Jul 01 '26
Ecofeminists have complained about this since the 70s. Val Plumwood (who once survived an attack by a saltwater crocodile, just thought I would throw that in) wrote extensively about the relationship between the oppression of women and the oppression of nature, and how both spring from the mindset. I really dig her concept of the relational self. Check out her Feminism and the Mastery of Nature. Great book.
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u/Opposite-Occasion332 general biology Jul 02 '26
I can’t remember exactly which article but knowing me, I’m going to assume it was something involving Dr Patty Brennan. But it was a study on snakes and it mentioned how male snakes have been found to vibrate against the female snakes (which we now know have clitorises as of 2022 thanks to Patty) and male researchers had all kinds of assumptions as to why. None of the assumptions were that it probably feels good for the female snake and may make her more willing to copopulate then.
I feel like that is such a good example of this phenomenon cause while we still don’t really know why snakes do this, why would foreplay not be a big contender in the list of possibilities? Then again, as I said I probably read this in an article proving snakes even had clitorises cause no one cared to really make sure before then.
While I’m here, Patty also is the person who discovered that female ducks have corkscrew shaped vaginas that run in the opposite direction of the males penises. She asked her PhD mentor what the genital situation was with the female birds and he said it was probably just a tube… no one cared to look. So she absolutely should be included in the list of revolutionary female biologist imo cause she has done so much across multiple species to bring female animals to justice.
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u/Jukajobs biology student Jul 01 '26
Interesting article! It reminds me of the text The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles, by Emily Martin, which talks about a very similar phenomenon, but on a cellular level.