Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences Hardcover – 1 Nov. 2009

English edition by David C. Geary (Autor)

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Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences
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Why do girls tend to earn better grades in school than boys? Why are men still far more likely than women to earn degrees in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics? And why are men on average more likely to be injured in accidents and fights than women? These and many other questions are the subject of both informal investigation in the media and formal investigation in academic and scientific circles. In his landmark book ""Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences"", author David Geary provided the first comprehensive evolutionary model to explain human sex differences. Using the principles of sexual selection such as female choice and male-male competition, the author systematically reviewed and discussed the evolution of sex differences and their expression throughout the animal kingdom, as a means of not just describing but explaining the same process in Homo sapiens. Now, over ten years since the first edition, Geary has completed a massive update, expansion and theoretical revision of his classic text. New findings in brain and genetic research inform a wealth of new material, including a new chapter on sex differences in patterns of life history development; expanded coverage of genetic research (e.g. DNA finger printing to determine paternity as related to male-male competition in primates); fatherhood in humans; cross-cultural patterns of sex differences in choosing and competing for mates; and, genetic, hormonal, and socio-cultural influences on the expression of sex differences. Finally, through his motivation to control framework (introduction in the first edition and expanded in ""The Origin of Mind"", 2005), Geary presents a theoretical bridge linking parenting, mate choices, and competition, with children's development and sex differences in brain and cognition. The result is an even better book than the original - a lively and nuanced application of Darwin's insight to help explain our heritage and our place in the natural world.

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Publisher ‏ : ‎ AMER PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSN; 002 edition (1 Nov. 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 555 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1433806827
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1433806827
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 18.42 x 4.45 x 26.04 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 4,008,737 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Donald E. Brown
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on 5 November 2014
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Promptly delivered. An important work.

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silverfawkes
This should be compulsory reading for those people who believe ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 February 2015
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This should be compulsory reading for those people who believe differences between men and women are wholly the result of upbringing. Equally male chauvinists who believe men are programmed to be sexually promiscuous and women are predetermined to be accepting while they prepare men'sfood should be locked into a room until they've finished.
But the meticulous referencing within the text rather than in footnotes is irritating to the general rather than the academic reader

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A. Volk
Extremely thorough and detailed book
Reviewed in Canada on 25 March 2010
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Dave Geary has written a 500+ page book on the differences between men and women from an evolutionary perspective. This is a massive body of work, and it includes over one hundred pages of references! That's 20% of the book! The book is broken down into thirteen chapters:

Chapters 1-5 deal with the basics of evolutionary theory, explaining Natural and Sexual selection, life history, and primate evolution. It's a fairly thorough review, certainly enough to give a strong context to the remainder of the book. The idea is that being animals ourselves, we can use biological theories and cross-species comparisons to shed light on our own behavior. So it's crucial to understand those theories and comparisons prior to moving on to humans.

The remaining chapters focus on human sex differences, including: fatherhood (Chapter 6), choosing & competing for mates (Chapters 7&8), child development (Chapters 9&10), and human thought/cognition (Chapters 11-13). These chapters vary in length, tending to get shorter as the book goes on. This is in part due to overlap with previous chapters. A chapter on perceptual differences doesn't have to re-explain childhood differences or sex-related behaviors that were already discussed. The book ends with an afterword that tackles some modern sex differences, including math skills, eating disorders, and general intelligence. These are relatively controversial issues, but Geary deals with them fairly.

Overall, this book is superb. As someone who does some research in the area (and yes, I'm including briefly in the 100+ pages of references), I was pleasantly surprised to come across new and interesting facts. So this book is a good read even for academics in the area, yet it is still accessible to a devoted reader without any particular background in the area. It's sheer volume may be daunting, but that is its greatest strength. I'm sure Dave could have packed in even more info in this book had he really wanted to. So the length is really reflective of the scope of the book rather than a series of minutia. The evidence for Geary's conclusions is generally solid, and when it isn't, he is usually quick to point that out. As mentioned, with 100+ pages of references, this book does not lack for documentation.

Two limitations stand out in the book, and both are quite explicit from the title. First, the book focuses mostly on what makes the sexes different rather than what makes them the same. Second, the book clearly acknowledges the importance of non-evolutionary explanations, but doesn't spend very much time with them. As I said, the very title of the book tells it's about the evolution of sex differences, not cultural factors and similarities between the sexes, so this isn't surprising. A thorough discussion of those factors would also make the book much longer. It would be great if someone could perhaps write a companion volume or two to go along with this book, examining those two topics.

To conclude, this is a superb overview of the differences between the human sexes from an evolutionary perspective. It would make a fantastic introduction for students interested in that topic, but it's still open enough for a general audience and rich enough for an academic audience. Highly recommended.

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Jeffrey Noah
Political Correctness Reinforced
Reviewed in Canada on 3 April 2014
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Prof. Geary surveys a wide, though select spectrum of social science studies to justify current politically correct presumptions.
A masterpiece of evolutionary speculation. For reliable scientific data, read elsewhere.

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Alok
Nice book
Reviewed in India on 22 May 2019
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Nice book

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