Steve Stewart-Williams - Women Quotes

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The claim that women have a stronger average parental urge than men is sometimes viewed as a sexist generalization. But it's only sexist if we take a dim view of the trait in question: the parental urge. One could turn the accusation on its head: Those who view the evolutionist's claim (that women are more parental than men) as sexist are actually being sexist themselves, because they're taking a negative view of a trait that's usually found more strongly in females than males. They are therefore prizing prototypically masculine traits more highly than prototypically feminine ones.

Steve Stewart-Williams
A similar analysis applies within the realm of mate preferences. Several commentators pointed out that sex differences in human mate preferences are generally quite small... As such, the central claim in EP [evolutionary psychology] should probably be "Human beings evolved to put a fair amount of weight on good looks in a mate" rather than "Men evolved to put more weight on good looks than women." Again, the latter statement is true but potentially misleading. This sounds like a contradiction, but it is not; the statement is misleading if it is given undue weight.

Steve Stewart-Williams
In some domains, women are more sexually selected than men; one could say in these cases that women have the larger peacock's tail. An example can be found in the domain of physical attractiveness. Women are typically rated as better looking than men, by both men and women. The difference is plausibly a consequence of the fact that, although both sexes care about good looks in a mate, on average, men care somewhat more. This means that, since this sex difference first evolved, there has been a somewhat stronger selection pressure on women than men for physical attractiveness — the opposite of what we find in peacocks.

Steve Stewart-Williams
If men in our evolutionary past did not invest in offspring, they would not have evolved strict mate preferences and thus women would be as drab as peahens. The fact that women are not as drab as peahens suggests a long history of male mate choice, which in turn suggests a long history of pair bonding and high male parental investment.

Steve Stewart-Williams
The reproductive benefits of polygyny were so great for genes located in male bodies that the male mind might still have evolved to take advantage of those opportunities, if and when they did arise. As a result, men may harbor strong polygamous desires — much stronger than women's — even if these desires are frustrated for most men throughout most of their lives.

Steve Stewart-Williams