Abstract
In 1948, Angus J. Bateman reported a stronger relationship between mating and reproductive success in male fruit flies compared with females, and concluded that selection should universally favour ‘an undiscriminating eagerness in the males and a discriminating passivity in the females’ to obtain mates. The conventional view of promiscuous, undiscriminating males and coy, choosy females has also been applied to our own species. Here, we challenge the view that evolutionary theory prescribes stereotyped sex roles in human beings, firstly by reviewing Bateman's principles and recent sexual selection theory and, secondly, by examining data on mating behaviour and reproductive success in current and historic human populations. We argue that human mating strategies are unlikely to conform to a single universal pattern.
Highlights
In The Descent of Man, Charles Darwin [1] noted that, throughout the animal kingdom, ‘the males of almost all animals have stronger passions than the females
When females invest more than males, the ratio of reproductively available males to females is assumed to be male-biased
Reproductive success would be expected to vary more amongst males than females, with females competing less intensely for mates and seeking out fewer partners than males [3,5]. In support of this argument, greater variance in male than female reproductive success has been reported in some insects, frogs, lizards, birds and mammals [3,6]
Summary
In The Descent of Man, Charles Darwin [1] noted that, throughout the animal kingdom, ‘the males of almost all animals have stronger passions than the females. Current sexual selection theory indicates that variables such as choosiness and competitiveness are influenced by multiple factors and provides little support for the view that a single sex-role stereotype will apply universally to all human populations.
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