Overview

The question of exactly what sex differences exist and whether they have a biological foundation has been one of our culture's favorite enduring discussions. It should. After a baby is born, a parent's first concern is for its physical health. The next concern is its sex. Only in the most modern societies does sex not virtually guarantee the type of future life a new human being will have. Even in modern societies, one's sex usually plays a large role in the path a life follows. Scientists have published thousands of papers on the subject, with the general conclusion being that men and women are mostly the same, whatever differences exist have been socialized, and what differences exist have to do with women bearing children and men being physically stronger. In Warriors and Worriers, psychologist Joyce Benenson presents a new theory of sex differences, based on thirty years of research with young children and primates around the world. Her innovative theory focuses on how men and women stay alive. Benenson draws on a fascinating array of studies and stories that explore the ways boys and men deter their enemies, while girls and women find assistants to aid them in coping with vulnerable children and elders. This produces two social worlds for each sex which sets humans apart from most other primate species. Human males form cooperative groups that compete against out-groups, while human females exclude other females in their quest to find mates, female family members to invest in their children, and keep their own hearts ticking. In the process, Benenson turns upside down the familiar wisdom that women are more sociable than men and that men are more competitive than women.

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9780199972234

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I enjoyed the book for its lively style and delightful examples of children's play. Focus

Brave, thoroughly documented, and written with unusual clarity, Warriors and Worriersexplains more about the fundamentals of gender differences - and the meaning of human nature - than a library of conventional social science. -- E. O. Wilson, University Research Professor Emeritus, Harvard University Warriors and Worriers is a fascinating look at male-female differences through a sociobiological lens. Benenson's thought-provoking analysis considers a wide range of influences - biological, psychological and sociological - that illuminate the developmental forces shaping males into warriors and females into worriers. The book is a lively read nicely balancing scholarly evidence and insight with intriguing anecdotal speculation. Everyone may not agree with Benenson's conclusions, but I imagine all will find them provocative. -- Donald J. Campbell, Professor of Management & Leadership, United States Military Academy We have been lead to believe that girls are empathetic creatures who value female friendship above all else and that boys are competitive beasts unable to form deep and lasting bonds with other males. In Warriors and Worriers, Benenson and Markovits formidably demonstrate that girls are, in fact, designed by evolution to compete with each other for reproductive resources while boys are designed to form tightly knit and forgiving groups to defend collectively their reproductive assets. We have ignored this truth that we see every day in play groups, at schools, in board rooms, and at faculty meetings. But now we have Warriors and Worriers to explain in conversational language what made life so hard as teenagers and what haunts us as adults - that girls and women are really the competitive ones while boys and men are actually very good at being social. What an amazing paradigm shift, and one that makes so much sense. -- Meredith Small, Professor of Anthropology, Cornell University We all know men and wo

Author Information

Joyce F. Benenson, Professor of Psychology, Emmanuel College, and With Henry Markovits, Professor of Psychology, University of Quebec.

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