Book Review: At the Crossroad of Evolutionary Psychology and Feminism

Abstract

Evolutionary psychology is a hybrid field that is informed by diverse disciplines. In spite of the integration of an evolutionary psychology perspective into varied fields including, but not limited to, biology, psychology, anthropology, sociology, economics, and primatology, the assimilation of evolutionary paradigms into the realms of feminist research has seemed, at best, narrow, and at worst, misguided. Fisher, Garcia, and Chang have come together to produce Evolution's Empress, an edited volume that attempts to create a fresh dialogue between those in the field of evolutionary psychology and those in women's studies. The book's preface offers an excellent summary of the challenges that exist to bridge the two fields. This section is written impartially and attributes misunderstandings among scholars in both camps to a lack of understanding of the basic tenets of the opponent's field. In doing so, the authors stress how theories of " what is " (empirically shown) from evolutionary psychology, and ideas of " what ought to be " (morally achieved) from women's studies, might one day resonate together in a unified framework. However, in parallel to this discussion, the authors note that their intent for compiling the book was to clarify the " active " role of women in evolution. The desire to promote the theme of " active women in evolution " can lead to an equally misrepresentative view of male " inactiveness " . One way to alleviate this issue could have been to also integrate topics where both men and women had faced the same selection pressures throughout evolutionary history, thereby stressing the " sameness " of the sexes in these areas. Indeed, as the authors note, sex differences are one of the most contentious arenas for integration of the two fields. In stating this omission, we recognize more generally that the book is far from comprehensive and acknowledge that the authors themselves grant this in the introduction. An important consideration about this book is that it was intended for readers from both evolutionary psychology and women's studies backgrounds and therefore it seeks to combine theory from two fields rather than summarize it. Ultimately, the authors succeed in establishing a discussion on the integration of women's studies and