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 After this whirlwind of an election year is over, women will have one person to thank for throwing gender equality front and center in the political discussions of our time. The biggest irony is that that person is, perhaps, the biggest misogynist in the country. As feminists, we should be thanking Donald Trump.

Feminism was on the downward until Hillary Clinton came into the picture. A fashion trend that everyone could agree with but no one felt the need to ardently defend. Until this presidential campaign, the issues of women were largely swept under the rug. People would admit that equality is an issue but a minor one. After all, in our advanced, modern society how could anyone hold these despicable beliefs? How would feminists know they all need to ban together if it weren’t for this misogynistic person?

Trump is our perfect villain – the only thing missing is a mustache for him to twirl as he sits in his office in Trump Tower contemplating his next sexual conquest. Pretty much his favorite pastime is traumatizing and objectifying women.

The Miss Universe pageant is a perfect example of how Donald Trump demeans women. He makes them prance around in barely any clothing and ranks them according to their physical features. In his now famous Access Hollywood tapes we see how he talks about women. Viewing them as objects for the taking and  using his position as a powerful male to intimidate, coerce and bully woman

Feminism is more than a trend – it’s a belief and Donald Trump is attacking those beliefs. It’s up to women of the United States to ban together and prevent Donald Trump from sabotaging feminism. Unless you want your daughters raised in a country where they’re called pigs, pieces of ass, or a slob and it’s totally acceptable because the leader of the free world said the same things about women.

Females banning together to overthrow a man isn’t something new. In fact it’s well documented in the studies of primates. The bonobo tribe is a prime example of females running an entire society and keeping men in check. Females will engage in homosexual relationships and create strong emotional bonds just to keep a social dominance over males. They’ll even come together to forcibly remove violent and dangerous males from the group.  

Trump is the epitome of a dangerous male presenting a clear threat to not just women but perhaps our very democracy. If feminists don’t want Donald Trump in the Oval Office, then get out and exercise your right to protest. If there’s ever been a “woman card” it’s now. So play it. He’s been playing his “man card” the entire campaign. It’s time we take a page from our primate cousins and protect our society.

This man has shown us the misogyny is alive and well in the United States. A big “thank you” goes out to Donald Trump from feminists across the country. Thanks for really showing us that we don’t have to put up with your words. Thank you most of all for showing us what we have to band against and defeat.

 It seems that, for whatever reason, people are still having trouble coming to terms with having a woman as president. In fact, if the polls are to be trusted, over 40% of voters are voicing their concern through their support of Donald Trump. This may seem shocking in our modern, enlightened age, but the numbers don’t lie.

And it’s ridiculous that this kind of misogyny is still rampant among the United State’s electorate. This is especially absurd when you consider that there is very concrete evidence that female leadership has been a large part of the evolutionary success of the human species.

This claim may run counter intuitive to most people’s perception human prehistory. Many hold the view of humanity progressing through a savage period where men took the women they wanted – dragging them off to their caves. However, the reality couldn’t be further from the truth. The fact is that early human societies were cooperative communities  where females actually held a slightly higher status than the male. Evidence for this found in the goddess-worship of most early human civilizations.

But even before we started developing societies and culture, we were primates. And if we look at primates today and our evolution from them we can find multiple pieces of evidence that females were the main drivers of not just human evolution but the evolution of all life. If, for instance, we look at female mate selection, we see females playing the dominant role in how we pass our genes along.

In primates, we see females actually choosing one or a few males to mate with. We also see that, in primate societies, the female will choose “upward” or, in other words, the most complex male. And this behavior is demonstrated across the animal kingdom. For example, male birds like peacocks have developed elaborate feathers to attract a female. Choosing the most complex male extends to intelligence and in primates we see that female primates will often choose the more intelligent males. This female driven selection for intelligence is one of the contributing factor for intelligence in humans.

Female-centered societies were also instrumental in tool development and use which is another fact that leads evidence to the female’s claim on driving evolution. And, much like in mate selection, we see that this aspect of evolution can be found across many species in the animal kingdom. As an example, one of the oldest tools ever is the nest. Nest building activities can be found in many different animals like birds, fish, reptiles, and even insects. Commonly constructed by females, nest building is an exquisitely complex process.

Female-dominated tool use is also common among human’s closest ancestors. In chimps, for examples, researchers have found that mostly female and adolescent chimps are responsible for the manufacture and use of tools, including rudimentary spears. What’s more, it has been shown that the knowledge of tool making and use is passed down by the female to her offspring.

Another common misconception is that males came up with the moral code of our societies. This erroneous belief stems from the patriarchal doctrines handed to us through the dominant Judeo-Christian religious of our time. These belief systems channel the will of a male god and materialize in thing like the Ten Commandments.

Quite the opposite is true, however. It’s been shown that moral codes actually predate the human species as a code of morals is necessary for any life form having more than one cell. Further, and in primates, we see moral codes developed and implemented mostly by females. In fact, research suggests that moral codes have long be enacted by the female members of a species and stem from their ability to cooperate and build societies.

And that might be the most important reason for electing the first woman President of the United States because of our innate ability to build consensus and societies. Given that the males of any species tend to create war, chaos and division isn’t it time to put to bed the antiquated idea that women can’t lead? 

We’re on the brink of electing the first female president in the History of the United States. But, even at the door of this monumental accomplishment, people still seem to think that a women can’t be president. Which is laughable considering there’s very real evidence to suggest that human society develop from the societies of our primate relatives. Societies that, very likely, evolved and developed because of females.

It seems insane that people still doubt the ability of a women to lead. Especially when so much evidence exists that shows females as major actor, if not the main actor, in human evolution. In case you’re thinking, Well sure that might work for apes but human aren’t apes, here are 4 societies that are expressly led by females.

The Ede of Vietnam

In Ede villages and communities, while land is owned communally, all other property is owned by women and is passed down from mother to daughter. Women have such a prominent role in Ede culture that they are even expected to propose to their husbands. What’s more, her husband actually takes her family name.

The Musuo People of China

One of the examples used in Female’s Going Ape, women in Musuo societies make all the business decisions. They also practice a walking marriage. This allows females to pick their partners but doesn’t bind them to them. In addition, women over 13 years old get their own private rooms (known as flowering rooms) and everyone else lives in communal space.

The Native American Hopi Tribe

Another example of female led societies is the Hopi. It can be found right here in the United States. Although labor is divided equally among all tribe members, women hold the majority of the power. For instance, whenever a child is 20 days old, Hopi women come together to give the baby a name.

The Chambri of Papua New Guinea

Popularized by Margaret Mead, Chambri society came to the forefront in the 1930s and sparked feminist movements in the United States. In Mead’s writings, she showed how women were responsible for providing for their family and the Chambri community as a whole. While anthropologists later found the Chambri are more equal than portrayed by Mead, women still have control of many facets of the Chambri culture.

It’s seems absurd that in 2016, we have to make the case that a women can led us. Especially in an election where one candidate is one of the most outrageous misogynist public figures since the 1920’s. It’s good to remind ourselves that women can and should lead us. Adding onto the fact the evolutionary theory is on our side.

 

Want to learn more about the evolutionary case for female leadership? Then pick up a copy of Females Going Ape on Amazon.

 

The myth of male dominated evolution and society is so deeply ingrained in our culture that it is hardly questioned anymore. In reality though, women have an enormous impact on evolutionary development and in the creation of human civilization.

In a year where Americans will be deciding whether or not to elect their first female president, it is more important than ever to reevaluate what we stand for as a country. It’s time to take a hard look at the biases we hold and challenge the preconceived notion that society is driven by male forces. As Dr. Irena Scott put it, “Nearly all mammal species have social groups of families formed and led by females, including rodents, rabbits, and bats which make up most of the mammalian species.”  

Which is good news considering the different roles men and women play, not only in biology, but in our culture. Men and women resolve conflicts in very different ways. Men often resort to barbaric and violent forms to communicate their opinions. Women, by contrast, have been found to resolve their conflicts and spend little time fighting.

More good news is that if we look to our primate ancestors, we can find all kinds of evidence that support the idea that women are the main drivers of society and evolution. Evidence of not only the implicit male-bias of researchers and of our culture can be found in the belief that primates, as well as other mammals, organize themselves around the male.

In essence, this view sees the male as the leader of the group and the females are relegated to members of his “harem”. This view, propagated by individuals like E.O. Wilson, the founder of sociobiology, is patently false. The only need female mammals have for a male in group dynamics is for protection and procreation. They only need one male for that. This doesn’t exactly sound like a harem.                                                                            

Another male-centered myth is that the male is instrumental for innovation and discovery. The often trotted out example being tool making. Many believe that it was the male, for purposes of warfare and hunting, who was the primary innovator and tool maker.

However, based on observations of primates like chimpanzees, it is shown that females played a central role in the manufacture and use of spears for hunting. A behavior not seen in male chimpanzees. Although ancient stone artifacts are often presented as spear points, they, in fact, had many uses like scraping, pounding, chopping and slicing.

There is even evidence females were the first to use agricultural tools. As Dr. Scott says, “It was woman who developed domestication, harvesting, weaving, pottery making, planting and additional activities associated with agriculture”. However, women’s contribution to domestication is not recognized today.

Due to the fact women in most mammalian groups are responsible for child rearing, this means it is the females who are responsible for passing down tool-making knowledge acquired by the group. This essentially makes women the stewards and conduits of evolutionary and technological advancement. This can be seen more concretely in observation of Japanese macaques.

When researchers provisioned a troop of macaques by putting sweet potatoes along the beach to bring them out into the open, one older female began to wash the sand off her sweet potato. Over time, her entire family adopted the practice and, before long, all the monkeys washed their sweet potatoes before eating them.  

In addition, if evolutionary and cultural advancement were in the hands of males, civilization would most likely never develop. The female maternal instincts lead to the ability to bond with other like females and this does not generally occur with males. Males are often hobbled by their striving for dominance and have little response for the need of group preservation. Females can often work together in a more collaborative effort.

In a male dominated society, many are unaware of the role females played in early civilization. However, as researchers like Dr. Scott have shown, women have had a vast impact on the animal and human kingdoms. Further, she and others have shown that human societies were composed principally of females.

As we stand poised to elect our first female president, it is important to take into account the contributions women made to our evolutionary and cultural success. Equally important is to reconsider the patriarchal myth that women played a secondary role in the development of our civilization. If not, we’ll remain complicit with a culture that continually makes women second-class citizens and denies them positions of power, positions they rightly deserve.

When a presidential candidate has quotes attributed to him like “You know, it doesn’t really matter what [the media] writes as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass.” and “If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?” or this gem “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her — wherever. ” it might be time to rethink how we choose our political candidates. Indeed perhaps our whole political structure.

Most of our thinking around how human social structures work comes from our observations of primate social order. Work from primatologists often paint the male as the primary driver of primate society and use these observations as an analog to human social structures. One of the most problematic issues about these observations are they paint a male-oriented explanation for the evolution of human culture and provide a scientific basis for patriarchy.

Most of these observation are based on the great apes – chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. But there is another primate that can perhaps shed more light on how humans organize. These apes can also provide evidence that females and traits generally associated with the females are actually the main drivers of group evolution.

Bonobos are a class of great ape not generally well know compared to their more famous cousins, the chimpanzee. Genetically speaking, bonobos are extremely close to humans. Further, they are widely regarded as one of the most intelligent of the great apes showing the ability to recognize themselves in a mirror, communicate with geometric symbols and even speak. And while they look like chimps, they differ greatly. For instance, they are less violent than chimps which have a tendency to murder, make war and beat female chimps.

In many respects the bonobo is closer to humans than any other primate. What might be even more interesting is the central role the female plays in bonobo culture. So what can our political system and societal structure learn from these apes?

Females stick together

While most primate social structures center around the male (and there is even some evidence that puts that assumption into question.), bonobos tend to organize around the female. In certain instances the females actually work together to team up against aggressive males. What’s more, the entire structure of bonobo culture is based on female leadership – the bonobo mothers introducing their young into their culture.

What this shows is that females can, and should, stick together. Especially in the face of extreme misogyny.

Females are the innovators

While most theories hold that males were responsible for creating tools and innovating, there is evidence that suggests that females are actually the innovators in society. Because bonobos (and most great apes for that matter) spend so much time with their mothers, it is essentially up to them to teach their young how to use tools. Additionally, it’s been shown that females that leave their troop often bring the culture they learned with them to other groups.

As human society progresses we’ll have to face and innovate around more and more difficult challenges. And if primates are any indication, it will be the women who develop the tools we need to survive.  

Sharing is caring

Bonobos love sharing just about everything. Researchers have witnessed bonobos sharing food with other members of their group. And they continue to share well into adulthood. This is in stark contrast to chimps which tend to share more when they’re young, losing their willingness to do so as they grow older.  

It’s important to remember that sharing prosperity with all members of a society is not only the right thing to do but helps strengthen our communities.

In a political climate dominated by hatred, woman bashing and misogynist remarks made off hand, it may be time to alter our thinking about how human culture arose. It may be time to rethink who we choose to lead us and finally elect our first female president.