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Women in Primatology

There is a looming number of women receiving Ph.D’s in the study of Primatology. According to Londa Schiebinger, women currently take up 80 percent of those Ph.D’s. Because of this high number of women excelling in this study, Londa Schiebinger assesses that “Primatology is widely celebrated as a feminist science”. In the 1970’s 50 percent of women received Ph.D’s in Primatology and increased in the 1980’s.

Ongoing Stereotypes

With attention to Darwin’s perception about sexual selection, it is perceived that sexual selection doesn’t act on females as it does on males. This clearly presents the male on male competition for females. It is widely viewed that males tend to woo the women implying that women are passive and for years this has been the common misinterpretation. The term “alpha males” was stemmed from this idea of the aggressive and witty male. It has been a common metaphor describing successful males. Schiebinger presents a sample done by ornithologists searching for “alpha males” among a population of pinyon jays. Interestingly enough, the birds that locked talons in combat were females. Linking these samples and ideas to primate society further emphasizes the competition among dominant males who controlled territorial boundaries and maintained order among lesser males. The females on the other hand were described as "dedicated mothers to small infants and sexually available to males in order of the males' dominance rank". It is evident that the female-female competition is ignored due to strong notions that the females in the group are passive. Schiebinger states that the avoidance of acknowledging female-female competitions “can skew notions of sexual selection is to ignore interactions between males and females that go beyond the strict interpretation of sex as for reproduction only.” These ongoing stereotypes continue to serve as facts due to the scientific revolution in the seventeenth century. Nancy Leys Stepan discusses the role of analogy has in science and how metaphors continue to influence the way science is taught and learned. The Determined Patriarchy, a reading written by Richard Lewontin explaining the many reasons as to why, in our society, the males are viewed as "supreme" or better than females.

Killer Ape Myth

Linda Fedigan, a primatologist discusses how the “killer ape” myth is an image of primates engaging in Hobbesian war and one with dark ideas of human nature. The “killer ape” myth suggests according to Schiebinger that the idea of aggressive primates were taken from studies on savanna baboons.

From the female monkey's point of view

Primatology was filled with many stereotypes directed towards males and females. It was not until the 1960’s until primatologists started looking at what females did. During this time, the ongoing stereotype of the passive female was slowly changing. An individual known as Jane Lancaster according to Londa Schiebinger presented with an extreme notion that was not seen and heard. Lancaster proposed that females were able to do anything a male can do. At the time, it raised questions because this was seen as far-fetched from the “social norm.” According to several observations from various primatologists, the females have been active participants within their group or pack. For instance, Rowell found that female baboons are the ones to determine the route for daily foraging. Similarly, Shirley Strum found that male investment in special relationships with females had greater productive payoff in comparison to a male’s rank in a dominance hierarchy. Thus, this “female point of view” caused the key concepts to be questioned. Aggression, reproductive access, and dominance were all taken into account and drew ties to how these concepts factored into the primate world. One of the very first people to apply the theory of sociology to primates, according to Schiebinger was Sarah Hrdy.

Evolution Retold

Within the studies of primatology, sociobiologists have been accused for producing the “corporate primate.” The corporate primate according to Schiebinger describes the term as “female baboons with briefcases, strategically competitive and aggressive.” This in turn goes against the notion that only men are coined to be competitive and aggressive. Observations were made that prove female apes and monkeys also form stable dominance hierarchies and alliances with their male counterparts. These females in the group displayed aggression, exercised sexual choice, competed for resources, mates as well as territory just like their male counterparts. The reevaluation of the females in traditional male behaviors caused feminist sociobiologists to be criticized by other feminists.

Six Features of Feminist Science In Primatology

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Linda Fedigan identifies six different features of feminist science that characterizes contemporary mainstream primatology.

1. Reflexivity: sensitivity to context and cultural bias in scientific work.

2. “the female point of view”

3. Respect for nature and an ethic cooperation with nature

4. Move away from reductionism

5. Promote humanitarian values rather than national interests

6. Diverse community, accessible and egalitarian

Interestingly enough, according to Schiebinger only two out of the six features have anything to do with feminism. One of them is the discussion of the politics of participation and the attention placed on females as subjects of research.

Feminism’s Impact on Primatology

Jeanne Altmann is a noted Western Primatologist. In 1970 she drew attention to representative sampling methods in which all individuals, not just the dominant and the powerful, were observed for equal periods of time. Prior to 1970, primatologists used “opportunistic sampling,” which only recorded what caught their attention. Linda Fedigan views herself as a reporter or translator, working at the intersection between gender studies of science and the mainstream study of primatology. Sarah Hrdy, a self-identified feminist, was among the first to apply what became known as sociobiological theory to primates. In her studies, she focuses on the need for females to win from males parental care for their offspring. While some influential women challenged fundamental paradigms, Schiebinger presents that science is constituted by numerous factors. They vary from gender roles and domestic issues that surround race and class to economic relations among First World counties and the Third World countries in which nonhuman primates reside. Females have been recognized as having their unique place in primate societies, and the ecology of female primate relationships has become an area of research.

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West African Women

In general, West Africans were believed to be cannibals, human sacrifice, infant marriage, and polygamy. To McEwan, her studies show that West Africa was penetrated, conquered, subdued and controlled similar to a woman being objectified in our society.

Published Information

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Primatologists often divide primates into three groups for study: dominant females, females and young, and peripheral males.

The number of doctorates awarded to women in science and engineering rose from 7 percent in 1970 to 24 percent in 1985.