Human beings tend to assume that across types its males that are most able to form the behavior of others– that is, to wield power. A review released today (May 18) in Trends in Ecology & & Evolution recommends that in numerous types, thats not the case. The authors propose a new structure for assessing power circulations between the sexes that considers the methods which they state females typically wield power. Males are generally the dominant sex in mammals, the authors note that women acquire power in a different way than their male equivalents, and that this power depends on the type of breeding system the types uses. Males in polygynous systems (in which male animals have more than one female mate) are normally in power because they are larger than the females and can utilize physical force to manage them. On the other hand, women in polygynandrous systems (where both males and women mate with several partners) are preferred to hold the power– typically through reproductive control like trading sex for food and prime sleeping spots. An example of this trade can be seen in spotted female hyenas, whose genital structure makes it difficult for males to forcibly mate with them. For more on power relationships amongst mammals, The Scientist spoke with review coauthor Eve Davidian of the Ngorongoro Hyena Project. The Scientist: Can you discuss what you indicate by power relationships in between the sexes?Eve Davidian: Power can be broadly explained as the capability of one person to influence the behavior of others. You can equate it into the capability of one sex to put in control over members of the other sex when it comes to a relationship in between the sexes. And the kind of power that we concentrated on for this work is what we call resource holding power– that is, the degree of control that one sex can put in over the other over the access to resources like food, or water, or shelter, and even territory. The other kind of resource is access to reproduction. And reproductive control is what we would define as the ability to manage when you will mate with a specific, who you will mate with, and how many times. TS: How does reproductive control promote social control?ED: The idea is that in numerous types, at least in mammal types, males are typically larger than the women– they are much better geared up in terms of weaponry, so they have longer horns or sharper teeth … In terms of male-male competitors, the males that are bigger or much better equipped will have the ability to battle against the other males and typically win. This will allow them, among other males, to win access to females … When females get some reproductive control, they will have the ability to get away from males or [usage] numerous strategies that will enable them to counteract these males coercive attempts. And they will have the ability to use this ability that they need to choose who they mate with, to then perhaps have some kinds of exchange because then males will try to do what the female desires [in order] to get what they want. See “The Hidden Side of Sex” TS: Why did you decide to take a better take a look at the power relationships in between male and female animals?ED: First is that historically, power is all over– all societies, animal societies, even in our human societies– they are structured by power, and mainly power asymmetries in between individuals. Our social dominance, for instance, has generally been studied amongst each sex, but independently … So we was familiar with quite well, independently, what was driving the dominance and power relationships within each sex. How females and males engage will determine how the reproductive interactions, the mating system, the social system, the survival of people, influence a lot of elements of animal societies. We desired to comprehend what triggers and what are the repercussions of these relationships, and we had very couple of tools to attempt to study that … So we thought that it was rather time to try to synthesize all this work and try to come up with a theoretical framework to try to get some tools to in fact study that. TS: What are some misconceptions individuals have about power asymmetries between female and male animals, and why do you think that is?ED: One of the misconceptions was that for a long time, types were considered either as male-dominated or as female-dominated, so there was this binary vision of power relationships. Its possible that a few of these ideas were partly formed by the societies in which we live. We understand that the questions that scientists ask, the method we deal with the questions, and often the method we interpret what we observe, can be shaped by the society where we live in and the times where we live … But there is also the fact that … most mammals are male-dominated, or at least have actually been explained. So its possible also that in some way researchers didnt rather see the relevance of digging deeper, due to the fact that what they observed in mammals kind of confirmed their previous conception that they had that, OK. Its simply male controlled, whichs the way it is, and the couple of female-dominated types are just anecdotes. TS: Why do we see different sexes having more power in different species? A group of hyenasOliver HönerED: What we propose in this research study is that its largely shaped by which sex has the greatest degree of control over reproduction. And this– whether its going to be more males or more women [having power]– can be anticipated by functions of the mating system of the types. We argue that some mating systems prefer male capability to push and manage women, while others are associated with higher female power. For example, on the male-dominated side of the power continuum, you have polygynous systems. Thats where one male recreates with several females, whereas women generally reproduce just with one male. In this system, males are usually bigger than the females, and as described prior to, they can utilize their force to apply high control over women. On the other hand, in promiscuous systems, like in bonobos or spotted hyenas, males and females can mate with several partners during the reproducing season, and female power over males is preferred. In these systems, women have the possibility to mate with their preferred mates and utilize their leverage to acquire social power. Interestingly, monogamous systems, which we find in meerkats, for example, seem to be egalitarian in that power is shared similarly in between the sexes. See “Opinion: Monogamy and Cooperation Are Connected Through Multiple Links” TS: For this review, why were specific animal types [like spotted hyenas and bonobos] looked at specifically?ED: We attempted to do a literature search that would be as thorough as possible … but the various coauthors are actually empiricists working on specific species like me– Im dealing with spotted hyenas, and other authors on lemurs, another one on bonobos, and the other one on baboons. Each of us had special know-how, and each of these species all truly [ in shape] well, due to the fact that all of them can have a different mating system, a different social system, and various power relationships in between males and females. What we understood is that each of these species could be positioned on a continuum of power relationships. TS: What can these power relationships tell us about evolution?ED: Once power is established either as highly female-biased or highly male-biased, it seems the power structures are very stable in the evolutionary context. Because there are positive feedbacks that will strengthen biases in reproductive and social control between the sexes, this is. Sometimes you may have a little change in reproductive control that will destabilize these feedbacks and set off an evolutionary shift. Types will shift from a male-dominated system to a female-dominated system, or vice versa. And thats perhaps the key to explain why bonobos vary from their– and our– closest family members, chimpanzees. Chimpanzees reside in strongly male-dominated societies, where males have both high reproductive and social control over females. Female chimps have these sexual swellings that signal the beginning of their estrous, and its extremely precise. Males can really focus all their effort on particular females that they know are ready to develop to make sure that these women will only recreate with them. This offers them extremely high social and reproductive power. In bonobos, which are extremely similar in many elements to chimps, women likewise have these swellings, but they are actually not accurate since females have these swelling over long durations of time. So female bonobos in fact use these swellings to trick males. As an outcome, males do not actually understand when its an excellent time to secure a female and to replicate with the female. This in turn provides females high reproductive control and utilize, which they can use to get social power. What seems like a subtle change in reproductive control, with a switch from accurate to misleading sexual swellings, can have big social repercussions. TS: What … was the most fascinating finding or phenomenon you stumbled upon while writing the review?ED: What I thought was quite neat is that this structure that we propose describes power along these two axes of social control and reproductive control. Utilizing this dimensional description of power is rather nice since its brand-new, and specifically this causal relationship in between reproductive control and social control. This is a very intriguing and interesting idea. For me, the other point is more a technical aspect. Its that truly, we constructed this structure like some sort of toolkit to try to explain and measure and anticipate the power relationships between the sexes … So [Im] quite thrilled to see how its going to be used to other species and likewise to check our hypothesis.
Males are normally the dominant sex in mammals, the authors keep in mind that women obtain power differently than their male counterparts, and that this power depends on the type of breeding system the species uses. Males in polygynous systems (in which male animals have more than one female mate) are normally in power since they are larger than the women and can use physical force to control them. And the type of power that we focused on for this work is what we call resource holding power– that is, the degree of control that one sex can put in over the other over the access to resources like food, or water, or shelter, or even area. See “The Hidden Side of Sex” TS: Why did you decide to take a closer look at the power relationships in between female and male animals?ED: First is that historically, power is everywhere– all societies, animal societies, even in our human societies– they are structured by power, and generally power asymmetries between individuals. TS: What can these power relationships inform us about evolution?ED: Once power is established either as highly male-biased or strongly female-biased, it appears the power structures are really steady in the evolutionary context.