Abstract
Understanding female sexuality and mate choice is central to evolutionary scenarios of human social systems. Studies of female sexuality conducted by sex researchers in the United States since 1938 indicate that human females in general are concerned with their sexual well-being and are capable of sexual response parallel to that of males. Across cultures in general and in western societies in particular, females engage in extramarital affairs regularly, regardless of punishment by males or social disapproval. Families are usually concerned with marriage arrangements only insofar as those arrangements are economically or politically advantageous, but females most often have a voice in arranged marriages. Extended families also concentrate on a couple’s future reproduction rather than on sexual exclusivity. Although marriage for females is often compromised by male or family reproductive interests (which may not in fact differ from female interests), females appear to exercise their sexuality with more freedom than has previously been suggested. Notions of human females as pawns in the male reproductive game, or as traders of sex for male services, should be dispelled.
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Meredith F. Small is associate professor of anthropology at Cornell University. For the past 14 years she has studied reproductive biology and mating behavior in three species of macaques. Most recently, she worked with captive Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus), reportedly the most promiscuous primate. Her most recent articles include “Promiscuity in Barbary Macaques” (American Journal of Primatology 20:267–282, 1990), and “Alloparental Behavior in Barbary Macaques” (Animal Behavior 39:297–306, 1990). She is currently working on a book on female choice for Cornell University Press.
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Small, M.F. The evolution of female sexuality and mate selection in humans. Human Nature 3, 133–156 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02692250
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02692250