Warriors and Worriers: The Survival of the Sexes 1st Edition

This book should be bought in addition to “What to Expect When Expecting.” While the aforementioned book details the experience of gestation, this book is about what comes after. A science-based cross-cultural, cross-species view of sex differences that is extremely engaging. Dr. Benenson’s easy to read book is a must. I find myself talking about often. As I read it I observed and applied the knowledge in the book to my children’s behavior. The accuracy of the author’s work was jaw dropping. I’m very happy I discovered this book.

Clearly written and debunks the myth that men and women are the same. They are innately different and this should demolish the politically correct position that all professions and lifestyle choices should have equal representation of the sexes. Innately most men and women like different things. That doesn't preclude individual men and women choosing from the entire gamut of professions and lifestyle choices but it does mean that more girls are going to choose to care for their families and men to volunteer for the military. A great read/listen.

It had always puzzled me why women and girls run through best friends like toilet paper, this makes a lot of sense of just how unique men’s and women’s social dynamics are. Also explains my hobbies as interests when I was a boy. I thought my childhood obsession with big explosions and throwing rocks made me odd. Turns out that’s normal.

Great book. Goes into evolution background to male and female tendencies. Very readable. Citations.

These are interesting ideas neatly presented by a highly qualified author. They are especially interesting when viewed against the backdrop of David Geary's comphehensive theory of sexual differences presented in his book "Male, Female".

Very interesting read.

Wish I knew about this when I was young. Been reading to my 11yo son. Going to include it as one of his must study young adult reference books. Makes the "men are from mars..." books seem silly. Explains sooo much.

For evolutionary reasons and millennia of polygamy, women are set up to undermine women who appear to be more competent than they. It's not a conscious decision. It's a feeling of dislike, that women act on without realizing its origins.The effect it has had on women is terrible. Since women now have access to good jobs, they find there other 'competitors' and engage in epic battles that are totally pointless and make everyone look bad. Invariably, male managers step in to stop women from fighting. Many (most) women cannot effectively mentor each other and will not nurture female talent. The consequences became more obvious after Hillary lost the election.The author tells some terribly inconvenient truths. This book should have been on a best seller list, but female authors typically get ignored.

great

Beneson is not the first person to look at the differences between the sexes, even from an evolutionary perspective (e.g.,  Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences 2nd (second) Edition by Geary, David C. published by Amer Psychological Assn (2009) . However, she takes a relatively new tack on the subject by linking male and female traits to two distinct sex roles. Males are warriors, females as worrying mothers.From an evolutionary perspective, this is not an unreasonable approach. There is good data suggesting that these are indeed to highly sex-linked roles that were important for ancestral humans. Beneson draws initially upon developmental research looking at the behavior of young children to build her case. Much of it her work. Her argument is that if we are indeed predisposed to behave in certain ways, then we should see these behavioral differences in the sexes emerge early, without any strong environmental inputs. She does present some compelling data to suggest that boys are indeed somewhat predisposed to seek out other boys, form competitive groups that compete with each other, but put internal differences aside in the face of competing with external groups. Girls on the other hand tend to have a much more individualistic approach, maintaining relationships with a smaller number of peers for shorter periods of time. Indeed, this represents one of her more interesting findings. Counter-intuitively, boys are MORE social than girls, and are BETTER at retaining friendships. Largely because boys seem to be able to overlook and/or forgive small slights to friendships because of the need to maintain a cohesive front against external groups. Given that a cohesive group is essential to fighting off enemies, this is a valuable trait for boys to have. Fight within a group for dominance, but set all issues aside (and maintain friendships) when enemies arise. And boys seem to be very concerned about enemies or villains from a very young age. They like setting up mock-fights with opponents as well as real fights.Girls generally do not. They prefer more nurturing activities as well as less risky activities than boys. Because a woman's primary role is raising her children, and her welfare is extremely important for the success of that job. No one else cares for a child (in most cases) as well as their birth mother. This means girls don't need to build huge coalitions. Indeed, other girls can be competitors for resources a woman eventually needs to raise her own children. So girls make and break friendships more often. They exclude other girls more often than boys exclude boys. Yet they fight less because they have more to lose than boys/men do (the latter can sacrifice their life to save their wife and child, knowing that their wife will likely do a good job raising the child).I can't do full justice to the hypothesis here, but it's an interesting and compelling one that I largely agree with. However, I don't think it's the entire story. Or that the data is as cut and dry as Beneson would have us believe. She uses a lot of anecdotal evidence as well as a lot of leaps from children to adults (and vice versa) to support her story. She also ignores some potentially revealing evidence, such as personality trait differences. Personality traits would be a simple and efficient mechanism to result in the behaviors she explains without having to rely on specialized behavioral modules tuned to different social behaviors.Overall then, I found it a very compelling read. Beneson's hypothesis certainly is in line with a significant quantity of evidence. Her logic is generally sound, although it could be tighter in spots. Her writing is clear and engaging, making the book easy to read (I'd say it's aimed at a general, if educated, audience). However, I can't quite give the book five stars because a lot of it is still based on conjecture and weak data that is often presented too strongly for my tastes. So good book, better idea, and I'm looking forward to seeing more data to test and/or flesh out the basic hypothesis. Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences 2nd (second) Edition by Geary, David C. published by Amer Psychological Assn (2009)

Brillant et richement référencé, le meilleur livre sur Homo Sapiens que j'ai jamais lu. Une vraie bouffée d'air frais dans l'atmosphère étouffante du politiquement correct.