ABSTRACT
Some early biologicalÐparticularly sociobiologicalÐaccounts of human gender role differences attributed them directly to evolutionary effects (Wilson, 1978). Only a cursory overview will be provided here but the essence of these approaches is that gender roles have emerged in the course of evolution as humans have adapted to survive and reproduce in a competitive natural environment. The most ef®cient distribution of human capacities allegedly proved to be one in which males, as the physically stronger partner, took on responsibility for the more vigorous roles of hunting and ®ghting (e.g., in territorial or resource disputes) while females, having natural advantages in the abilities to give birth to and breastfeed the young, took on the greater share of domestic responsibilities. These patterns evolved and were consolidated over countless generations, gradually being written into the species' genetic code.
