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Gendered Species: A Natural History of Patriarchy
Why do gender norms vary and change? Is our species patriarchal? What links ancient climate change to male dominance? Why did patriarchy emerge 11 times? Why do matriarchies have women’s jobs and men’s jobs? What connects the plough to rules about sex? Why was formal marriage invented? How will the patriarchy end and when?In Gendered Species, Dr. Tamás Dávid-Barrett, an evolutionary behavioural scientist at the University of Oxford, answers these questions and more. This groundbreaking book provides a science-based, non-political, and calm assessment of the evolution and variation of gender norms. Through exceptional scholarship, Dr. Dávid-Barrett explores how humans became the only gendered species, why gender norms vary across cultures, and how they change over time.
Dr. Dávid-Barrett’s multi-disciplinary approach, spanning anthropology, biology, economics, sociology, psychology, and network science, is informed by research conducted in forty countries on five continents. His comprehensive scientific approach to understanding our species' social organization offers new insights into one of humanity’s most central problems.
Praise for Gendered Species:
“The most important science book on gender in the 21st century.”
— Prof. Reneé Hirschon, emerita fellow of St Peter’s College Oxford, pioneer in feminist anthropology
“A fundamental insight into the social organization of our species.”
— Prof. Robin Dunbar, professor of evolutionary psychology, University of Oxford
“This magisterial work invites us to rethink the behavioural basis of sexual politics. The aim is not to provoke or please, but to offer a calm scientific framing to the history of gender norms.”
— Prof. Anna Rotkirch, professor of evolutionary demography, Helsinki Population Studies Institute
“An outstandingly fresh look at an important subject. Drawing on his extensive new research but steeped in his lifetime as a scientist, Dr Dávid-Barrett has created a groundbreaking book.”
— Craig Forman, founder and partner NextNews Ventures and past CEO and President of McClatchy Co.
“Reading this book in our era is a privilege. It inspires me as a granddaughter of those who they could not burn. It shows that we are moving towards gender harmony.”
— Dijana Galijasevic, co-founder and CEO of Impact Hero
“An illuminating and pioneering work of science that will transform our understanding of the human species.”
— Nusrat Durrani, founder and former CEO of MTV World
Dr. Dávid-Barrett’s multi-disciplinary approach, spanning anthropology, biology, economics, sociology, psychology, and network science, is informed by research conducted in forty countries on five continents. His comprehensive scientific approach to understanding our species' social organization offers new insights into one of humanity’s most central problems.
Praise for Gendered Species:
“The most important science book on gender in the 21st century.”
— Prof. Reneé Hirschon, emerita fellow of St Peter’s College Oxford, pioneer in feminist anthropology
“A fundamental insight into the social organization of our species.”
— Prof. Robin Dunbar, professor of evolutionary psychology, University of Oxford
“This magisterial work invites us to rethink the behavioural basis of sexual politics. The aim is not to provoke or please, but to offer a calm scientific framing to the history of gender norms.”
— Prof. Anna Rotkirch, professor of evolutionary demography, Helsinki Population Studies Institute
“An outstandingly fresh look at an important subject. Drawing on his extensive new research but steeped in his lifetime as a scientist, Dr Dávid-Barrett has created a groundbreaking book.”
— Craig Forman, founder and partner NextNews Ventures and past CEO and President of McClatchy Co.
“Reading this book in our era is a privilege. It inspires me as a granddaughter of those who they could not burn. It shows that we are moving towards gender harmony.”
— Dijana Galijasevic, co-founder and CEO of Impact Hero
“An illuminating and pioneering work of science that will transform our understanding of the human species.”
— Nusrat Durrani, founder and former CEO of MTV World
- GenresNonfictionAnthropology
342 pages, Paperback
Published June 21, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 27, 2024
This book was disappointing in so many ways.
The vast majority of chapters are repetitive, patronise the reader, full of poor attempts at humour and include a bizarre number of scare quotes. On many occasions it is difficult to understand what his main point of several chapters were. On multiple occasions he does not show his workings out. He says it could be x, or y, and I think y, without providing an argument for how he got to that position. At times his sentences and paragraphs are poorly constructed and contradictory. He presents conflicting points and arguments but his writing style make it impossible for the reader to determine if he is trying to show multiple perspectives or simply unsure of his position.
David-Barrett fails to define his terms at the beginning of the book, simply taking the position that some terms are difficult to define. This leads him to conflate sex and gender throughout the book and he comes across and not understanding some of concepts he is attempting to discuss.
His chapters on human sexual behaviour are appalling and demonstrate a gross misunderstanding of how power operates in the modern world.
He has his own unique style of referencing. In the back of the book he simply lists names and dates of some authors, not providing full details of the study reference, nor indicating in the body of the text which reference is linked to which point. This means that the reader is not able to check his claims, resulting in his points coming across as his opinions, rather than grounded in evidence of theory.
Near the end of the book there is a chapter that summarises his opinions about what factors determine why some communities/cultures are patriarchal and other not. This is an interesting chapter. He does not have enough content for a book, demonstrated by the repetitive, meandering nature of many of the chapters. His points could be better made by developing this chapter into an article.
The vast majority of chapters are repetitive, patronise the reader, full of poor attempts at humour and include a bizarre number of scare quotes. On many occasions it is difficult to understand what his main point of several chapters were. On multiple occasions he does not show his workings out. He says it could be x, or y, and I think y, without providing an argument for how he got to that position. At times his sentences and paragraphs are poorly constructed and contradictory. He presents conflicting points and arguments but his writing style make it impossible for the reader to determine if he is trying to show multiple perspectives or simply unsure of his position.
David-Barrett fails to define his terms at the beginning of the book, simply taking the position that some terms are difficult to define. This leads him to conflate sex and gender throughout the book and he comes across and not understanding some of concepts he is attempting to discuss.
His chapters on human sexual behaviour are appalling and demonstrate a gross misunderstanding of how power operates in the modern world.
He has his own unique style of referencing. In the back of the book he simply lists names and dates of some authors, not providing full details of the study reference, nor indicating in the body of the text which reference is linked to which point. This means that the reader is not able to check his claims, resulting in his points coming across as his opinions, rather than grounded in evidence of theory.
Near the end of the book there is a chapter that summarises his opinions about what factors determine why some communities/cultures are patriarchal and other not. This is an interesting chapter. He does not have enough content for a book, demonstrated by the repetitive, meandering nature of many of the chapters. His points could be better made by developing this chapter into an article.
January 18, 2026
Maybe 4, but I'd like to encourage others to read this.
An Oxford biologist and ecologist takes us on a tour of his theory of where recent, as in past 10,000 years, human gender status divisions came from; in his view, as a knock-on consequence of the shift between hunter-gathering and farming. Wonderfully clearly written, free of academic jargon in the text -- but 35% of the book is the references and bibliography, so anyone who wants to yell "Cite!" is more than answered, in advance.
He does a couple of things I keenly appreciate. I think any theory of human behavior that does not start from biology, and consider the control data now available from recent primate studies, is, at best, ungrounded; David-Barrett does both. (Let me pause to re-recommend the work of primatologist Frans De Waal.) And I adored his references to the mid-20th-century discovery of DNA, when it came up, as "the work of chemist Rosalind Franklin and her colleagues" which, if you've read up in any detail on that groundbreaking work, it totally was.
I also appreciated that he gets that the division of labor, and the division of status, are two different, if often related, variables.
Recommended.
Ta, L.
An Oxford biologist and ecologist takes us on a tour of his theory of where recent, as in past 10,000 years, human gender status divisions came from; in his view, as a knock-on consequence of the shift between hunter-gathering and farming. Wonderfully clearly written, free of academic jargon in the text -- but 35% of the book is the references and bibliography, so anyone who wants to yell "Cite!" is more than answered, in advance.
He does a couple of things I keenly appreciate. I think any theory of human behavior that does not start from biology, and consider the control data now available from recent primate studies, is, at best, ungrounded; David-Barrett does both. (Let me pause to re-recommend the work of primatologist Frans De Waal.) And I adored his references to the mid-20th-century discovery of DNA, when it came up, as "the work of chemist Rosalind Franklin and her colleagues" which, if you've read up in any detail on that groundbreaking work, it totally was.
I also appreciated that he gets that the division of labor, and the division of status, are two different, if often related, variables.
Recommended.
Ta, L.
February 2, 2026
This was extremely interesting, and gave me so much to think about. Question for the author – when is the second book coming out? I look forward to it.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews