Status Updates From Dad Brain: The New Science ...

Does care work show lower compensation rates because it is a highly substitutable, low-skilled form of labor or because it is socially constructed as feminized? I'd wager on the former. Feminized professions that are specialized are still compensated well, e.g. OB/GYN docs, HR/management professionals, PR/marketing execs, other APP positions in healthcare.

The earlier portion of the book is more realistic about biology, while the latter half gets a bit more pulled into SSM-type claims and research that are all confounded in one way or another (genetics, genetic nurture, and gene-culture linked practices). There are some contradictory claims related to non-cohabitating fathers. There is just a tension between descriptive and normative claims.

Some discussion of the evolutionary role of parental uncertainty, where it typically decreases paternal investments in humans except in rare cases of partible paternity among male kin.

The primary tech of economic organization appear an important driver of paternal investments. This is covered quickly at end of ch. 2

The emerging early scientific thesis is that fatherhood is an important sociobiological adaptation in a lineage not known for paternal contribution. This is related to broader theories of human secret sauce: the ability to scale cooperation.

Intro section includes a disclaimer that accepts sex realism from a left-liberal perspective while downplaying the normative consequences of sex differences. The usual differences are greater within than between, overlapping distributions (not true for T though), and human flexibility. Also, includes a statement about epistemic humility with respect to any recapitulation of scientific research on human behavior.

Prof. Saxbe opens with a personal vignette about her own father, who served as the primary caregiver for her and her siblings after her parent's divorced.