Feminists Need to Look Beyond Evolutionary Psychology for Insights into Human Reproductive Strategies: A Commentary

The Sex Roles: Feminist Reappraisals of Evolutionary Psychology issue that addressed evolutionary psychology’s Sexual Strategies Theory
is enlightening for feminists as well as those scholars who examine men and women’s behavior. As several articles in this
issue show, there are mixed results in support of this theory. While some feminists may want to conclude that this an indication
of the limited influence evolution and biology has on gendered behavior, the mixed results rather may be due to problems that
are foundational to evolutionary psychology itself. For those interested in evolutionary perspectives of men and women’s behavior,
they should look beyond evolutionary psychology and examine what evolutionary biology and behavioral ecology can provide to
our understanding of reproductive strategies. This is evident in feminist and female evolutionists’ works that have created
a new model of sexual dialectics, begun the retesting of A. J. Bateman’s foundational work that underlies parental investment
theory and Sexual Strategies Theory, and provided new evidence of phenotypic and behavioral plasticity. This research has
called into question past assumptions of male dominance and female passivity in mating, and continues to challenge evolutionary
psychology’s claim that based on Sexual Strategies Theory, there are evolved psychological gender differences between men
and women in their desire for short-term mating opportunities and sexual variety that are rooted in our evolutionary past
and not very responsive to the current environments within which men and women are making these reproductive decisions.