Are Sex Differences Compatible with Feminism?
My second appearance on The Dissenter
I recently made my second appearance on Ricardo Lopes’ Dissenter podcast to discuss my new book, A Billion Years of Sex Differences. We had a fun, wide-ranging conversation about the science of sex differences, human nature, and some of the most contentious debates in contemporary psychology. Here are some of the topics we covered:
Why I’m skeptical of the sex-gender distinction
Whether parents shape sex differences
Whether the science of sex differences is compatible with feminism
The largest psychological sex differences in our species
What drives the evolution of sex differences (hint: It’s not that sperm are cheaper than eggs)
Sex differences in career-related interests
Sex differences in cognitive abilities
The trans phenomenon from an evolutionary perspective
Three approaches to dealing with sex differences: gender-role traditionalism, gender-role progressivism, and gender-role individualism
Here’s a clip from the episode, where I discuss trans and nonbinary identification:
And here’s a clip where I discuss the three main approaches to dealing with sex differences, both as individuals and as a society:
The full episode is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. It’s also available on Ricardo’s Dissenter YouTube channel.
Follow Steve on Twitter/X for more psychology, evolution, and science.
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Steve Stewart-Williams