Female Status Predicts Female Mate Preferences Across Nonindustrial Societies
- 1 February 2007
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Cross-Cultural Research
- Vol. 41 (1), 66-74
- https://doi.org/10.1177/1069397106294860
Abstract
Most studies demonstrating the contribution of economic constraints on women to sex differences in mate preferences have used samples from postindustrial societies with similar social structures. The authors investigate the effects of female status on female mate preferences in a subsection of the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample. Whyte's (1978) codes provide indicators of female status, and mate preferences are obtained through qualitative analysis of ethnographic data in the Human Relations Area Files. Two measures of female status are found to relate to the relative importance of physical appearance to access to resources in attraction to a partner: Domestic authority is associated with greater importance placed on appearance relative to resources, whereas ritualized female solidarity is associated with lower importance of appearance relative to resources. Results are discussed in the context of the contribution of social and economic constraints on women to sex differences.Keywords
This publication has 28 references indexed in Scilit:
- The origins of sex differences in human behavior: Evolved dispositions versus social roles.American Psychologist, 1999
- Sex Differences in the Effects of Similarity and Physical Attractiveness on Opposite-Sex AttractionBasic and Applied Social Psychology, 1991
- Gender differences in effects of physical attractiveness on romantic attraction: A comparison across five research paradigms.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1990
- International Preferences in Selecting MatesJournal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 1990
- Toward an evolutionary psychology of human matingBehavioral and Brain Sciences, 1989
- Sex differences in life histories: The role of sexual selection and mate choiceBehavioral and Brain Sciences, 1989
- Typology and human mating preferencesBehavioral and Brain Sciences, 1989
- Sex differences in human mate preferences: Evolutionary hypotheses tested in 37 culturesBehavioral and Brain Sciences, 1989
- Preferences in human mate selection.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1986
- Intra-sexual selection in DrosophilaHeredity, 1948