From reproductive control to social empowerment: Lessons from female spotted hyenas : Eve Davidian | Frontiers in Social Evolution (FINE) online seminar series

Conflicts over the modality of reproduction strongly shape the relationship between males and females. Yet their implications outside the reproductive context remains poorly understood. Building on a recent theoretical framework for intersexual power dynamics in mammals, I will illustrate the link between asymmetries in reproductive control and social inequalities between the sexes. I will specifically showcase long-term empirical work on spotted hyenas to illustrate how the unusually high degree of female reproductive control and ability to exercise mate choice has far-reaching implications for male life histories, group composition, and the emergence and dynamics of female social dominance over males in this species.b