Frans de Waal a primatologist’s view on sex and gender

The Dutch-American primatologist Frans de Waal (he passed away in 2024) was an eminent and most respected scientist who also wrote many popular books about behaviour and social intelligence of primates. The common denominator in his work is that apes are more similar to humans and humans more similar to apes than we realise. De Waal was not impressed by language. When he looked at non-verbal behaviour, he noticed mainly similarities between humans and apes.

Words - Dr Marcel De Roos

In his book “Different”, which is extremely nuanced, detailed and littered with the latest research studies, he discusses gender differences between chimpansees / bonobos and humans. He reasons from a biological point of view: there are innate differences between men and women. Men are more inclined to competition and physical violence, women tend to look for the social context and pay more attention to children. This is not much different amongst humans than with chimpansees or bonobos (in both ape-species political power needs to be distinguished from physical dominance).

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