A Feminist Evolutionary Analysis of the Relationship Between Violence Against and Inequitable Treatment of Women, and Conflict Within and Between Human Collectives, Including Nation-States

In this chapter we examine the theoretical linkage between the security of women and the security of states, drawing insights from evolutionary biology and psychology, political sociology, and psychology. A feminist evolutionary approach demonstrates the way in which male reproductive interests can and often do lead to strategies of sexual coercion of females, including violence. That violence can be directed at other males and other groups as male dominance hierarchies develop a parasitical approach to resource accumulation, involving coalitional aggression against out-groups in order to strip such groups of their resources. The mitigation of male dominance hierarchies is thus, we argue, key to the mitigation of dysfunctional, conflictual inter-group relations. We illustrate the effects of male dominance and structural patriarchy through an examination of polygyny and through historical cases before finally discussing strategies for mitigating male dominance hierarchies.