Primatology is today a female-dominated field, guided by early pioneers like Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey. But when Hrdy started her career in the 1970s, not only did men rule the roost, the accepted wisdom was that human evolution had been shaped largely by male behavior. Males were the ones under pressure to attract as many mates as possible to increase their odds of having more offspring, males were aggressive and competitive in their quest for dominance, and males needed to be creative and intelligent when they hunted for meat.
