Bitch: On the Female of the Species

by Lucy Cooke

Barbara Smuts, the distinguished professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan, has documented how in rhesus macaques and vervet monkeys, for example, a male’s quest to achieve and maintain dominance is strongly influenced by the support of high-ranking females. Female vervet monkeys remain in their birth group and form strong lifelong bonds with their kin, while males disperse and join other, unrelated groups. This gives the females a huge amount of power. Matrilines of related females form the stable core and cooperate against male domination. Females will prevent certain males from joining the group and drive other males out, occasionally wounding or even killing them in the process. ‘They are essentially female groups. Males may float in and out, but the alpha female is the central figure and has a lot of power,’ de Waal told me.