New research reveals insights into gender equality in hunter-gatherer societies

A study published in the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour has uncovered fascinating insights into gender roles and cooperation in hunter-gatherer societies. The study, entitled “Bargaining between the sexes: outside options and leisure time in hunter-gatherer households,” focuses on how men and women divide work and leisure time, challenging traditional views of gender inequality.

Conducted among the Mbendjele BaYaka from Congo and the Agta from the Philippines, the research explores how partners negotiate household tasks. The study, led by Angarika Deb from Central European University’s Department of Cognitive Science, used innovative methods to assess how social connections, or “social capital,” can influence each spouse’s leverage in the household, and thus, the influence of leisure time they can enjoy.

Surprisingly, the research found that social capital had little effect on the division of leisure time between men and women. Instead, both groups showed remarkable gender equality in sharing leisure time, across all households studied. This contrasts sharply with patterns observed in modern agricultural and industrial societies, where women do the greater share of the housework.

These societies are well-known for having gender-egalitarian norms, which provide both men and women equal autonomy and decision-making power, in households and within the group. These norms might be critical in promoting the equality that the authors here demonstrate. In a 2023 literature review entitled “Gender Egalitarianism in Hunter-Gatherers,” Deb compiled other anthropologists’ findings from already published papers and provided a detailed description of these gender-egalitarian norms and the behaviors which enforce equality in these societies.

“We are very excited about our findings, which is an empirical demonstration of gender equality in small-scale human societies. This paper is based on first-hand data collected by our team of researchers. Our findings show that in these hunter-gatherer societies, both men and women contribute significantly to their households, and the result is a fair division of leisure time, unlike what we see in many modern contexts,” said Deb.

“This groundbreaking study provides a fresh perspective on gender relations and suggests that lessons from these egalitarian communities could inform how we arrange gender dynamics in contemporary societies.”