Gender Equality and Gene-culture Co-evolution
BY PETER FROST • OCTOBER 18, 2014 • 900 WORDS • LEAVE A COMMENT The ratio of index finger length to ring finger length provides an index of sexual differentiation. Credit: Wikimedia Commons .... "In general, women from Northwest Europe have more masculine digit ratios, whereas women from farther east and south have more feminine digit ratios. This geographical trend is more pronounced for the right hand than for the left hand. Since the right-hand digit ratio is associated with social dominance, Northwest Europeans may be less sexually differentiated for that particular trait, as opposed to being less sexually differentiated in general. Presumably, this isn’t a new tendency. Women must have been more socially dominant among Northwest Europeans even before the late 19th century and the earliest movements for women’s suffrage. So how far back does the tendency go? To medieval times? To pre-Christian times? It se...