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Cultural Evolution and Gender Roles: A Re-Affirmation of J. K. Brown's Note

Anthropology Department, Tomball College, Tomball, Texas, U.S.A.

Nancy S. Coney

Dept. of Social Work, Western Illinois University, Macomb, Illinois, U.S.A.

In 1970, Brown offered "A note on the division of labor." Her observation was that — across cultures — if a task interfered with child-rearing, then that task would be given to men. If a task did not interfere with child-rearing, then that task could be included in the set of chores assigned to women. A reasonable extension of her note would be that if a group's women, as a class, were performing tasks incompatible with child-rearing, then the fertility rates of that group's women would be decreased. A cross-cultural survey of current demographic indices re-affirms Brown's note. Data are presented which indicate that, as more of a group's women perform tasks which are incompatible with child-rearing, the lower the fertility rate of that group's women. As a corollary, there are systematic cultural evolutionary pressures for groups with higher fertility rates to replace or displace groups with lower fertility rates.

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