Why are women smaller than men? When anthropology meets evolutionary biology

There are large variations of size among humans but in all populations, men are larger on average than women. For most biologists this fact can be easily explained by the same processes that explain the size dimorphism in large mammals in general and in apes in particular. Due to fights between males for the possession of females, sexual selection has favoured bigger males. Indeed, this factor certainly explains why males are selected for being large but lets aside the question of selection on the female side. Actually, it has been shown that larger females are also favoured by natural selection. This is particularly relevant for women because their probability of dying when giving birth is then reduced. In this paper, the common view that size dimorphism in humans results from the fact that the advantage of being big is stronger for men than for women is challenged by another hypothesis, namely that the difference results from a difference of cost rather than from a difference of benefits. The cost of being big would be higher in women simply because, under gender hierarchical regimes found in all cultures, men are allocated the best food. The interaction between evolutionary forces and cultural practices could then lead to this disadaptive situation

How to be a self-fertile hermaphrodite

International audienc

Femmes dans la création audiovisuelle et de spectacle vivant : les auteurs de la SACD percevant des droits en 2011 (Les)

En 2011, les femmes représentent 29% des auteurs de la SACD et reçoivent 24% des droits versés. Une femme perçoit ainsi, en 2011, un revenu moyen inférieur de 24% à celui d’un homme. Les écarts de droits versés entre femmes et hommes trouvent plusieurs éléments d’explication : les femmes participent à moins d’oeuvres que les hommes, en particulier dans le cinéma, le théâtre et les arts de la rue. Elles n’exercent pas non plus les mêmes fonctions, et sont ainsi plus souvent auteurs de texte ou chorégraphes que réalisatrices ou compositrices. À discipline et fonction égales, les écarts de rémunération sont pratiquement inexistants dans la radio et la télévision, mais subsistent dans le cinéma et le spectacle vivant : ces écarts persistants peuvent être liés à d’autres facteurs comme, par exemple, une fréquentation des spectacles ou une programmation des œuvres moins importante, dans des lieux de représentation ou sur des canaux de diffusion différents et à des horaires moins favorables

From engaged citizen to lone hero: Nobel Prize laureates on British television, 1962–2004

Between 1962 and 2004, Nobel Prize laureates appear in the British television science programme Horizon in various roles, denoting differing understandings of science in relation to society and culture. These representations are the outcome of an interplay of cultural and institutional factors. They vary with the broadcasting environment. Notably, the article establishes that the choice of presenting scientists as heroic characters in strongly determined storylines from the late-1990s onwards originates in a reaction to institutional imperatives as a means to preserve the existence of the Horizon series. The article shows that exigencies of the institutional context in which media professionals operate are major factors influencing the representation of science in public