MBL Falmouth Forum – “Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist”

How different are men and women? Do they differ naturally or artificially? Do we find the same differences in our fellow primates? Do apes learn sex roles, too, or is “gender” uniquely human? In this Falmouth Forum, renowned primatologist Frans de Waal will discuss his book Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist, and his studies of both human and animal behavior that argue that a distinction between gender (cultural) and sex (biological) is useful to draw attention to the eternal interplay between nature and nurture. DIFFERENT provides a thought-provoking review of the long-running debate about the origins of sex and gender.

Frans B. M. de Waal is a Dutch/American biologist and primatologist known for his work on the behavior and social intelligence of primates. His first book, Chimpanzee Politics (1982), compared the schmoozing and scheming of chimpanzees involved in power struggles with that of human politicians. His scientific work has been published in hundreds of technical articles in journals such as Science, Nature, Scientific American, and outlets specialized in animal behavior. His popular books - translated into 20+ languages - have made him one of the world's most visible primatologists. His latest two books are Mama’s Last Hug (Norton, 2019) and Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist (Norton, 2022). De Waal is C.H. Candler Professor Emeritus at Emory University and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Utrecht University. He has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences as well as the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2007, Time declared him one of
The Worlds’ 100 Most Influential People Today.

This event is hosted by the Marine Biological Laboratory.