Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution – Cat Bohannon
Written by Elisa Garbil – 19.12.2025
Scientific, social, and economic systems carry embedded risks when they are built on incomplete or biased information. In the study of human biology and behaviour, one of the most persistent sources of systemic risk arises from failing to account for sex differences and gendered experiences. As Cat Bohannon notes,
When scientists study only the male form, we’re getting less than half of a complicated picture; all too often, we don’t know what we’re missing by ignoring sex differences, because we’re not asking the questions.
Cat Bohannon – Eve
This knowledge gap is not a minor oversight, it is a structural vulnerability that distorts research outcomes, medical protocols, and societal expectations. It impacts us all.
A failure to consider sex differences introduces direct risks into fields such as medicine, ergonomics, and AI modeling of human behaviour. Bohannon highlights that even cognitive strategies differ subtly:
Adult men and women have subtle differences in their ability to navigate spaces, for example. Men tend to memorise paths more abstractly, while women tend to use visual landmarks around the path to remember where to go. This seems to be in line up with other sex differences concerning remembering specific locations – women are generally better at that, which may be tied to that visual landmark trick, whereas men are generally better at navigating virtual 3D spaces.
Cat Bohannon – Eve
These differences do not imply superiority. Rather, they showcase biological diversity. Ignoring such distinctions risks designing technologies, diagnostic tools, or even transportation systems that serve only part of the population effectively. Any system built on a partial dataset puts its users, and therefore its credibility, at risk.
The Psychological Burden and Social Risk
Beyond biology lies the complex territory of gender identity and lived experience. Bohannon writes,
One can be comfortable with one’s gender identity and still be exhausted by the experience of living it.
Cat Bohannon – Eve
This exhaustion emerges from the social risks and pressures embedded in gendered expectations. Even when individuals feel affirmed in who they are, societal structures may impose emotional or psychological tolls, through discrimination, lack of access to healthcare, or rigid cultural norms. And we feel this acutely as women, how often have you not found out that certain medication does not work as well on you as on your men friends? How often have you had to remind the men in your household to do something?
Acknowledging this fatigue is essential for risk mitigation. Systems that ignore gendered burdens, and the toll these take, whether they are from workplace policies to mental-health services, will inevitably fail a significant portion of the population.
Sexism as a Structural Risk to Societal Health
At its root, sexism is not just discrimination—it is a control system. As Bohannon observes,
That’s the core of what sexism is: a massive set of rules that work to control reproduction.
Cat Bohannon – Eve
These rules manifest differently across cultures but share a common risk: they constrain bodily autonomy, limit economic participation, and distort demographic and developmental outcomes. When reproductive control is embedded in politics, economics, or medicine, societies risk reduced innovation, increased inequality, and long-term demographic instability. Risk-based analysis therefore requires seeing sexism not only as a moral or cultural issue but as a threat to societal resilience. And we should all see this risk as a threat, if women thrive, we all thrive.
Economic Inequality and Intergenerational Risk
Perhaps the most quantifiable risk Bohannon describes is the role of wealth in shaping human futures:
Human wealth is one of the easiest predictive measures for a child’s eventual success. How much money a child’s parents have access to shapes not only how much wealth that child is likely to have as an adult but also how likely that child is to reach adulthood with fertility left intact.
Cat Bohannon – Eve
Poverty is not simply a financial deficit, it is a biological and generational one. Children born into under-resourced environments face higher health risks, reduced educational opportunities, and diminished reproductive health later in life, as has been discussed on our podcast before. Poverty comes with a lot more obstacles that are invisible to others who have never struggled with this. In addition, these effects accumulate over generations. When wealth determines fertility outcomes, inequality becomes biologically entrenched.
Investment Patterns and the Risk of Misallocated Resources
Finally, economic behaviour differs significantly across genders and shapes community outcomes. Bohannon highlights a striking statistic:
Worldwide, girls and women spend up to 90 percent of their earned income on their families. Men and boys spend only 30 to 40 percent.
Cat Bohannon – Eve
From a risk-management perspective, this has profound implications:
- Women’s income disproportionately stabilises households.
- Increasing women’s economic opportunities yields higher returns in health and education.
- Ignoring these patterns leads to misallocated social investments and weaker community resilience.
Systems that underpay or under-employ women are not just unjust, they are inefficient and structurally risky!
Reducing Risk by Seeing the Full Human Picture
Risk emerges whenever systems rely on partial data, incomplete assumptions, or biased structures. Bohannon’s insights remind us that understanding sex differences, gendered experiences, and economic dynamics is not an academic exercise but a risk-reduction strategy. Mitigating these risks requires scientific inclusivity, social awareness, and equitable investment.
