While many argue that the issue of gender inequality and the attitudes of men as ‘breadwinners’ and women as ‘homemakers’ has been ingrained into our culture since the formation of human society, new research has revealed that the earliest societies were likely to have been founded on equal rights and responsibilities for both men and women.

Mark Dyble, an anthropologist from University College London who led the study on the pre-historic communities, said: “There is still this wider perception that hunter-gatherers are more macho or male-dominated. We’d argue it was only with the emergence of agriculture, when people could start to accumulate resources, that inequality emerged.”

The scientists collected genealogical data from two hunter-gatherer groups that originated from the Congo and the Philippines. This data included kinship relations, movement between camps and residence patterns, through hundreds of interviews. In both cases, both genders tended to live in groups of around 20, moving roughly every 10 days and subsisting on hunted game, fish and gathered fruit, vegetables and honey and had equal weight in making decisions for the community.

The authors of the study, argue that sexual equality may have proved an evolutionary advantage for early human societies, as it would have fostered wider-ranging social networks and closer cooperation between unrelated individuals. 

“It gives you a far more expansive social network with a wider choice of mates, so inbreeding would be less of an issue,” said Dyble. “And you come into contact with more people and you can share innovations, which is something that humans do par excellence.”

The study suggests that it was only with the dawn of agriculture, when people were able to accumulate resources for the first time, that an imbalance emerged. “Men were able to start having several wives and consequently were able to have more children” said Dyble. “Furthermore it started to pay more for men to start accumulating resources and became favourable to form alliances with male kin.”

The findings appear to be supported by qualitative observations of the hunter-gatherer groups in the study. In the Philippines population, women were involved in hunting and honey collecting and while there is still a division of labour, overall men and women contribute a similar number of calories to the camp. In both groups, monogamy is the norm and men are active in childcare.

Andrea Migliano, of University College London and the paper’s senior author, said: “Sex equality suggests a scenario where unique human traits, such as cooperation with unrelated individuals, could have emerged in our evolutionary past.”

This anthropological finding provides an interesting insight into the belief many critics have about gender equality being a difficult achievement due to stereotypes ingrained into our social and cultural norms over the past few 100 years.

Abigail Player, a PhD student at the Centre for the Study of Group processes at Kent University claims decades of research have shown that stereotypes about men (as breadwinners) and women as (homemakers) have a huge impact on our beliefs about how they should (or should not) behave.

Many of the surveys and experiments Ms. Player had been involved in, showed that women are generally perceived as more “communal” and “loyal”, whereas men are described more as “protectors” and “competent”.

Ms Player went on to say “Of course not everyone subscribes to these stereotypes, but there is evidence that men and women who behave in contrast with these traditional stereotypes- such as women in leadership roles and stay-at-home dads, are likely to be evaluated negatively by others.

Ms Player’s concluding statement, a statement shared with many other psychologists is that it is these unconscious gender biases, that make it difficult to overcome gender inequality within society, particularly in the workforce.

However with this latest research, perhaps a society where both genders are seen as equal ‘hunters’ and ‘gatherers’ can be achieved again.

To read the full article and view the report findings, click here: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/may/14/early-men-women-equal-scientists