Primatologist Dr. Alison Jolly proved that females rule, both in the animal kingdom and in the field of scientific study. Studying lemurs in Madagascar, Dr. Jolly found groundbreaking evidence of female dominance in primates, debunking the assertion that males dominate females in every primate species, including humans. In the words of primatologist Patricia C. Wright, “This was a real surprise to people in the ’60s… female leaders were still so rare. And here comes a woman presenting a model of primates where the females are leaders — effective leaders.”
In Lemur Behavior: A Madagascar Field Study , Dr. Jolly’s study on ring-tailed lemurs, she wrote, “Females have social, spatial and feeding priority over males…all females, whether dominant or subordinate in the female hierarchy, are dominant over male.” According to Dr. Jolly, even the most subordinate females would “at times pounce upon a dominant male and snatch a tamarind pod from his hand, cuffing him over the ear in the process.”
To learn more about Alison Jolly, see her New York Times obituary here .