Female Choices: Sexual Behavior of Female Primates

[Female Choices] deserves the wide audience it will no doubt enjoy. In it the author first summarizes the latest findings on the sexuality of female primates, giving special emphasis to their patterns of mate selection, and then utilizes the primate data as a springboard for a provocative interpretation of women's sexual behavior. (American Scientist) Meredith F. Small focuses on sexual activity and mate choice because reproduction is 'the nitty-gritty of evolution.' She compares human and nonhuman primate females... to trace the evolution of human female behavior.... The strength of Small's book is that she supports her thesis with real instances from the lives of real monkeys and apes. She shows that in sexual activity and mate choice, females and males may not be as different as has been commonly supposed. (Nature) [Female Choices] is of great value in drawing together the now large literature on sexual interactions in wild, semiwild, and zoo settings of a wide range of different primates.... [Small's] often subtle thinking and willingness to consider critical viewpoints make this a book I would encourage students to read. (BIOSCIENCE)