There is a sexist myth that has been baked into biology. This myth has distorted the way science and society have perceived female animals, including women.
This is the myth of the passive female.
Science has historically portrayed female animals as coy, passive, elusive, non-competitive, and relatively chaste compared to the promiscuous male.
In reality, the role of the female in the animal world ranges wildly – philandering females, alpha females, cannibalistic lovers - all far from being passive.
Where did this myth come from?
We have Darwin to thank for the myth of the passive female.
Darwin developed his theory of sexual selection – the theory of how competition for mates led to the evolution of sex differences – in Victorian England.
Victorian England viewed women as passive, coy, chaste, significant only as doting mothers. These views heavily influenced how Darwin viewed female animals.
For Darwin, sexual selection was the “struggle between the males for possession of the females.” Males were actively competing amongst themselves for females through combat or charms.
Females in comparison were passive, coy. The extent of their choice was to choose between whichever male was “the least distasteful” and acquiesce to his amorous advances.
Darwin’s ideas helped solidify sexists notions of women’s inferiority that were used to maintain patriarchal biases in Western society for hundreds of years.