| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
|
|
Charles Darwin (1809–1882) was a biological conservative whose evolutionary theory provided an explanation for the different social roles between the sexes (Clatterbaugh, p. 18). Because of the successful reproductive and survival strategies of certain individuals, their genes have been passed down through generations. At a collective level, societal human behavior molds men and women to be the way they are because “these behaviors have allowed them to be biologically successful” (Clatterbaugh, p. 18).
During the 1970s, the conservative perspective was passionately advocated by George Gilder in Sexual Suicide (1973) and later by David Blankenhorn in Fatherless America (1995). Blankenhorn incorporated the viewpoint held by Gilder and expanded it to include the disputes surrounding men’s roles in the family (Clatterbaugh). The 1970s also witnessed the extension of the biological conservative perspective in a new discipline—sociobiology, a theory originated by Edward O. Wilson in Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (1975), which Wilson called “the systematic study of the biological basis of all social behavior” (Wilson, p. 2). During the 1990s, several new variations of the conservative perspective came to political power in Canada with the Reform Party and in the United States with the Republican Party (Clatterbaugh). These parties supported a pro-family anti-abortion platform, advocated the teaching of moral values in schools, and encouraged school prayer while taking an anti-interventionist approach to regulating economic matters. Frequently, the conservatives appealed to sociobiology to support their defense of traditional gender roles, such as in the famous remarks made by Newt Gingrich in opposition to equal roles for men and women in the military. According to Gingrich: