Eve is a groundbreaking story of the female body, a scientific and lucid vision that places women at the center of the evolutionary success of Homo sapiens.
Why do women live longer than men? Why do women go through menopause? Why are women more likely to get Alzheimer's? How did breastfeeding lead to the development of civilization? Is there really a "female brain"?
Cat Bohannon answers questions that scientists should have asked long ago, covering, with indomitable curiosity and sharp wit, the last 200 million years to explain the evolution of the female sex. Tracing our current characteristics to specific ancestors, she describes how women's bodies came to be so different from men's, down to the depths of our cells, and why this still matters to our species.
Eve is not only a sweeping review of human history, but also an urgent and necessary redress of balance in a world that has been focused on the male body for too long. Bohannon's findings-from how cesarean sections affected the shape of the female pelvis during the Industrial Age to the surprising similarities between pus and breast milk-will completely change what you thought you knew about evolution and provide answers to the question of why Homo sapiens became such a dominant species, from toolmaking and city-building to the development of language.