Scientist Jared Diamond, who also won the Pulitzer Prize for his book Guns, Germs and Steel, touches on the reason for this situation in his book The Third Chimpanzee.
According to Diamond, a professor of geography at the University of California, who, despite studying physiology, is also interested in various fields such as anthropology, ecology, geography and evolutionary biology, the reason is hidden in our social and sexual organization.
Large alpha males formed a harem, causing the males to be larger than the females.
Females were mating with a single large male. The larger the number of females in the male’s harem, the larger the difference in size between the sexes. Moreover, this situation is seen not only in humans, but also in other species. The larger the harem, the larger the males of that species than the females.
For example, since gibbons are monogamous, there is no size difference between males and females.
Male gorillas are twice as large as female gorillas because there are three to six females in their harem. Since the number of females in the harem of the southern elephant seal is on average forty-eight, the difference in size is much greater, males weighing three tons, while females weigh only three hundred kilograms.
Contrary to our ancestors, being large is no longer so decisive in modern society.
Women today place more emphasis on the intelligence and personality of the man, and monogamy is now much more common. Of course, women still prefer men who are taller and muscular than they are today, but since it is not as intense as in the early days of humanity, this has no serious impact on evolution. If it continues like this from now on, cognitive features will affect the evolution of humanity, not physical features.
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