Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution

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Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution
Front cover Eve - How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution.jpg
AuthorCat Bohannon
LanguageEnglish
Subject Human evolution
PublisherPenguin Random House
Publication date
October 3, 2023
Pages624
ISBN 9780385350549

Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution is a 2023 non-fiction book about human evolution written by American scientist Cat Bohannon.

Cat Bohannon Cat Bohannon 2023 Texas Book Festival.jpg
Cat Bohannon

The book explores how women’s biology shaped human history and culture. [1] One claim in the book is that when it comes to biological and medical research and clinical drug trials women's bodies have long been overlooked because males have fewer "complicating" factors such as the estrous cycle. [2]

Awards and accolades

The book won Foyles Non-Fiction Book of the Year in December 2023. [3] In a review published in The Guardian , scientist Kate Womersley called the book "long overdue". [1] Writing for The New York Times , Sarah Lyall concluded the book was "engaging, playful, erudite, discursive and rich with detail". [4] In the same paper, Cindi Leive wrote in her review that the book "makes a powerful argument for the pivotal role female Homo sapiens have played in making us human". [5]

In October 2023 the book was listed on The New York Times Best Seller list. [6] It was shortlisted in 2024 for both the Orwell Prize for Political Writing [7] and the Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize. [8] In 2024 the book was Longlisted for Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction. [9]

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References

  1. 1 2 Womersley, Kate (October 10, 2023). "Eve by Cat Bohannon review – long overdue evolutionary account of women and their bodies". The Guardian .
  2. Mosley, Tonya. "'Eve' author says medicine often ignores female bodies. 'We've been guinea pigs'". npr. Retrieved December 4, 2023.
  3. "Foyles Books of the Year". Foyles. Retrieved December 3, 2023.
  4. Lyall, Sarah (September 11, 2023). "Putting Women at the Center of Human Evolution". The New York Times. Retrieved March 9, 2024.
  5. Leive, Cindi (October 6, 2023). "It's a Woman's World. We're All Just Living in It". The New York Times. Retrieved March 9, 2024.
  6. "Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction". The New York Times. October 22, 2023. Retrieved March 9, 2024.
  7. "Orwell Prizes 2024 shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. June 11, 2024. Retrieved June 24, 2024.
  8. "Royal Society science book prize 2024 shortlist announced". Books+Publishing. August 14, 2024. Retrieved August 24, 2024.
  9. "Women's Prize for Non-Fiction Longlist 2024". London Review Bookshop. Retrieved January 8, 2025.