Coalitions matter for both men and women: Insights from three subsistence communities in southwest Ethiopia

This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 2 of this Preprint. You must log in to post a comment. There are no comments or no comments have been made public for this article. This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 2 of this Preprint. Add a Comment You must log in to post a comment. Comments There are no comments or no comments have been made public for this article. Coalitions are a widespread cooperative strategy across mammals, including humans. They may be transient, occurring in one-off interactions, or more commonly, as part of long-term relationships including friendship. In subsistence-based societies, research on coalitions has primarily focused on men, leaving women comparatively understudied. To address this gap, we examined coalitions across genders among three subsistence-based communities in southwest Ethiopia (Kwegu, Kara, Nyangatom). We distinguished contest coalitions, involving direct confrontation against others, and scramble coalitions, involving gaining access to resources before others. Using focus group interviews, we found robust support that both men and women use scramble and contest coalitions. We then conducted structured interviews (n = 60 men, 82 women) in a Kwegu community focusing on three domains of contest coalitions: group decision-making, interpersonal disagreements, and opposite-gender motivation. We find that both men and women were equally likely to report forming coalitions in those contexts. Exploring partner preferences, overall, women appear to exhibit greater selectivity than men in their choice of coalitionary partners. We found that while men prefer high-status partners and a larger number of coalitionary partners compared to women, women show strong preference for same gender partners as well as those from the same clan, age group and with whom they share kinship ties compared to men. In conclusion, differences in partner preferences may shape group dynamics, with women influencing social processes in ways that differ from men. As in many other mammalian species, including apes, female coalitions might be a fundamental feature of human social organization. https://doi.org/10.32942/X2WH30 Arts and Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences men, women, scramble, contest, coalition, subsistence-based society Published: 2025-12-24 02:37 Last Updated: 2026-03-30 21:38 Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest. Language: English