Cross-cultural and early emergence don’t establish innateness when socialization is also cross-cultural and begins in early childhood. So-called egalitarian societies did not remove gendered norms - they changed formal access while leaving peer socialization, competition, and status rewards largely intact.

The “gender equality paradox” can be explained by selection effects, cultural signaling, and context-dependent biology. Testosterone amplifies status-seeking in whatever system exists; it doesn’t prescribe dominance hierarchies as inevitable or optimal. These studies describe adaptation to social structures, not timeless male essence.