Mammalian variations by gender

My son sort of blew my mind by asking me this question. Do I think some species are dominated by gender identification? Are some species less prone to gender roles even when it looks that way? How would I know the difference?

:confused:



EDIT: He has a way of starting a conversation and then ending it abruptly. With his mom, anyway. :( Earlier we'd been talking about cultural influences or expectations, for mothers or fathers raising their babies. Then we started talking about our cats, both female and spayed, but one is definitely a "mama" type cat, but the other one acts like a Tom Cat. Our other (deceased) male cats were neutered, but still had a personality that was nurturing, not distant or intent on domination. They could have been named Priscilla, and no one would have asked why a boy cat had a girl name.

It makes me smile to read about Veldan's adventures with his new son, and parenting with his male partner. It used to be a pleasure to read about lolli's lesbian parenting (until she stopped posting). Seemed to me my kid was asking about same sex parents, or kids who only have one parent, or divorced parents, or how human parenting "works" in my mind, compared to how parenting "works" in his mind.