User blog comment:Lordofmonsterisland/Covenant Females/@comment-26685181-20101027225721

Unggoy are matriarchal, and if the Grunts we've seen in the games are any indication, this is probably for the best. I like to think of them like Terry Pratchetts Nac Mac Feegle - rarely born, leaders of a clan of thousands, and immensely wise (and large). Young are born rapidly, and mature quickly, and are mostly male. The few females born are destined to become matriarchs of another clan, raised by their mother and taking an elite guard with her when she leaves to replace a dead matriarch or start a whole new clan. Naturally, they lack the Celticism and blue tattooes.

I don't know if Lekgolo would even understand the concept of gender. Are their composite worms sexually dimorphic? Is there a difference? Are there even sexes in Lekgolo biology? They're just too alien to say, and I doubt even the Covenant know.

I like the idea of Yanme'e having different appearances for male and female workers/soldiers. So far, I think we've only seen the worker/drone class deployed by the Covenant in emergency roles. I'd like to see how 343i brings us the wingless Yanme'e Soldier class, perhaps ala the Skirmishers, if not in role then in sheer awesomeness? Yanme'e young would essentially be grubs, perhaps coccooning themselves when they mature into fully-fledged Yanme'e, and special "jelly" fed to select individuals to encourage their development into specific castes as needed.

I'm not going to go into the treatment of women by either the Sangheili or the Jiralhanae, or their anatomy, for the former because I think its probably already well known and for the latter because nobody wants to know.

Sangheili children are raised like the ancient Spartans - scrutinised at birth for defects, raised on a harsh regimen of physical training and philosophical and religious enlightenment, until adulthood. The fathers don't seem to take much of an active role on their development, and they are instead raised by uncles. They have a ritual of adolescence, sparring with each other to the death to become a fully-fledged warrior, but I don't imagine they're unhappy with their lot in life.

I don't see much difference with the Jiralhanae, except that a cub may have to kill their father upon reaching adolescence to take over the role as head of the family. If one fails, then more are there to take his place as rivals to their father's dominion. Death is an important phase in a Jiralhanae's life, just so long as it is not their own. Teash apparently has brothels, so we know females exist, but given the Jiralhanae's domination complex I don't think a human would want to know what goes on there...