The concept of the alpha male isn't standing up to reality. A large majority of primate communities have shared dominance, meaning either sex can come out on top. And, though the idea of male dominance has been widely disseminated across human society, we share many traits with non-male-dominated species.
Primate societies in which males "win nearly all aggressive encounters against females are actually rare," according to a study published in the journal PNAS. Male dominance is "not a baseline, as was implicitly thought for a long time in primatology," Élise Huchard, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Montpellier and coauthor of the study, told The Washington Post.
In instances where males or females dominate, it's circumstantial. Female dominance is mainly seen in species where "females are monogamous or similar in size to males" and where "females control reproduction" and decide "when and with whom to mate," said El País. Male dominance occurs where males are "larger, groups are terrestrial and many females mate with multiple males."
The concept of the alpha male originated in a 1970 book about wolf ecology. The author of the book later said the text made inaccurate claims but that didn't stop the alpha male idea being applied to other animal species and also to humans.
The concept of the dominant male has since pervaded culture and politics, and many men even describe themselves as alpha males. Still, said the Post, there's "scant evidence to support the theory that sex-based inequities in humans originated from our primate relatives." | 
