WOMEN PSICHOLOGY
The surveys confirm that most teenagers see nothing morally wrong in pre-marital sexual intercourse, and an increasing proportion of teenage men and, especially, of women are sexually active. This presumes that there has been a reduction in the ‘double standard’ of sexuality and that women increasingly feel that they have equal sexual desires, needs, and enjoyment as men.
The American survey disclosed that fewer than 40 per cent of the unmarried teenage women had any reliable knowledge of the time during the menstrual cycle when the risk of becoming pregnant was greatest. It also showed that only about 60 per cent had used contraceptives (or their partner had) the last time they had had sexual intercourse. This finding is disturbing, but is none the less an improvement over the finding in the 1971 survey, when only 45 per cent had used contraceptives. It is also encouraging that reliable methods of contraception (the pill and the condom) were replacing the unreliable methods (withdrawal and douching).
The British surveys noted far smaller class differences in sexual attitudes and behaviour than the American surveys, but there were differences nevertheless. Those more highly educated and earning higher wages were more likely to have had sex before marriage, perhaps because they married later. They were also more likely than those with less education to have an abortion or to continue with the pregnancy and have an out-of-wedlock baby, because they were less likely to be forced into marriage; but as those with more education were more likely to use contraceptives, pregnancy was less likely to occur.
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