There exists a significant “orgasm gap” between heterosexual women and heterosexual men. A 2005 study found that 39% of women usually or always experience an orgasm during partnered sex compared with 91% of men. A more recent survey conducted in 2018 discovered that the gap had narrowed, but a sizable 30-point divide remained.
McMaster University sociologists Nicole Andrejek, Tina Fetner, and Melanie Heath have added some real rigor to the conversation. In a study recently published to the journal Gender & Society, the trio surveyed 2,303 Canadian adults broadly representative of the country’s population.
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A significant subset of the female interviewees expressed shame at using practices other than vaginal intercourse to achieve orgasm, including oral sex or vibrators, describing them as “unnatural” or “dirty.”
“We still must move past a taboo about women’s sexuality,” the researchers wrote. “Discomfort with their own sexual pleasure and embodied shame lead women to rein in their sexual appetite. Women as a group feel less entitled to the types of sex that lead them to orgasm, relative to men. Even in the most private, intimate settings, our findings show that gender and heteronormativity shape how individuals act.”
