General

Women who want

‘Highly sexual’ women are confident, think about sex a lot, take pleasure in themselves

A new study in the Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality explains the difference between “highly sexual” women and those who are less focused on or interested in sex. The researchers say it comes down to psychological factors: these women are more “confident about their sexual ability, think a lot about sex, and enjoy masturbating.” The highly sexual women in the study were not passive or uninterested in sex, they say, which runs contrary to the stereotype of women compared to men. The study also downplays the significance of behavioural factors: both highly sexual and less sexual women reported having sex for the first time at age 17, on average. And both groups reported having sex the same number of times per week (once/twice to three to five times). They also reported having had a similar number of committed partners (3.62 among highly sexual women compared to 2.56 among their counterparts). Highly sexual women did, however, report having had a greater number of casual sex partners compared to their less sexually interested sisters—on average, 7.96 versus 4.28, respectively.

Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality

Looking for more?

Get the Best of Maclean's sent straight to your inbox. Sign up for news, commentary and analysis.
  • By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.
FILED UNDER: