Male poor performance, or female low self-confidence?

Ever find sex horribly disappointing? Finding it difficult to get those teenage kicks? If it’s any consolation, according to a recent study from the School of Public Health, you are not alone.

The rather raunchy study probed 15,000 young adults on their previous 7 years of sexual activities and ratings of their sexual enjoyment. For many, recalling so many sexual exploits may be a struggle, but it would seem rating pleasure was another matter. Remarkably, 87% of men compared to 47% of women reported to having orgasms most of the time. This shocking disparity might be interpreted as a lack of male performance but perhaps the real issues lie with the female psyche. In the study, regularity of female orgasms and sexual enjoyment was linked to three psychological factors: autonomy, self esteem and empathy.

Autonomy is the ability to follow personal convictions, even if this means going against social norms and is supposed to represent sexual exploration. Self esteem, on the other hand is the sense of self worth and is aligned with the ability to communicate sexual preferences. Finally, empathy is linked to understanding the partner’s needs and knowing how to satisfy them. It is thought this empathy may then inspire the partner to return this “favour”.

Unsurprisingly, it was shown that women score higher on empathy but lower on self esteem compared to men. The co-author of the study Adena Galinsky said “these developmental assets may be more important to young women’s sexual pleasure since they help them break down impediments to sexual communication and exploration”. So maybe it’s time to take the pressure away from male sexual performance and work on female confidence for a change.