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A new study finds that countries that had higher gender equality rankings also generally reported more casual sex, more sex partners per capita, younger ages for sexual debut, and greater tolerance/approval of premarital sex. Roy Baumeister of Florida State University presented his research on worldwide “sexual economics” at the recent American Psychological Association meeting in Tallahassee, Fla.
Baumeister’s research used two data sets on 37 countries, including an international online sex survey of 317,000 people and data specific to gender equity and related topics.
“Women’s sexuality has a kind of value that men’s sexuality does not,” explained Baumeister. “Men will basically exchange other resources with women to have sex, but the reverse doesn’t work. Women ... can trade sex for attention, for grades, for a promotion, for money, as in prostitution or sex with a celebrity.”
Supply and demand dictates that whichever sex is more scarce has more power, said Baumeister, with the caveat that this theory applies only to heterosexual interactions.
“In countries where women are at a big disadvantage, they restrain sex, so the price is high and men make a lifetime commitment to support them to get sex,” Baumeister said. “Men will do whatever is required for sex.”
Mark Regnerus, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas-Austin, said Baumeister’s theory is a “perspective through which to understand sexual relationships and sexual behavior.” Regnerus’ research on the subject attributes the rise of the “hook-up” culture in colleges to the fact that so many more women are getting a higher education.
Baumeister’s study, “Cultural Variations in the Sexual Marketplace: Gender Equality Correlates with More Sexual Activity,” was published in the Journal of Social Psychology (2011;151(3):350-360).
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