The Social Production and Salience of Young Women’s Sexual Desire

• In Event: 2266 - Family Section Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 19. Sex, Sexuality, and Choices about Having Children

Abstract

Research on young women’s sexuality tends to emphasize associated risks. In contrast, this study foregrounds young women’s desire for sex and asks whether this desire contributes to anticipatory planning and/or situational decision-making about contraception at intercourse. Using data from the Relationship Dynamics and Social Life Study, a diverse sample of 925 women updated weekly for 2.5 years, the author (1) describes how desire for sex varies across and within women during the transition to adulthood; (2) explores how this desire relates to social circumstances and experiences; and (3) assesses the relationship between desire for sex, sexual activity, and contraceptive use. The strength of young women’s desire is heterogeneous across key demographic characteristics like religiosity and social class; changes after pivotal events like sexual debut; and varies with social ecology, such as friends’ attitudes. When women more strongly desire sex they are more likely to have sex and to use hormonal contraception (independent of sexual activity). However, they are less likely to use condoms or withdrawal. These findings suggest that desire for sex is socially situated and relevant for both anticipatory and situational decisions about contraception. Foregrounding underlying desires thus greatly expands scholarly conceptualizations of women’s sexual agency, young adult sexuality, and cognitive social models of sexual decision-making.

Author

• Abigail Weitzman, University of Texas