Women's number of sexual partners before their first marriage over the years
This week we take a look at the number of sexual partners women have before their first marriage.
American sexual behavior is much different than it used to be. Today, 58% of Americans think premarital sex is okay, compared to 29% in the 1970s.
Forty-three percent of women had just one premarital sex partner in the 1970s. Three decades later, this was down to 21%. Following in the wake of the sexual revolution, the 1970s have been characterized as a decade of carnal exploration. But this doesn’t seem to have been the case for the vast majority of women who ultimately tied the knot in that decade: almost two-thirds of them had at most one sex partner prior to getting married. Even in the 1980s, slightly over half of the women reported having a maximum of one sex partner before walking down the aisle. Things looked very different at the start of the new millennium.
The fall of women having no premarital sex partners is as noteworthy. In the 1970s more than 1 in 5 of new brides were virgins. By the 2010s, the number dropped to 1 in 20. That's a decrease of more than 70%. At the other end of the distribution, the number of future wives who had ten or more sex partners increased from 2 percent in the 1970s to 14 percent in the 2000s, and then to 18 percent in the 2010s. Overall, American women are far more likely to have had multiple premarital sex partners in recent years.
Unfortunately, as the Insitute for Family Studies notes, the NSFG doesn’t have full data on men’s premarital sexual behavior, and in any event, they recall their own marital histories less reliably than do women.
The data were originally posted at CDC's National Survey of Family Growth and I came across them at Institute for Family Studies
I am 40 and have gone to 20 weddings in my life. My friend(male) who got married had a maximum number of partners of 4(most less many 1) and the women had less. I cant imagine being married having 10 partners male and certainly female
ReplyDeleteEspecially know with the advent of dating apps, a person could be going on dates with at least another person per month or 12 people a year. If they only have sex with 1/5 of them, in 4 years that adds up to 9-10 people.
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Deletehat would mean you would have dated 60 people , never connected, and every single month dumped them totally and moved on. I know the math works but is not the way life works. Once you are engaged your number of partners does not go up except in rare cases. And women are looking for new sex partners far, far, far less than men according to all studies
DeleteI am just saying it's totally possible to have 10 partners before your first marriage nowadays. Young adults also partake on one-night-stands for example, with expectation that there shall be no further relations between the sexual participants.
Deleteit is amazing that 18% are over 10 and 12% are 6-9. 30% have had a lot of lovers. If the minister says "speak now or forever hold your piiece" it it is certainly a moment of uncertainty.
DeleteAnother thing you have to get into account is that the median age of first marriage for women in the US has skyrocketed from around 21yo back in the 1970, to 28 now. Even if a woman had 2 sexual partner per year throughout her adulthood (we are being pretty conservatives since most people have regular intercourse before that), then she will have had 20 partners before she gets married.
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Deletealso before 1980 sex implied intercourse but since then there are many relationships that involve oral sex only that may increase the number of partners. This is surprisingly common
ReplyDeleteit is amazing that 10+ is now approaching 1 partner(16% 10+ and 23% 1). This is great for men, not sure how women benefit except they get more variety. When you add 6-9 you are at 33% women 6+ way more than 1. I am a 1 man woman but I guess some of my acquaintances have had a.lot of men entering them
ReplyDeleteCan you elaborate as to why this is great for men, but not for women? As far as I am concerned this is equally beneficial to both sexes, as intercourse gives pleasure to both parties. Even if we take into account that sex for some women is not as pleasurable as for their partner's, having multiple partners only ads to the benefits, as these women can explore more thoroughly what they like, and select the right partner for them.
Deletei subscribe to academia.edu and get many academic studies on sexuality. A woman's propensity for multiple partners is a small fraction of men
DeleteThat makes sense, but can't this be explained within cultural and societal bounds. Especially in capitalist societies women are taught that sex is a commodity, and the more they "give it away" the less it will worth.
Deleteit is funny how after 2000(22 years ago) one partner has gone up from 20 to 23%. It reflects what i see with my daughter and friends..they all seemed. to have college boyfriends that they married 2 yrs out of college
ReplyDeleteThat may have something to do with the current economic situation. People know they have to stick together to make it through, as one wage isn't nearly enough, and that makes it a risk to change partners.
Deletemaybe but this is the case since 2020 through many boom and bust cycles. I just think most one who want to marry are not desiring of many partners. Once they get a guy they want they stick with him. saw that as a "dater" in the 80s and as a parent of 2 married girls in the 2020s(and that includes their friends from college..this is the Midwest though
Deletemeant to say "this is the case since 2000 according to the charts" not 2020
Deleteeven now you have almost 60% at 3 or less..not too promiscous and it seems that around 2000 was the golden age of experienced wives to be
ReplyDeleteI would guess that the number of women who have had 10+ sexual partners and then get married is small. If you had 10 you are probably not getting married and than may be true down to 6-9
ReplyDeleteI beg to differ. If you take a look at this post, https://www.stadafa.com/2020/08/age-at-first-marriage.html
Deletemany women nowadays tend to marry on their 30s, with the average being 30.1. If you take into account that the median age of first intercourse is 16, then 14+ years with ten, or even twenty partners doesn't sound that much.
The average age of first intercourse for women in the 60's-70's was between 16 and 17. If a young woman had only one or two partners in each of the years leading up to their mid-twenties (when most would be married),, she would have had more than ten partners but I wouldn't consider thatr behavior to be promiscuous. It seems kind of normal.
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