Because of the attention in our professional literature given to problem sexuality, its causes and treatment, it is interesting to find that significantly high percentages of married people find their sex lives to be pleasurable and satisfying. Though Kinsey’s studies did not report data on satisfaction with marital sex, Hunt presented some findings which indicate the extent to which his sample viewed the sexual part of their marriage as positive. Among the youngest married male cohort, 99% termed their marital coitus “mostly” or “very” pleasurable, as did at least 94% of the older cohorts. The married women in this sample presented a somewhat different picture. The percentage rating their marital coitus “very pleasurable” rose from 57% for the under-twenty-five cohort to a high of 63% for the thirty-five to forty-four age groups. Thereafter, the highly positive appraisal dropped, with only 45% of the forty-five to fifty-four group and 38% of the fifty-five and over group giving their marital sex such a rating. Adding the “mostly pleasurable” responses to these resulted in 88% for the under-twenty-five women, 93% for those between thirty-five and forty-four, followed by a decline to 91 and 83%, respectively, for women in the next two decades.
The Tavris and Sadd Redbook study found that happiness and sexual satisfaction were related to religiosity and freedom of communication with husbands. The more religious the wives, the more likely they were to report their marital sex as good or very good. Eyen so, two-thirds of the nonreligious or moderately religious wives rated their sex lives good to very good, compared with 88% of the very religious wives.
The strongest indicator of sexual and marital satisfaction for the Redbook wives was the ability to discuss sex with their husbands. “The more they talk, the better they rate their sex lives, their marriages, and their overall happiness”. For example, of the 47% who “always” or “often” discuss sex with their husbands, 56% and 43%, respectively, rated their sex lives as “very good.”
Meanwhile, a survey of British wives reported in Sexuality Today concluded that 54% of them are contented with their sex lives. The “average woman” in this sample of 836 wives makes love about twice a week; more than a fourth consider themselves “pretty sexy.”
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