Abstract

Beliefs have changed enormously regarding sexual desire and pleasure on the part of men and women. The idea that men have a stronger sex drive emerged over the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries, and became established in the Twentieth; but before that, a conviction quite to the contrary had dominated. On the other hand, data from sex surveys conducted in many Western countries in the last half-century show that, in certain respects, the difference in sexual feelings and behaviours between men and women has indeed diminished and that in others it has disappeared entirely. One of the most important factors that favoured the diminution has been the decline of the double moral standard.