Across every demographic that has been studied, women report the lowest frequency of reaching orgasm during sexual encounters with men.
[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Orgasm gap researcher Laurie Mintz argues that the primary reason for this form of gender inequality is due to "our cultural ignorance of the clitoris" and that it is commonplace to "mislabel women's genitals by the one part (the vagina) that gives men, but not women, reliable orgasms.
[28][36] Studies have found that women report pretending ("faking") to orgasm during PIV intercourse more than during any other sexual practice.
A 2021 study found that people generally believed men were more entitled to an orgasm than women during a hook-up.
These examples, particularly with the backdrop of the clitoris being discovered and rediscovered, indicate that the evolution of female anatomy across the 20th century occurred as a result of active deletion rather than simple omission in the interests of brevity".
[55] Gabriele Falloppio described the clitoris in 1561, highlighting the fact that "modern anatomists have entirely neglected it", yet his findings were consistently dismissed by his colleagues; Andreas Vesalius stated it was a "new and useless part" that had no function in "healthy women".
[55] Later anatomists, including Regnier de Graaf in the 17th century, also provided a full description of the clitoris, though their work was also either ignored or suppressed.
[47][57][58][59] It has been proposed that for women, masturbation is an effective means to discover one's own preferences in order to be able to communicate the same to sexual partners.
[62][1][11][5][2] There is a tendency for open sexual communication to be low or lacking between couples who experience difficulty with reaching orgasm.
[69][45][70][71] The aspect of pleasure is generally overlooked within sex education that is presented to youth; instead, the vast majority of content is primarily concerned with reproductive health, centering on preventative measures for unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.
Researchers conclude that this idea may contribute to unrealistic expectations for what methods of sexual activity are necessary for women to orgasm in real life encounters.
One study in 2021[83] aimed to create terminology around clitoral stimulation techniques already used by women in order to give sexual partners better awareness and vocabulary with which to communicate during intercourse.
Around 76% used rocking, where the base of a penis or sex toy rubs against the clitoris consistently throughout penetration as opposed to thrusting in and out.