The orgasm gap or pleasure gap is the disparity in sexual satisfaction—specifically the unequal frequency in achieving orgasm during sexual encounters—between heterosexual men and women. Across every demographic that has been studied, women report the lowest frequency of reaching orgasm during sexual encounters with men. Researchers believe that multiple causes contribute to the orgasm gap. 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."
History of research The 1953 Kinsey Report, titled Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, made several observations including 'differences in frequencies of orgasm' between unmarried American females (200 orgasms on average before marriage, with 36% having never had an orgasm before marriage; 10% of all women in the study said they had never orgasmed at any period in their lives) and males (1500 orgasms on average before marriage; all males in the study reported having had an orgasm before marrying). By 1990, authors were referring to Kinsey et al.'s observed gender disparity in sexual experiences as the "orgasm gap", citing the premarital orgasm rates per gender as an example. Meanwhile, Masters & Johnson (1966) suggested that lesbian women had more orgasms than heterosexual women. A 1994 study by Laumann et al. of sexual practices in the United States found that 75% of men and 29% of women always had orgasms with their spouse, while 40% of men and 80% of women thought their spouse always orgasmed during sex. These rates were different in non-marital straight relationships (cohabitational, long-term and short-term heterosexual relationships), with rates increasing to 81% for men and 43% for women orgasming during sex with their short-term partners, and 69% for men and 83% for women thinking their short-term partners always orgasmed. U.S. feminist writers Marcelle Karp and Debbie Stoller (1999) loosely referred to the 75/29 statistic as evidence that the orgasm gap existed, and to argue that more efforts were needed to sexually emancipate women, because 'there are a whole lot of women who most certainly aren't having fun yet'. Studies indicate an oversimplification in the understanding of the orgasm gap in past research. Firstly, focusing on the orgasm quantity neglects further relevant dimensions of the phenomenon such as orgasm duration and quality. Secondly, the cornerstone of the gap itself, the so far applied binary gender differentiation pattern, is outdated as is known.
Contributing factors
Sexual behaviour and reaching orgasm Data of sexual behaviour research indicates very few women (less than 30%) reach orgasm during mixed-sex sexual activity, whereas men (over 90%) usually do. During partnered sexual encounters, rates of orgasm for men do not vary depending on one's sexual orientation; though, lesbians or women who have sex with women report significantly higher rates of orgasm (up to 83%) than those who have sex with men. This variance among women is influenced by the prioritization of clitoral stimulation during women-only sexual encounters. It has been determined that for women, clitoral stimulation is the most reliable method of reaching orgasm, with nearly all women requiring some form of clitoral stimulation in order to achieve orgasm. Conversely, PIV (penis-in-vagina) intercourse does not reliably result in orgasm for women. Studies have found that women report pretending ("faking") to orgasm during PIV intercourse more than during any other sexual practice. Feminist researchers credit the "phallocentricity" of mixed-sex partnering as being a main contributor to the orgasm gap; multiple studies of sexual behaviour and attitudes have concluded that mixed-sex partners prioritize PIV penetration and men's satisfaction. This tendency is known as "coital imperative", and contributes to the faking orgasm behaviour being more prevalent in women than in men: as there appears to be 'a sexual script in which women should orgasm before men, and men are responsible for women's orgasms', a woman may feel pressured to fake an orgasm before her male partner orgasms in order to please her male partner and avoid hurting his feelings. Studies of heterosexual college hook-up culture found "both men and women reported that men are typically not concerned with women's pleasure in hookups, but both reported that men are very attentive to women's pleasure in relationships". Results show that women were less likely to reach orgasm during casual sex rather than relationship sex; this difference was attributed to an overall increased presence of focused clitoral stimulation and men's willingness to perform cunnilingus during relationship sex. However, one study found that cunnilingus was not significantly more likely to occur in relationships than in hookups. Research has also found that gender differences in sexual entitlement might be a factor. A 2021 study found that people generally believed men were more entitled to an orgasm than women during a hook-up.
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