Has the Surplus of Women over Men Driven the Increase in Premarital and Casual Sex among American Young Adults?

Excerpt

Sex before marriage has gotten more frequent and more casual since the 1970s, and more of it than previously is outside of even the limited commitment of a relationship. Average age at marriage has gotten later, and there is more childbearing outside marriage. Regnerus argues that men want sex more than women, and that, while some women want sex with no commitment, it is more important to the average woman than to the average man that sex be combined with an affectionate relationship and some commitment. If he is correct about these average sex differences in preferences, then changes in recent decades seem counter to what women would have wanted. Of course, with the advent of the pill, and women’s increasing careerism, Regnerus recognizes correctly that women themselves may want uncommitted sex when they are young more than in previous eras. Yet he believes that patterns have changed much more toward sex without commitment than women would have preferred. …