Control of Female Sexual Behaviour: An Investigation using the Standard Cross Cultural Sample

The control of female sexual behaviour has been suggested to be a mating strategy used by both men and women to mitigate intrasexual competition. Men are incentivised to control female sexual behaviour because it reduces their risk of cuckoldry by other males. Females, because they want to reduce the supply of sex available in society so that men will have to invest more resources to gain access to them sexually. They therefore do not want other women to threaten this exchange by promiscuously engaging in sex with the men in the community. Features in society may prompt men and women to engage in the control of female sexual behaviour. Men may respond to an increased risk of cuckoldry in the form of a polygynous mating system or to having to invest more in their offspring. Women are suggested to be motivated to control female sexual behaviour when they lack power and control over resources in society. Previous research has tested these theories but have focused on a small aspect of female sexual behaviour, premarital sexual permissiveness. This thesis aims to expand on this research by examining the question: Do men and women control female sexual behaviour through promoting negative attitudes and beliefs on different aspects of female sexual behaviour? To charter the extensive variation in attitudes and beliefs on female sexual behaviour that is present in societies a thorough literature search was conducted of the Human Relations Area Files. This revealed 10 thematic areas including attitudes towards menstruation, virginity and adultery and sexual pleasure. Whyte’s alternative case sample of the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample was used to test the effectiveness of circumstances that might incentivise men and women to control several ‘aspects’ of female sexual behaviour. This included beliefs restricting women’s sexual freedom, supporting violence against women and shaming women’s sexualised bodies. Results from Ordinal Logistic Regression showed that societies who had direct inheritance of resources and control of property by women were more likely to enact control over women’s sexual behaviour. The question of whether men and women control female sexual behaviour through different mechanisms was also confirmed. Results showed that situations that may incentivise men were associated with beliefs restricting women’s sexual freedom, whereas situations for women were associated with negative beliefs regarding women’s sexualised bodies. The implications of these findings for women’s reproductive and sexual health are discussed.