Sexuality and Women

Women’s sexuality can refer to a broad range of the human experience of sexuality, including women’s sexual arousal, desire, and behavior; sexual [Page 1567]identity and orientation; and aspects of culture related to politics, the arts, religion, and many other social issues. Scholars in multiple disciplines have studied the ways in which women’s experiences of sexuality differ from men’s experiences of sexuality, and debates continue in both popular and academic presses regarding the nature and degree of these differences, which are likely both biological and sociocultural in origin. Women’s sexuality varies greatly across cultures, illustrating the plasticity of sexuality and the need to understand women’s sexuality in historical and cultural contexts. This entry discusses several dimensions of women’s sexuality, including arousal, desire, and behavior; identity and ...