New research published in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy provides insight into the relationship between knowledge about the clitoris and female sexual pleasure. The findings highlight the importance of clitoral knowledge but suggest it is still relatively limited among both women and men.
“The clitoris is central to women’s pleasure and orgasm experiences. Little knowledge about the clitoris is therefore very likely related to the orgasm gap, the fact that heterosexual women experience orgasms at far lower rates than men,” said study authors Marie-Feline Dienberg of the University of Cologne and Verena Klein of the University of Southampton.
“A few years ago, a study showed that clitoral knowledge among both women – who theoretically had access to a clitoris their entire lives – and men is rather low. At the same time, it seems like that recently some effort has been made to enhance women’s sexual pleasure (e.g., promotion of sex toys, platforms, etc). Due to a possible change in the social climate, we wanted to know if today people know more about the clitoris and how that relates to orgasm.”
In the new study, 573 heterosexual individuals (64% women), who ranged in age between 18 and 68 years, completed a 9-item quiz about clitoral knowledge. The participants also reported how much pleasure they usually get from sexual acts, how often they had an orgasm during sex, and how often they had an orgasm during masterbation. Additionally, they completed a questionnaire regarding the endorsement of orgasm-related gender norms. (e.g., “It is more important for men compared to women to have an orgasm”).
Participants answered about 4.5 out of the 9 items correctly on the quiz, indicating that clitoral knowledge has not increased since 2005. Women were a bit more likely to answer items correctly compared to men.
“We know way too little about the clitoris. In our sample, on average people just answered 50% of the clitoris quiz correctly. This result is like a coin flip,” Dienberg and Klein told PsyPost.
In line with previous research on “the orgasm gap,” the new study found that women were less likely than men to usually or always experience orgasm during partnered sex. Women also tended to report significantly less sexual pleasure compared to men. But there was not a statistically significant difference between women and men’s endorsement of orgasm-related gender norms.
Importantly, the researchers found that women with greater clitoral knowledge were less likely to endorse gender norms, which was in turn associated with higher sexual pleasure and orgasm experience. “To overcome differences in pleasure between women and men our findings indicate a need to further promote clitoral knowledge in sex education and challenge gendered scripts on a broader societal level,” Dienberg and Klein said.
Surprisingly, however, greater clitoral knowledge was associated with greater orgasm frequency in the context of masturbation but not during partnered sex. “Here, our results suggest the translation of clitoral knowledge in a heterosexual setting might be hindered by sociocultural barriers such as gendered sexual scripts, which undermine sexual autonomy for women,” Dienberg and Klein explained.
The study includes some limitations. Namely, the cross-sectional nature of the research prevents any firm conclusions about cause-and-effect relationships
The researchers focused on heterosexual individuals because the biggest gap in orgasm experiences exists between heterosexual women and men. But they noted that “it would be interesting to examine clitoral knowledge levels and endorsement of gendered sexual scripts among more diverse study populations to provide further insight into the interplay between clitoral and sexual pleasure.”
The study, “Does Clitoral Knowledge Translate into Orgasm? The Interplay Between Clitoral Knowledge, Gendered Sexual Scripts, and Orgasm Experience“, was authored by Marie-Feline Dienberg, Tanja Oschatz, Eden Kosman, and Verena Klein.