It’s a rare high school nowadays that doesn’t have an occasional pregnant girl, unmarried, in its midst. In one city more than two hundred such pregnancies occurred last year. Most of the sexual experiences today—especially for girls—are with people they eventually marry. But even in this respect the trend indicates that more and more young people are having intercourse with persons they do not marry than has ever been true before in our history. The trend is more pronounced for men than it is for girls. This can be understood in view of the fact that it is the woman who gets pregnant, and not the man.
Of couples marrying today, a relatively high percentage have complete physical intimacy before the wedding night. The rate seems to be higher among the lower economic classes than in the higher levels.
This does not mean the morals of the upper classes are higher but probably is due to the fact that girls in the upper group—who have lived at women’s or other colleges—have more inhibitions. After marriage they often have greater trouble having climactic sexual experience than girls who only went to high school, because of these inhibitions. Probably less than one-third of such wives regularly experience orgasm.
Why has premarital intimacy become more widespread in recent years? There appear to be several major explanations:
—The tensions of two wars and a major depression which led to postponement of marriage but not necessarily to postponement of gratification. Also during the war many girls threw their ideals to the wind in an attempt to find or give happiness on a friend’s last furlough.
—Religion is not as much concerned with sexual taboos today as it was a generation ago.
—We have removed chaperonage and parents generally are more tolerant of their children’s behavior and build in them fewer repressions than in past years.
—The widespread dissemination of birth-control information and the improved techniques in preventing venereal disease have reduced the penalties of indulgence.
—Our people are more mobile today so that it is possible for a young couple to experiment sexually with less likelihood that their parents will find out about them. Boys have access to automobiles in which they can take girls to secluded spots. Hotels have relaxed their restrictions about verifying the “Mr. and Mrs.” of couples who register. Tourist camps rarely had any restrictions to start with. Finally the war took millions of our young people away from their home communities.
In short, the old controls of society have relaxed or are in the process of breaking down. The same is true in Great Britain where studies during the war indicated that one out of every three births was conceived prior to marriage.