Findings of a new study show the opposite of what has been previously believed in regard to women and aging.
According to the study by researchers from Pennsylvania State University in the US, the experiences that women go through as they grow older boost their confidence, ultimately making their sex lives better.
The research shows that getting married, having children, having a good job and even getting divorced, all empower women in the bedroom by improving a woman’s sense of self-worth.
The researchers interviewed women aged between 20 and 68. The study was part of a look into sexual evolution.
They found that as the women matured, their attittudes towards their love lives, their sense of self-worth and sex also dramatically changed.
One would expect that divorce, for instance, would cause a woman’s esteem to plummet, but the study established that it had the exact opposite effect.
The study subjects reported that going through with a divorce gave them a burst of confidence. Instead of looking at it as the death of a relationship, they seemed to look at it as the beginning of something new.
After divorce, women reported feeling inspired to discover themselves as the divorce gave them space to seek out sexual relationships on their own terms.
The explanation for this could be that most of these women got married when they had little sexual experience and gave little thought to their sexual desires beyond what their spouses provided.
For the younger women who had been more sexually adventurous as young adults, the researchers found that getting married made them more confident in sexual matters. Marriage seemed to give them a chance to reinvent themselves as they probably felt like they were now having sex for the right reasons. Surprisingly the respondents also reported that having babies made them more comfortable with their bodies as the childbirth experience showed them how powerful their bodies were.
“In general, accomplishments made women feel more powerful. When women feel such pride they feel entitled to sexual desire as well,” said Professor Beth Montemurro, the study’s lead author.
