Single and Double Sexual Standards in Finland, Estonia, and St. Petersburg
Elina Haavio-Mannila The University of Helsinki, Finland Osmo Kontula The Family Federation of Finland
The sexual revolution and fight for gender equality began in the West during the 1960s but did not reach the Soviet Union until the late 1980s. Using survey data from nationally representative samples from Finland in 1971, 1992, and 1999 and from two former Soviet areas, Estonia in 2000 and St. Petersburg in 1996, we investigated the following: (a) differences across decades and countries in acceptance of the sexual double standard (SDS) in attitudes toward marital infidelity and women's initiating sex; and (b) the relationship between the SDS and sexual satisfaction. Results show that Finland in the 1990s was more egalitarian than Finland in 1971, St. Petersburg in 1996, or Estonia in 2000. Egalitarian sexual attitudes were positively related to sexual satisfaction.
SEXUAL STANDARDS similar men and women are in sexual response and func- tioning (Irvine, 1990). Centuries of written history of Western societies document The advent of more individualistic values and more that women and men have been treated differently in sex- equal standards for men and women is related to socioeco- ual matters (Tannahill, 1981). Usually, women but not men nomic developments. Individualism and relaxation of the have been pressured to remain virgins until marriage and requirement of virginity in brides correlate with high to abstain from sexual activities after divorce or the deaths Gross National Product (GNP; Hofstede, 1998). Growing of their spouses. This inequality in sexual standards for affluence provides women with more educational opportu- men and women is referred to as a sexual double standard. nities. Girls start circulating more freely, and they have A sexual double standard is a dual set of moral standards more opportunities to meet boys. Increasing affluence also for males and females, usually with stricter standards gives people more living space and privacy. Medical care applied to females, especially for premarital virginity and and information improve, including information on con- for what is considered acceptable sexual behavior traception. Young people get more opportunities for sexu- (Francoeur, Perper, Scherzer, Sellmer, & Cornog, 1991). al exploration, and sexual norms adapt to this situation. Williams (1987) suggested that, historically, these dif- ferent sexual standards originated from women's value to THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION IN THE WEST men as property and objects of exchange. To preserve their value, it was viewed as essential that girls and women pre- Increasing affluence, along with secularization and urban- serve their virginity before marriage. Monitoring of vir- ization in industrialized Western countries in the 1960s, ginity and chastity served to protect young women from gave rise to a sexual revolution. This revolution drew unwanted pregnancies, to ensure that they married men attention to the sexual activity and satisfaction of women, from their own social class or clan, and to preserve family lead to increased sexual knowledge, and introduced mod- honor (Siann, 1994). ern sexual values. These included the right of women to In the 19th century the sexual differences between obtain pleasure from sex (Barbach, 1975). women and men became a legitimate subject of scientific In welfare states such as Finland, where the government inquiry. This perspective is typified by researchers like provides an array of services for its population and inequal- Havelock Ellis, who considered female sexuality to be ity of income is low by international comparison, a coun- weaker, less fulfilling, and more passive than male sexu- try's growing GNP can provide benefits for the whole pop- ality. In contrast, modern sexology since the Kinsey era ulation. Finland's basic institutions have supported sex edu- has stressed the ideology of gender similarity. Scientists, cation in the schools, gender equality in laws and norms, most notably Masters and Johnson, have emphasized how discussions of sexual issues in the media, highly trained family planning services, and easy access to sexual health services. In such a society, many barriers to sexual satisfac- The data collection for this study was financed by the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, the Academy of Finland, and privately by Elina tion are eliminated. Kontula and Kosonen (1994, 1996) sug- Haavio-Mannila (in Estonia). No commercial or interest groups provided finan- gested that the lively discussion of sexuality and gender cial support for the studies. issues in the Finnish media since the 1960s contributed to Address correspondence to Elina Haavio-Mannila, Department of Sociology, University of Helsinki, Unioninkatu 35, P.O. Box 18, Fin-00014 Helsinki, the increase in women's sexual satisfaction in the 1970s and Finland; e-mail: [email protected]. to the increasingly similar sexual expectations of men and
The Journal of Sex Research Volume 40, Number 1, February 2003: pp. 36-49 36 Haavio-Mannila and Kontula 37
women in Finland as reported in sex surveys (Kontula & ninity and masculinity and to improve interactions Haavio-Mannila, 1995). between men and women. Demographers and pedagogues One achievement of the sexual revolution was the insti- devised pronatalist "sex role socialization" classes. tutionalization of public sex education and information. In Women and men were instructed that being a cultured, many countries in northern Europe, particularly Sweden, moral person required them to realize the dictates of their gender-equality-oriented sex education had already started gendered nature. Sexual moral education texts launched in the 1950s, earlier than in the United States and Canada vivid attacks on emancipated (used pejoratively to mean (Bergström-Walan, 1965; Linn6r & Litell, 1967). In the autonomous, ambitious, and assertive) women. At the mid-1970s, when the U.S. was experiencing the sexual same time that the women's movement in Western Europe revolution, a Hood of "how-to" books accompanied the and North America seized upon images of sexual equality, rather sudden lifting of the veil of human sexuality (Phelps and egalitarian relations between men and women became & Austin, 1988, p. 142). Barbach (1975) advanced the popular among university-educated groups, Soviet experts concept of personal liberation for women as sexual human were attempting to encourage traditional interactions beings. Menand (1997, p. 27) wrote, "The pop ideology of between the sexes by modifying girls' and women's the sexual liberation was that . . . women enjoyed sex as behavior (Rivkin-Fish, 1999, p. 804). much as men, and in the same way as men were imagined Before the 1990s, the Soviet Union had no formal fam- to enjoy it — that is, actively, and without guilt." ily or sex education. Abortion was almost the only avail- Sexual relations between the sexes were expected to able method to prevent pregnancy (Kon & Riordan, 1993). reflect equal respect and concern for the differing sexual The risk of pregnancy was so great that Russian women needs of men and women (Hearn & Morgan, 1990). Some could not enjoy the same degree of sexual freedom as survey research in the U.S. has indicated a decrease in, if women in many Western countries did. At the end of the not disappearance of, the traditional sexual double stan- 1980s, Gorbachev's policy of glasnost led to the liberal- dard (Sprecher & McKinney, 1993). However, ization of the printed word, and such topics as abortion, Muehlenhard and Quackenbush (1988), using their Sexual birth clinics, contraceptives, and young people's sexuality Double Standard Scale, found that female college students entered into public debate (Kon 1995, p. 267). still held this standard to a certain degree, and they thought that their male sexual partners held it to an even greater SEX RESEARCH IN THE BALTIC REGION degree. A conditional double standard was found to oper- The 1990s saw a growing interest in both gender studies ate at least under certain circumstances, such as in casual and sexual science in cross-cultural comparisons. National relationships (Sprecher & McKinney, 1993). sex surveys were conducted in many Western countries (Gronow, Haavio-Mannila, Kivinen, Lonkila, & Rotkirch, THE DEMOGRAPHIC CRISIS IN THE SOVIET UNION 1997; Haavio-Mannila & Kontula, 2001; Haavio-Mannila The Soviet Union was geographically close to this Western & Purhonen, 2001; Hubert, Bajos, & Sandfort, 1998; sexual reform, but because of much slower economic Kontula & Haavio-Mannila, 1995; Laumann, Gagnon, development and public restrictions on the distribution of Michael, & Michaels, 1994; Lewin, Fugl-Meyer, Helmius, new sexual knowledge, Russian women missed their Lalos, & Månsson, 1998; Spira, Bajos, & the ACSF Group, chance to join the progress toward gender equalization in 1994; Wellings, Field, Wadsforth, & Johnson, 1994). The sexual matters. Compared with the West, in Soviet coun- specific aim of these surveys was not to study gender tries there was not much evidence of a sexual revolution at equality or sexual double standards as such; however, sur- the end of the 1960s or even in the 1970s. Indeed, sexual vey results indicated the presence of different sexual stan- patterns in Soviet countries have only gradually shifted in dards for men and women in these societies. the Western direction (Kon, 1995; Liljeström, 1995; This new wave of national sex surveys gave us a chance Rotkirch, 2000). to study whether sexual double standards still exist and The "demographic crisis" detected in the early 1970s whether there are differences in sexual standards between in the European regions of the USSR (low fertility and northern Europe and some adjacent areas of the former high divorce rates) was interpreted by the scientists and Soviet Union. In this paper, we analyze the following: (a) their bureaucratic colleagues to reflect a breakdown in the existence of sexual single and double standards in mar- family values, attributed largely to women's participation ital fidelity and in initiating sexual activity in Finland, in the labor force. Early socialist ideals concerning the Estonia, and St. Petersburg; and (b) their relation to sexu- need for gender equality were now viewed as misguided, al satisfaction in these societies. We hypothesized that and the policies that resulted from the concept of there would be less evidence of a double standard in women's emancipation were blamed for having brought Finland than in the two former Soviet areas, where the the nation to the brink of a population catastrophe Western type of sexual revolution did not emerge until the (Rivkin-Fish, 1999, p. 804). late 1980s. We also hypothesized that adherence to a sin- By the mid-1980s, discourses in the USSR had begun to gle sexual standard in marital fidelity and women's initia- promote family life and traditional gender roles. tion of sexual contacts would generate a higher level of Pedagogical campaigns were launched to cultivate femi- sexual satisfaction, especially among women. Our results 38 Sex Standards in Finland, Estonia, and St. Petersburg are based on an analysis of sexual attitudes and behavior in In 1999, a mail survey with m_ostly the same questions each national group according to gender, age group, and, was conducted in Finland. We received 1,496 responses for Finland, decade in which the data were collected. (from persons ages 18-81 years), corresponding to a response rate of only 46%. To compare these results with METHOD those in the other surveys, people older than 74 years were excluded. Thus we analyzed here only data given by 1,432 Participants respondents to the 1999 survey. Because the data were We studied six populations as represented in three Finnish weighted by age and gender, the demographic structure of samples in 1971, 1992, and 1999; one native Estonian and the data represents that of the original sample. The Finnish one native Russian sample in Estonia in 2000; and a sam- 1999 data do not appear to be very biased due to low ple of residents of St. Petersburg in 1996. The samples response rate. By analyzing the distributions of several were drawn at random from national population registers identical retrospective questions measuring sexual issues in Finland and Estonia and from the voting register of St. in different generations, Kontula (2001) was able to show Petersburg, and they were representative of the total popu- that the low response rate in 1999 did not have a major lations within the age range chosen for each study. impact on the results from the sexual histories of those In 1971 in Finland, the interviewers were local public who were less than 55 years old. In the 55-74 age group, health nurses who were paid for this extra work. In 1992 the male respondents were more monogamous than the the surveys were conducted by trained interviewers of corresponding birth cohort interviewed in 1992. Statistics Finland (the government's central office of statis- In St. Petersburg, the data were obtained in a similar tics). In St. Petersburg and Estonia, interviewers were manner as in Finland in 1971 and 1992. Each respondent employed by market research organizations Gallup St. answered general questions orally in a face-to-face inter- Petersburg and Emor (Estonian Gallup). The researchers view and then completed the intimate part of a paper-and- participated in the training of the interviewers in Finland pencil questionnaire by himself or herself. The number of and St. Petersburg. Most of the interviewers were middle- the respondents was 2,081 and the response rate was 60%. aged women. There was no matching of the interviewers to The respondents were found to be representative of the the respondents based on gender or other variables. general population in regard to gender and age. In Estonia, Initial contacts with potential respondents differed in the market research organization Emor carried out so- the different surveys. In Finland, press conferences were called Omnibus surveys, sampling the permanent residents organized in 1992 and 1999. The researchers distributed of the Republic of Estonia (ages 15-74) twice a month. announcements of surveys, and some radio stations and Each time the sample size was 500 persons. The sex sur- newspapers published news of the forthcoming research. vey was repeated five times in May to August, 2000. The In 1971 and 1992, the respondents were sent a letter before interviewers took the questionnaires to the respondents, an interviewer made personal contact with them. In 1999 who completed and returned them to Emor. Of the total the whole survey was conducted by mail. In St. Petersburg sample of 2,500 individuals, 1,031 (41%) returned the and Estonia, personal contact by an interviewer was not questionnaire. preceded by press conferences or letters sent to the poten- Emor used a two-staged stratified sampling method to tial respondents. To reduce the potential influence of obtain a sample representative of people throughout taboos against open discussions of sexual matters, the Estonia in both rural and urban areas, and weighted the titles of the studies indicated that they also covered other sample to be nationally representative by gender, age, type aspects of life in addition to sexuality. For example, the of settlement, and nationality. The sociodemographic 1992 Finnish study was entitled "A National Survey of structure of the sample was compared with that of the pop- Human Relations, Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles" ulation; the data were then weighted to ensure the repre- (Kontula & Haavio-Mannila, 1995). sentativeness of the sample. (More detailed information on The questionnaires were translated from Finnish into the sampling, interviewing, and questionnaires is available Russian by a Finnish translator working on our project in Haavio-Mannila & Kontula, 2001; Haavio-Mannila, (Satu Tihverä) and checked by sociologists at the Kontula, & Kuusi, 2001; Haavio-Mannila & Rotkirch, European University in St. Petersburg (Anna Temkina and 1998; Kontula & Haavio-Mannila, 1995; & Sievers, Elena Zvadromyslova). The translation into Estonian was Koskelainen, & Leppo, 1974.) made by Emor and checked by an Estonian medical doctor The total number of respondents under the age of 74 living in Finland who had previously done sex research years was 8,946. The number of men was 3,711 and that of (Krista Papp). women was 5,233 (there was no information on the gender In 1971, 2,152 Finns (ages 18-54 years) completed face- of two persons in St. Petersburg). to-face interviews during which each interviewee also com- Measures pleted a self-administered questionnaire. The response rate was 91%. In the 1992 survey, the data collection method In this article, we analyzed gender equality in sexual atti- was identical; the number of respondents was 2,250 (ages tudes and sexual behavior on three dimensions: marital 18-74), corresponding to a response rate of 76%. fidelity, initiation of sexual contact, and sexual satisfac- Haavio-Mannila and Kontula 39
tion. Attitude questions were presented to all participants Attitudes toward initiation of sexual contact by women in the study. We asked only married and cohabiting per- (AIW). We studied these attitudes using the following sons to respond to questions about fidelity (summarized in statement: "Women have the right to take the initiative Table 6). Questions on sexual initiative and satisfaction when they want to have sexual contact with men." The five were posed to people having experienced sexual inter- response alternatives ranged from absolutely disagree (1) course as defined below (summarized in Tables 8 and 9). to absolutely agree (5). Although there was no parallel The questions referred to both heterosexual and homosex- question about whether men have the right to initiate sex- ual activities. ual contact with women, we assume that most people Attitudes toward marital fidelity of husbands and wives afford this right to men. and the sexual double standard or single standard. These Actual taking of sexual initiative by women. Actual tak- attitudes were assessed using responses to two statements: ing of sexual initiative by women, as opposed to attitudes "One should find the temporary unfaithfulness of a hus- toward it, was measured only in Finland. The question was band acceptable" and "One should find temporary unfaith- "Which of you took the initiative in your latest sexual fulness of a wife acceptable." The five response alterna- intercourse?" The response alternatives were as follows: I tives ranged from absolutely disagree (1) to absolutely did more, partner did more, we both did equally, and can- agree (5). not remember. Cannot remember answers were treated as To study whether respondents held similar standards or missing data. This variable is not directly related to the double standards for husbands and wives, these scores sexual double standard, but it is interesting because it were compared. If the scores given for husbands and wives relates to the variable measuring attitudes toward women's differed, we concluded that a sexual double standard exist- initiative in sexual contact. ed, giving more sexual freedom to a husband (male double The perceived quality of sexual intercourse. We assessed standard, MDS) or a wife (female double standard, FDS). whether perceived quality of sexual intercourse was related If the infidelity of husbands and wives was rated as equal- to egalitarian attitudes about marital fidelity and sexual ini- ly acceptable, we concluded that a single sexual standard tiative. It was measured by the question, "Has the inter- (SSS) existed. In some analyses (e.g., the percentage dis- course you have experienced mostly been very pleasurable, tributions in Tables 4 and 5), we conceptualized sexual fairly pleasurable, neither pleasurable nor unpleasant, standards using three categories: the MDS, SSS, and FDS. rather unpleasant or very unpleasant, or is it difficult to For other analyses (e.g., the analyses of variance in Tables evaluate?" If the quality of intercourse was "difficult to 3 and 5), we conceptualized sexual standards a dichoto- evaluate," the response was coded as missing data. mous: Accepting a single sexual standard (SSS) was com- pared with accepting a sexual double standard (MDS and RESULTS FDS). Being more accepting of infidelity by husbands than Analyses by wives (MDS) was compared with the SSS and FDS; being more accepting of infidelity by wives than by hus- In this article, we present means or percentages, their bands (FDS) was compared with the MDS and SSS. standard deviations, the effect size of gender (d), and the Actual infidelity. We studied actual infidelity, as distin- statistical significance of the gender difference for each guished from attitudes toward infidelity, with a question indicator according to gender, age (three groups: 18-34, posed to presently married or cohabiting people in Finland 35-54, and 55-74 years, except for Finland 1971, where in 1992 and 1999 as well as in Estonia and St. Petersburg. data are not available for the oldest age group), and The question was "Have you had parallel sexual relation- research time or site (six groups: Finland in 1971, 1992, ships during your present marriage or cohabitation?" The and 1999; Estonians in Estonia; Russians in Estonia; and respondents were asked if they had had sexual intercourse, St. Petersburg). The effect size is the difference between defined as "sexual interaction in vaginal intercourse, hav- the mean scores of the group with the greater score and ing oral sex or stimulation by hand" with people other than the group with the Tower score, divided by the pooled their spouses or partners. standard deviation. Effect sizes of .80 or greater are often In the 1971 Finnish questionnaire, there was no explic- considered large, those around .50 medium, and those it definition of sexual intercourse. Probably most respon- around .20 small (Cohen, 1969). We used analysis of vari- dents reported only vaginal intercourse. In this early sur- ance (ANOVA) to test the significance of the effect of the vey, the question did not specify for people having had independent variables. In the tables, F and p values are several marriages which marriage they should be reporting presented. on. Consequently, some respondents may have reported For the six research groups we use the term national unfaithfulness in a previous marriage. We have combined group or nationality even though Finns in all three surveys these people with those having had affairs during their pre- were of the same nationality. The term Estonian is used for sent marriage because in 1971, very few ever-married native speakers of Estonia, and the term Russian in Finns (5.3%) had been married more than once. Thus the Estonia is used for native speakers of Russian. The name number of people who may have been reporting affairs of the country, Estonia, is used in referring to both lan- during an earlier marriage is probably very small. guage groups. Russian is also used here as a synonym of