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Download This PDF File ISSN: 2347-7474 International Journal Advances in Social Science and Humanities Available online at: www.ijassh.com RESEARCH ARTICLE The Gender Gap in Reported Homosexuality Greggor Mattson* Assistant Professor of Sociology, Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies Institute, Oberlin College. *Corresponding Author: Email: [email protected] Abstract Men consistently report higher rates of homosexual behavior and identity than women in national population surveys of sexuality, a gender gap that has received little attention. Though women express similar levels of same- sex desire, they are far less likely to claim a lesbian identity or to report recent homosexual sex. This paper establishes the gender gap in homosexuality as a robust social by compiling historical and anthropological evidence and population surveys. It then evaluates two competing sociological explanations for differences in homosexuality between men and women: economic inequalities and differences in human capital. I tested these explanations with variables from the National Health and Social Life Survey (NHSLS) on the dependent variable of reported same- sex sexual contact in the past five years. The economic hypothesis is not supported, as none of the economic variables are significant. Some of the human capital variables are significant: controlling for age and marital status, education and urban residence together explain 28% of the difference in reported homosexuality between the sexes. This paper considers the implications of human capital and the value of the gender gap for future research on the intersections among sexuality, sex and gender. Keywords: Sexual orientation, Sex differences, Economic inequality, Human capital, Sexuality research traditions, Gender Introduction historically and cross-culturally persistent. I Scholars have frequently observed inequalities report two sociological theories that have been among the sexes in the social organization deployed to explain the differences in of homosexuality-men run more gay rights homosexuality between men and women: an organizations, lesbian bars and commercial economic hypothesis citing independent income as establishments are more rare, and gay men have necessary to express homosexuality and one citing much greater presence in gay neighbourhoods and differences in human capital. I then present community life, for example [1-5]. While early logistic regressions modelling these two explanations defined these phenomena as hypotheses, which show no support for the artifacts of the male bias in research or the result influence of economic variables but support for of gay men’s activism around AIDS [6], population the gap’s correlation with levels of education and surveys consistently show that men report higher urbanism. I discuss the implications of these rates of homosexuality than women. Rarely are findings for understanding the intersection of these two trends connected, however. Men are gender and sexuality generally and for twice as likely as women to report a gay or understanding gay and lesbian life specifically. bisexual identity, and are more likely to report recent same-sex sexual behavior. Yet when asked Evidence for Homosexuality’s Gender Gap about their degree of same-sex desire, women report higher rates than men. This gender gap In the 1990s several Western industrialized between expressed homosexuality and countries conducted national population surveys homosexual desire between the sexes has received of sexual behavior in response to the AIDS little explicit discussion, yet has important pandemic. Many of these deployed implications for studies of gay and lesbian life and multidimensional models of sexual orientation for the etiology of homosexual behavior and identity. the first time, allowing researchers to explore differences among rates of sexual identity, This paper presents evidence that behavior, and same-sex sexual desire. These homosexuality’s gender gap is a social fact that is surveys found vastly different rates of Greggor Mattson | October 2014 | Vol.2 | Issue 10|20-26 20 Available online at: www.ijassh.com homosexuality in the population [7], but also Women claim a gay, lesbian or bisexual (g/l/b) different ratios between men’s and women’s identity at half the rates of men. These findings reports of homosexuality, the indicator I use to raise a puzzle: if women have the same rates of operationalize the gender gap (see table 1): homosexual attraction, why are they nearly twice Table 1: Reports of homosexual behavior from as likely to express this in behavior or identity? national population surveys This gap seems to historically durable. Convenience samples of homosexuality in the Country Measure Women % Men % Ratio United States during the 20th century consistently found higher reports of United States* past 5 years 2.2 4.1 186 United homosexuality among men than women (see Table Kingdom† past 5 years 0.6 1.4 233 3): France‡ past 5 years 0.4 1.4 350 Table 3: Incidence of homosexuality in American‡‡ convenience samples United States* same-sex sex ever 1.4 2.8 200 Study Women % Men % Ratio United Kingdom† same-sex sex ever 1.7 2.5 206 Hamilton (1929) 37 57 154 several same- Finland§ sex partners 1.6 2.1 131 Bromley & Britten (1938) 4 13 325 same-sex partners Norway** ever 3.0 3.5 117 Gilbert Youth Research (1951) 6 12 200 Kinsey et. al. (1953) * (Laumann et al.). [8] † (Wellings et al.).[9] Same-sex contact ever 28 50 179 ‡ (Spira, Bajos, and Groupe). [10] § (Kontula and Haavio-Mannila ) [11] Same-sex orgasm ever 13 37 285 The gender gap ranges from 117 reports for men to each 100 for women in Norway to 250 for The ratio of the gender gap ranges from 154 in the France. In the United States, the ratio is 186 for Gilbert Hamilton sample of married, upper- reports of same-sex sexual contact in the last 5 middle-class New Yorkers to 325 among 1,300 years, but 200 for lifetime reports of same- college students in the 1938 study [12]. sex sexual contact. Anthropological surveys also support the The U.S. data are from the National Health and existence of the gender gap in reported Social Life Survey (NHSLS), which conducted in homosexuality as a cross-cultural social fact. The 1992 using a nationally-representative sample of first analysis of the Human Area Resource Files 3,432 Americans. The survey also included a concludes (HRAF), a standardized assessment of question on desire for same-sex sexual contact. anthropological studies, concluded that “it Though men report higher levels appears highly probable that human females are of expressed homosexuality (reported behavior or less likely than males to engage in homosexual claimed identity) than women, the level of relations” [13]. Other reviews of the literature homosexual desire is statistically the same note fewer records of homosexuality among between the sexes (see Table 2): women [14] and evidence for higher rates among men [15]. Though early anthropological data are Table 2: NHSLS Reports of Homosexuality†† limited by their collection by and among men and Measure Women % Men % Ratio the suppression of sexuality in fieldwork accounts [15-16], there are no descriptions of human Any homosexual sex ever 4.3 9.1 212 societies where female homosexuality is more Homosexual sex, past 5 years 2.2 4.1 186 prevalent than male. Homosexual sex, past year 1.3 2.7 208 Laumann et. al. note that “there does not seem to be an obvious explanation” [8] for women’s lower Homosexual identity (g/l/b) 1.4 2.8 200 rates of same-sex sexual attraction, nor do Pepper Homosexual desire 7.5 7.7 97 Schwartz and Virginia Rutter offer a solution to what they acknowledge as an “interesting puzzle” [17]. Laumann et. al. cite historical factors that Though the ratios for sexual identity or same- may have structured opportunities differently for sex sexual contact vary from 186 to 212, women’s younger versus older cohorts, and note the reported desire for same-sex sexual contact is not importance of education: statistically significantly different from men’s. Greggor Mattson | October 2014 | Vol.2 | Issue 10|20-26 21 Available online at: www.ijassh.com On the one hand, more education for women may and Rutter [17]). Integrating findings from represent greater gender nonconformity. But it qualitative and quantitative research traditions, may also represent a higher level of personal and the kinds of questions they ask, hold resources (human capital) that can translate into significant promise to understanding the more economic and social opportunities, which implications gender gaps for theories about the would, in turn, increase one’s ability to please one sexed expressions of sexuality. self rather than others. Study Their invocation of human capital draws upon Gary Becker’s [18] influential application of This study uses multivariate logistic regression economic theory to human behavior. In terms of [24] to evaluate the ability of economic and realizing one’s sexual preferences, human capital human capital variables to explain the gender can be conceived as personality and/or gap. Ioperationalized homosexuality using the attractiveness (ugly ducklings have a harder time NHSLS measure of same-sex partners in the past than swams), selectivity (if you only seek princes, five years. It has the advantage of more your selection pool is small), and competence in respondents than sexual identity because so few seeking (looking for a needle in a haystack takes respondents claimed one. The measure “same- longer than looking for one in a sewing basket). sex sexual contact ever” is so broad as to include While the use of market metaphors has been individuals who had only one homosexual influential in conceptualizations of marriage or experience. The five year time period is short sexual risks, it has attracted criticism from enough to measure only those who are currently sociologists for its inability to explain variability able to engage in homosexuality but long enough in sexual norms that create stratification in to include those who had no sex partner in the sexual markets and the origins of sexual agency last year (a common event, especially for women).
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