(Suomen Tasavalta)
Demographics and a Historical Perspective
1. Basic Sexological Premises
2. Religious and Ethnic Factors Affecting Sexuality
3. Sexual Knowledge and Education
4. Autoerotic Behaviors and Patterns
5. Interpersonal Heterosexual Behaviors
6. Homoerotic, Homosexual, and Ambisexual Behaviors
7. Gender Conflicted Persons
8. Significant Unconventional Sexual Behaviors
9. Contraception, Abortion, and Population Planning
10. Sexually Transmitted Diseases
11. HIV/AIDS
12. Sexual Dysfunctions, Counseling, and Therapies
13. Research and Advanced Education
References and Suggested Readings
Osmo Kontula, D.Soc.Sci., Ph.D., and Elina Haavio-Mannila, Ph.D.
A. Demographics
Finland lies in northern Europe where Russia, Sweden, and Norway are its neighboring countries. Roughly five million inhabitants occupy this 130,119-square-mile country, with 64 percent in urban areas. The population is ethnically very integrated. The largest minority are the Swedish-speaking Finns, with 6 percent of the whole population. The rest of the Finns speak Finnish. The Lapps and Gypsies are small minorities. During recent years, increasing numbers of refugees and other foreigners have been immigrating into Finland, but their total number still remains below 50,000. Separate cultures are not very conspicuous within Finnish society.
The age distribution of the Finnish people is 0 to 14 years, 19.3 percent; 15 to 59 years, 62.9 percent; and 60 plus years, 17.8 percent. The birthrate in 1995 was twelve per 1,000, and the death rate ten per 1,000 population, giving an annual natural increase of 0.2 percent. Infant mortality was 5 per 1,000 live births in 1995. Literacy is 100 percent. Average live expectancy is 73 for males and 80 years for females. Finland has one hospital bed per 81 persons and one physician per 390 persons.
The per capita gross domestic product in 1995 was $16,100. Finland is counted among the countries of fair economic well-being, with an annual increase in the Gross National Product above the European average. The main exports are the products of paper and metal industries.
Social services are well developed in Finland. People receive free counseling in contraception for family planning at the communal health centers, expectant mothers have been given free guidance in child care centers for decades, mothers of small children have paid maternity leaves, and there are inexpensive communal day-care places for children, as well as child benefits until the age of 18. As a result, Finnish women play as active a part in paid employment as Finnish men.
In 1992, the sexual life of the Finns was studied using nationally representative data on the 18- to 74-year-old population in Finland (Kontula and Haavio-Mannila 1993). The response rate for the 2,250 Finns in this FINSEX survey was 76 percent. Each of the respondents was interviewed personally and asked to fill out a questionnaire about the most intimate sexual matters. The questionnaire responses were not shown to the interviewers. The results of this study have been compared with a corresponding 1971 study (Sievers et al. 1974) to provide a detailed picture of Finnish sexual attitudes and behaviors in recent decades. Worldwide, the 1971 study was only the second population survey based on nationally representative data of sexual matters. (The first nationally representative sexual study was done in Sweden in 1967.) The results of this most recent FINSEX study will be discussed in different sections of this chapter.
B. A Brief Historical Perspective
The early settlers of Finland probably arrived about two thousand years ago from the Ural area to the southeast. Swedish settlers brought the country into the Kingdom of Sweden in 1154, where it remained until 1809, when it became an autonomous grand duchy of the Russian Empire. A strong national spirit emerged, with Finland declaring its independence in 1917 and becoming a republic two years later. Finland was invaded by the Soviet Union in 1939, forcing the Finns to give up 16,173 square miles of territory. Further cessions were exacted by the Soviets after World War II. Finland became a member of the European Union in 1995.
A. The Character of Gender Roles
Historically, Finland has a longer tradition of gender equality than most other countries of the world. This can be seen in the realm of politics, paid work, and in the division of labor at home.
In 1906, Finnish women gained parliamentary voting rights, second in the world after New Zealand. Finnish women also were the first in the world to gain the right to serve in parliament. These rights were immediately implemented. In 1907, nineteen women were elected to a parliament of two hundred members. At present, 39 percent of the MPs in Finland are women. In the 1994 presidential election, the female candidate got 46 percent of the votes. Even though she was not elected, her success indicates that a woman can reach the highest positions of power in this country.
Women in Finland are gainfully employed nearly as often as men. In 1991, some 72 percent of the women in the working-age population and 78 percent of the men respectively were part of the labor force. In Finland, both women and men work on a full-time basis. In 1991, the proportion of women working part-time was 10 percent and that of men 5 percent respectively.
The large proportion of gainfully employed women is also reflected in a high percentage of the entire labor force. In 1991,48 percent of the labor force were women and women made up 51 percent of the salary and wage earners. Unlike most European countries in the 1980s, Finland had a lower rate of undisguised unemployment for women than for men. However, the rate of unemployment among women over 55 has been higher than the rate among men of the same age.
Public offices are equally open to women and men, and under the Equality Act no vacancy in the private sector can be announced exclusively for women or men on any other than weighty and acceptable grounds relating to the nature of the work. An exception to the rule of public offices open to both sexes are those offices at the Ministry of Defense, in the Armed Forces, and in the Border Guards, which require military training (Cedaw 1993).
The Finnish labor market remains somewhat gender-segregated. Women comprise approximately 60 percent of the labor force in the service sector, while the industrial and building sectors are dominated by men. The segregation extends to occupations and specific tasks. No dramatic change has taken place in the gender segregation of the labor market, although employees who have made nontraditional choices have entered practically every occupation dominated by the other sex. Another illustration of the gender-segregated labor market is the differences in the positions that women and men occupy in the official hierarchies. Men advance rapidly and attain higher positions than women (Haavio-Mannila and Kauppinen-Toropainen 1992).
Recent studies indicate that the quality of working life for women has deteriorated considerably in some respects. Time pressures and stress have become a more prevalent feature of jobs held by women.
The differences between women’s and men’s earnings diminished both proportionally and in real terms in the 1970s. In 1983, this development shifted, and the pay differentials between women and men began to grow in real terms in most sectors. In 1991, women’s pay was 80 percent of men’s pay.
Women are slightly more often unionized than men, and their daily working hours, as well as the time spent working during a lifetime, are nearly the same. The characteristics of women workers - unionization, rise in educational standards, full-time work, and very short absences from the labor force - have not served significantly to narrow the pay differentials between the sexes.
As most women work for pay, it is necessary that men share household work with them. In international comparison, gender equality in the division of housework is high (Gershuny 1990). Nevertheless, women still do more domestic work than men, even though their share of it has declined from 67 percent in 1979 to 64 percent in 1987 (Niemi and Pääkkönen 1989). In the United States, the percentage was 67 percent in 1987 (Robinson 1988).
B. Sociolegal Status of Males and Females
As the number of children in the families is small, children are valued as individuals. Even though there is a slight tendency to prefer boys when asked which gender one wishes the future child to be, girls are taken care of and loved as much as boys.
The provision of day care for children is a municipal responsibility. The Day Care Act of 1973 aims at providing communal day care for all children in need of it. Since 1985, parents have been able to choose between placing their child in communal day care or receiving a home-care allowance for taking care of their child at home. This allowance may also be used to cover some of the costs of private day care. Taking care of one’s child at home with the help of a home-care allowance does not terminate employment or, since 1991, lower employee pension.
When the educational level of the entire population is examined, it is discovered that women and men are now at the same level. In 1989, half of those who had completed senior secondary school or vocational education or had a university degree were women. Women have reached a high level of general education. In the working-age population, women have a senior secondary school diploma more frequently than men, a circumstance that will prevail in the future, because 60 percent of senior secondary level students are women.
Men still have the majority of masters’ degrees (60 percent), but women are quickly catching up; since 1986, the number of women graduating from universities has exceeded that of men. For example, in 1989, women represented 54 percent of students who obtained a master’s degree and 34 percent of those with a higher degree. The proportion of women who have a doctorate has been steadily increasing since 1976. The percentage of women in the senior faculty of universities remains small.
The choice of fields is segregated by gender. The proportion of women is the largest in health care, and quite considerable in the fields of pharmacy and veterinary science. Similarly, students in teacher training are predominantly women. At the university level, clearly the smallest proportion of women can be found in the mathematical and technical fields.
The dropout rate at the basic level of education is very low nowadays. Law provides for compulsory education until the age of 16. The dropout rate at the upper secondary level was 7 percent in 1988. Somewhat fewer women leave school prematurely than men.
Leisure pursuits are differentiated according to gender. Girls are more interested in arts, boys in sports. Attempts to achieve equality in training are made by offering girls and boys the same opportunities to engage in various kinds of arts and sports.
Women are more active than men as consumers of cultural services. They go to the library, theater, concerts of classical music, museums, and art shows more frequently than men, and form the majority of students in voluntary adult education. Men go to sports competitions more often than women, and somewhat more often to the cinema and to concerts of popular music.
Gender differences in drinking alcoholic beverages have diminished; women have started to imitate the drinking habits of men. This applies particularly to women working with men (Haavio-Mannila 1992).
While men and women are in principle equal in Finland, the position of men in the public sphere, in politics, work, and economy, is still better than that of women. In the private sphere, at home, women have more power than men, but it also means a heavier work load there.
C. General Concepts of Sexuality and Love
Some general concepts of sexuality and love in the Finnish society will be discussed in Section 2B, where attitudes toward sexual relations before marriage, casual relationships, love as a precondition for sex, gender equality in initiating sexual intercourse, and attitudes toward homosexuality will be described. Here some other constructs of sexuality will be reported. They include opinions about health effects of sexuality, importance of sexual life in steady relationships, and double morals.
People in Finland have a positive attitude toward sexual behaviors as a health promoter - they do not see it as a threat to health. In 1992, 88 percent of Finnish men and 79 percent of women thought that sexual activity promotes health and well-being. A clear majority, 74 percent of men and 70 percent of women, believed that masturbation doesn’t endanger one’s health.
Sex is considered to be an important aspect of a steady relationship. In 1992, most Finns, 86 percent of men and 78 percent of women, considered sexual life very important or important for happiness in their relationship. Among women, the strength of this opinion had declined from 1971 to 1992. In 1971, 40 percent of women aged 18 to 54 considered sexual life very important for happiness in their relationship, while only 21 percent held this view in 1992, a development that reflects the strong public preoccupation with sexual liberation twenty years ago.
Traditional gender roles still include some double moralistic traits. Women are expected to be more restricted than men in their sexual behavior. These expectations are rationalized by referring to gender differences in sexual needs. In 1992,51 percent of Finnish men and 61 percent of women thought that a grown-up man has a clearly or somewhat stronger sexual need than a woman. Forty-one percent of men and 33 percent of women considered the sexual needs of men and women as equally strong. Only 7 percent believed that the sexual needs of women are stronger.
In the case of marital fidelity, a double moral standard is not very strong. In 1971, 34 percent of men and 29 percent of women ages 18 to 54 said that one must be able to accept a husband’s temporary infidelity, and 28 percent of men and 30 percent of women would accept a wife’s temporary infidelity. In 1992, the corresponding liberal attitudes in regard to a husband’s infidelity were 19 percent of men and 21 percent of women, and to a wife’s infidelity by 22 percent and 23 percent, respectively.
Even though attitudes toward many aspects of sexuality, for example, adolescent and homosexual sex, have liberalized with the course of time, attitudes toward marital unfaithfulness have become more conservative in the last twenty years. This may be due to the fear of AIDS, or to a general increase in familism in the society. It is easier to be liberal in issues not directly tied to one’s own life than in matters related to the personal relationship.
A. Religions Factors
In terms of religiosity, Finland is a uniform country, for about 87 percent of the people belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and about fifty thousand people to the Orthodox Church. Both churches are considered state churches. Only a few thousand people at the most belong to each of a few other religious groups. About 8 percent of the Finns do not belong to any religious communities. The religiosity of the Evangelical Lutherans is in most cases rather passive; only a small percentage attend church services regularly. The influence of religion and religious values has declined significantly during the last few decades. Religious thinking does not have much meaning in the sexual lives of people, especially the younger generations.
Marriage is no longer considered a prerequisite to having a sexual life in Finland. The quality of the relationship has become more important than its religious or civil form. Sexual relations are accepted in steady dating relationships and most couples live together before marriage. A significant number of cohabiting people do not get married even after years of living together as a couple. The sexual life of single persons is also widely accepted. The percentage of single persons has gradually increased, with about 30 percent of the middle-aged not living with a sexual partner. One third of these single persons have a steady relationship with a person with whom they do not live.
B. Cultural Factors
It is an essential principle in recent Finnish legislation concerning sexual issues that people may and can do privately all they want when it does not involve forcing another person. In this regard, Finnish legislation aims to respect the individual’s right of self-determination. This was a decisive principle in the reform of Finnish legislation around 1990. This principle is also strong in the general population where liberal sexual attitudes prevail among the secularized and independent-thinking majority. This liberalization of sexual attitudes is a significant change, because those with liberal attitudes on sexual issues are usually more satisfied with their sexual life than others.
The interval between publication of results from the 1971 national survey (Sievers et al. 1974) and the FINSEX survey (Kontula and Haavio-Mannila 1993) was marked by a great change in attitudes, values, and practices that began in the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Public discussion about the sexual revolution in the beginning of the 1970s in Finland concerned, to a great extent, the increased availability of sexual material and its commercial use in advertising and mass communication in general. The change could also be seen in legislation where the individuals’ liberty to decide about their own sexual matters was increasingly recognized. While increased open discussion about sexual issues in society continued the erosion of some of the still-existing old taboos, a clear step was taken towards more accepting attitudes to sexual issues as a whole. Today, the sexual life of unmarried people is almost as accepted as that of married couples.
A major factor in this shift to more liberal attitudes has been a rise in the level of education, but even without this, the changes would have been significant. More positive attitudes about the sexual rights of adolescents, women, and homosexuals have been matched by more liberal attitudes regarding the acceptability of casual sexual relationships that are not based on love.
In 1971, two women out of three set the promise of marriage as the condition for beginning a sexual relationship; in 1992, only 16 percent of Finnish women were of this opinion (Table 1). Among adolescents, the revolution is even more apparent. Dating has replaced marriage as an institution, with sexual intimacy almost as accepted during dating as it was earlier only within marriage. As a consequence, very few young people marry their first sexual partners any more. As late as thirty years ago, 60 percent of women married their first sexual partners.
Table 1
Think That Adolescents’ Sexual Intercourse Is
Acceptable in a Regular Relationship (in Percentages), 1971 and
1992
|
Age |
Men 1971 |
Men 1992 |
Women 1971 |
Women 1992 |
|
18-24 |
75 |
91 |
59 |
91 |
|
25-34 |
64 |
94 |
40 |
93 |
|
35-44 |
52 |
88 |
20 |
86 |
|
45-54 |
38 |
80 |
14 |
71 |
|
55-64 |
|
72 |
|
49 |
|
65-74 |
|
56 |
|
43 |
1971: N = 2,139, with 738 men and 1,401 women
1992: N = 2,244, with 1,101 men and 1,143 women
Attitudes have also become more positive towards casual relationships (Table 2). About 70 percent of Finns think that even a casual sexual relationship can be happy and satisfying. The necessity of love as a premise for sexual intercourse has also diminished. Sexual intercourse without love was considered wrong by 42 percent of men and 64 percent of women in 1971. In 1992, the corresponding shares were 29 percent and 43 percent. Still, 70 percent hold that living in a steady relationship in which sexual fidelity prevails is most desirable, compared with 10 percent who believe that living apart is most desirable. Twenty percent of men and 4 percent of women would like to maintain several concurrent and continuous sexual relationships. So, as far as their hopes are concerned, women are more monogamous than men.
Finns also take a more liberal attitude than before toward sexual relationships that are outside their own steady relationships. This shift is linked with the greater acceptance of sexual relationships among unmarried and single persons. Attitudes toward homosexual relationships are also significantly more accepting than before. In 1971, close to half of all Finns, 44 percent of males and 45 percent of females, regarded homosexual behavior between adults as a private affair, with which officials and legislation should in no way interfere (Table 3). In 1992, this opinion was supported by 59 percent of men and by 72 percent of women. On the other hand, attitudes toward extramarital relationships of spouses and pornography have become somewhat stricter, but only among women. Two thirds of the men and one third of the women considered watching pornography sexually arousing for themselves. The quite free sale and distribution of pornographic films and videos were supported by 51 percent of men and by 24 percent of women.
Table 2
Think That an Entirely Casual Sexual Relationship Can Be
Happy and Satisfying (in Percentages), 1971 and 1992
|
Age |
Men 1971 |
Men 1992 |
Women 1971 |
Women 1992 |
|
18-24 |
77 |
74 |
52 |
73 |
|
25-34 |
66 |
82 |
44 |
73 |
|
35-44 |
50 |
73 |
35 |
63 |
|
45-54 |
51 |
68 |
24 |
56 |
|
55-64 |
|
65 |
|
34 |
|
65-74 |
|
48 |
|
35 |
1971: N = 2,132, with 741 men and 1,391 women
1992: N = 2,239, with 1,101 men and 1,138 women
Based on attitudes towards sexuality, equality of gender has made remarkable progress in Finland. Women’s right to be the initiators at sexual intercourse when they want it so, was supported by 94 percent of men and by 90 percent of women in 1992. This is a significant increase, especially among women. Three out of four women were of the opinion that a respectable woman could openly show her interest in sex.
Table 3
Think That Interference in Homosexual Behavior from
Authorities and Law Is Wrong (in Percentages), 1971 and 1992
|
Age |
Men 1971 |
Men 1992 |
Women 1971 |
Women 1992 |
|
18-24 |
49 |
60 |
54 |
74 |
|
25-34 |
53 |
66 |
54 |
77 |
|
35-44 |
37 |
59 |
33 |
75 |
|
45-54 |
31 |
52 |
25 |
62 |
|
55-64 |
|
52 |
|
55 |
|
65-74 |
|
44 |
|
40 |
1971: N = 2,126, with 742 men and 1,384 women
1992: N = 2,242, with 1,101 men and 1,141 women
The cohort analyses show that part of the changes in attitudes do not concern the oldest people at all, especially not the women. Women aged 55 to 74 approve of women initiating a sexual relationship, casual relationships, and sex without love as rarely as they did twenty years ago when they were 35 to 54 years of age. On the other hand, the attitudes towards gays and the sexual relationships between steady-going adolescents have become more liberal in all the gender and age groups.
The differences in sexual behavior between Finland and the U.S.A. are not very big. However, Finns are significantly more liberal than Americans, at least, in their attitudes towards the beginning of sexual life with adolescents, homosexual relationships, and pornography (Smith 1990). A corresponding difference was observed twenty years ago between Denmark and the U.S.A. (Christensen and Gregg 1970).
A. Government Policies and Programs for Sex Education
Legal restrictions designed to control sexarche, the beginning of sexual coitus, which prevailed in Finland until as late as the 1800s, was gradually replaced by the moral education given by the Church and the school. This education with its religious morals gradually changed, giving way to medical views of sexual matters. In sexuality education, the main attention gradually turned from teaching about what is immoral and a sin and focused on the prevention of pregnancies and the health ill effects caused by sexual relationships. Contrary to the custom in many other countries, giving information, advertising, or distributing contraceptives have never been officially prohibited in Finland.
In the 1920s and 1930s, sex education was considered a family responsibility. There was no sex education in the schools as yet. In 1944, the National Board of Education sent a letter concerning sex education to the schools, directing teachers of biology, hygienics, Finnish, and religion to give instruction in sexual matters.
In 1948, an expert board set up by the Ministry of Education produced a program for instruction and education in sexual morals. The program contained guidebooks both for teachers and students. These guidebooks were distributed to schools, colleges, municipal officers of health, church registry offices, and youth organizations at the public expense. Apart from information about personal relations and sexuality, the program, with the guidebook to accompany it, also contained moral views about conditions in which sexual life was considered appropriate for young people.
In the early 1960s, the first summer university courses were held for teachers on family education. In the schools, sex education was still very scarce. In the 1970s, the National Board of Education set up a working committee to make a curriculum for the education in personal relations and sexual matters for the comprehensive school. The work was finished in 1976, but it did not lead to any wider reform of teaching. Instruction in contraception was, however, given in most schools.
From the 1950s on, Finnish municipalities have arranged equal school health care for all students, and sex education was already a part of this care prior to the 1970s. In practice, however, sex education has - and continues to be - concentrated on the anatomy and physiology of sexuality, contraception, and sexually transmitted diseases. Its outcome has largely depended on the personal interest of those teachers of biology and health education, together with physicians and nurses, who are responsible for the planning and the implementing of the educational experiences, most of which are aimed at the from 15- to 16-year-old students in the ninth grade. However, in comparison with the 1960s, all young people have been included in this program, and other sources of information have also been available.
Since the early 1970s, the number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions among adolescents has decreased considerably. In part, the increased liberalization may have contributed to the decline in sex-related research efforts at the end of the decade.
Since 1972, the Primary Health Care Act has required municipalities to organize contraceptive counseling for all who want it, including school children who were given access either to public clinics or to school physicians and nurses. When a physician or school nurse has found it necessary, girls have been provided with contraceptive pills.
In 1996, a comprehensive national study of sex education was started at the upper stage of the comprehensive school (grades 7 to 9). The questionnaire was mailed to the biology teachers in all upper-stage schools in Finland (N = 603) in February 1996. A total of 421 acceptable responses were returned from 70 percent of the target population.
The survey came during a period of transition in school sex education, for, in many schools, significant reductions have been carried out in the lesson hours reserved for Health Education. Family Education is about to disappear altogether and new self-governed curricula of the schools have recently been implemented.
Prior to the survey, sex education had been included in the curricula of most of the schools. Only 6 percent of the teachers reported otherwise. It has been given by a filtering method in connection with several other school subjects.
In the ninth grade, the biology teachers usually discuss the subject in connection with biology and the home economics teachers in connection with family education. In the eighth grade, the boys’ and the girls’ physical education teachers take up the subject in connection with health education.
In addition, approximately half of the schools use school health nurses in sex education (as instructors in contraception) in each of the upper-stage grades.
In the seventh (aged 13 years) grade, half of the schools had given instruction in the development in puberty and menstruation. In the eight grade, new items were sexual intercourse, “first time,” contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, dating, and emotions, which had been dealt with in every other school. In the ninth grade, in addition to the above subthemes, nearly all the schools’ sex education dealt with genitals and their functioning, ejaculations, conception, pregnancy, birth, and abortion. Other generally discussed new subthemes were sex roles, sexual minorities, sexual morals, sexual terminology, and sex life in adulthood.
Almost all the schools had used video tapes or films in the ninth grades. Textbooks had been used by four out of five, brochures of different kinds had been distributed by two out of three, and condoms had been given at least for examination in every other school. In one third of the schools, visits had been arranged to contraception or family planning clinics; and every tenth school had made visits to youth offices and/or to the congregation. A special event or happening related to sex education had been arranged in 16 percent of the schools within the school year.
According the survey, the most important objectives of school sex education were directing the growth to responsibility, transmission of correct information, promoting the growth of personality, and learning easy attitudes towards sexuality. On the other hand, teaching abstinence, finding the sexual experience nice and stimulating, as well as learning the unsatisfactoriness of casual relationships were considered the least important objectives. The chosen objectives emphasized promoting adolescents’ readiness for couple relationships and sexual life. The teachers wanted to avoid moralistically intervening in adolescents’ own choices or “feeding” them their own moral values. The teachers did not want to warn against sex too much, neither did they want to advertize it.
One of the objectives of the survey was to explain the possible differences in sex education across the country. As a whole, these differences were not strikingly great or systematic between the provinces. The perceived differences were mainly explained by the local governments’ activity in arranging further training in this field or various campaigns.
The greatest problem in the Finnish school sex education is its timing: it comes too late for the stage in the adolescents’ development. The present sex education given to the ninth graders (aged 15 years) should be provided two years earlier. Both the students themselves and the experts in this field agree unanimously that sex education in its full extent should already be given to the 12- to 13-year-olds. According the latest news, the syllabi of biology will cover sex education for the eighth graders (aged 14 years).
The strength of school sex education in Finland comes from the school health care which brings out sexual matters in connection with annual physical examinations. Over a third of the girls and a fifth of the boys go to the school health nurse even at other times to talk about sexual matters. In most schools, they also give contraceptive pills. According to the survey, school health nurses also give proper lessons in sex education in at least every other school. Without the contribution of the school health care, the level of adolescents’ knowledge of sexual matters would be significantly lower than what it is now.
No detailed and effective public program for the development of sex education or other public services related to contraception is to give credit for the quite effective system of school sex education and the low teenage pregnancy rates in Finland. Rather would we thank the liberal climate around adolescents and their sexuality for the teachers’ natural willingness to teach the subject. Adolescents’ need for information about sexual matters has been taken for granted. When sexual relationships between adolescents are accepted, it is clear that they are entitled to be prepared and well-informed about various matters related to sexual life.
Public health care plays a significant role in sex education and advising on contraception. The system of the maternity and child care of the public health centers covers the whole country with almost all the expectant mothers and families with children. In the maternity centers, sexual life during pregnancy and contraception are discussed, among other things, and mothers and fathers are psychologically prepared to welcome the baby.
A liberal attitude towards sexuality may be reflected in the condom advertising found in the mass media, especially during the summer months. Women’s magazines have also contained numerous sex-related articles that are read by both sexes.
B. Informal Sources of Sexual Knowledge and Education
In the FINSEX study (Kontula and Haavio-Mannila 1993), people were asked if they had gotten information about sexual matters in their childhood homes in their youth or sex education at school. At the same time, the people were asked to evaluate the sufficiency of the information and education they had received and their willingness then to receive such information about sexual matters in general. Similar questions were asked both in 1971 and 1992.
Discussion of sexual matters has gradually increased both in the homes and in the schools. In their childhood home, information had been received about sexual matters by 39 percent of men and by 41 percent of women in 1971; in 1992, correspondingly, by 61 percent and by 64 percent. Ten percent of men and 14 percent of women in 1971 regarded the information received at home as sufficient. In 1992, the percentages were 29 percent and 32 percent respectively. Until recently, most people have thus not been getting very much information about sexual matters at home, even if these matters have been more talked about.
In 1971, 28 percent of men and 33 percent of women reported having received sex education at school; in 1992, 64 percent of males and 74 percent of females. In 1971, 7 percent of men and 8 percent of women considered this information sufficient; in 1992, the percentages were 25 percent and 32 percent. This shows that sex education in the school has clearly improved, although only less than one third of the respondents considered the education sufficient. Nearly one tenth of the people said that they would not even have wanted such education. Slightly more people would have wanted to receive more education from the school than from the home.
Young people report clearly more often than others of having received sufficient information concerning sexual matters from the school or home (Figure 1). This suggests that speaking and teaching about sexual matters has clearly become more common, at least with those people who lived their youth in the 1980s. During the past twenty years, there was an especially clear increase in dealing with sexual matters. After 1971, the share of those who had received sex education in the school increased nearly threefold. Only a few people in the oldest age groups reported they had talked enough about sexual matters in their homes or at school.
Figure 1 - Sufficient Sex
Education in Childhood Home and at School (1971 and 1992)
|
|
Age Group (in Years) |
|||||
|
18-24 |
25-34 |
35-44 |
45-54 |
55-64 |
65-74 |
|
|
School 1992 |
58 |
37 |
18 |
7 |
3 |
1 |
|
Childhood home 1992 |
52 |
34 |
19 |
17 |
9 |
7 |
|
Childhood home 1971 |
21 |
12 |
7 |
8 |
|
|
|
School 1971 |
17 |
5 |
3 |
2 |
|
|
The attitudes about the school’s sex education are fairly trusting in Finland nowadays, since at least 63 percent of the men and women reported that they did not think sex education in the schools would induce the young to start their sexual life too early. Only 19 percent of the men and 22 percent of the women feared that sex education would induce young people to have intercourse too early. Those who supported this opinion were strongly concentrated in the over 55-year-old group, where one in every two held this opinion. Since the people of this age group have had their say in the decision making of sex education in the schools up to now, it is no wonder there are still some deficiencies in the teaching.
A. Children and Adolescents
According to Kontula and Meriläinen (1988), between 2 percent and 3 percent of both the boys and the girls reported having started masturbating already before age 10. In childhood, touching genitals to cause pleasure cannot very often be connected with masturbation. In addition, adolescents often dare not report it in a survey such as this. The researchers, therefore, believe that the percentage of children practicing masturbation at an early age is surely more than 2 percent or 3 percent.
In the follow-up of the same survey (Kosunen 1993), 13- to 17-year-olds were asked if they had ever practiced masturbation and if they had masturbated during the last month. Of the 13-year-olds, 36 percent of the boys and 23 percent of the girls reported that they had sometimes practiced masturbation; of the 15-year-olds, 67 percent and 45 percent reported this practice; and of the 17-year-olds, 79 percent and 59 percent. About 40 percent of the boys had masturbated during the last month and about 20 percent during the last week. With the girls, the corresponding figures were 20 percent and 5 percent. With age, the masturbation activity of the young increased.
B. Adults
The proportion of adults engaging in self-loving, clearly more common among men than women, has definitely increased during the last twenty years, according to the FINSEX study. There has been an increase in the practice of self-loving both during the previous month and during the past year. In 1971, 28 percent of the men and 16 percent of women reported masturbating during the previous month. In 1992, the corresponding shares were 42 percent and 25 percent. The strength of the change can be seen in the percentage of women who had masturbated during the previous year. In 1992, this figure for women was higher than the corresponding data for men in 1971.
With the spread of a more natural attitude towards self-loving, fewer and fewer people abstain from it entirely. In 1971, 49 percent of the women and 26 percent of the men had never tried this sexual outlet. In 1992, the corresponding figures were 23 percent and 10 percent. So, a large majority of both women and men have engaged in self-loving at least some time in their life.
Self-loving is considerably more common with the young than with older people (Figure 2). This, however, is not due so much to age differences as it is to changes in the times. People seem to keep the frequency pattern of self-loving they adopted in their youth throughout their lives. There are no obstacles to this, since masturbation is in no way dependent on the presence of a partner. With the aging of the present middle-aged people, the incidence of self-loving will increase further in the population.
The increase in self-pleasuring is explained by the fact that fewer and fewer people believe in the unfounded arguments that it entails health risks as booklets on sex education maintained as late as the 1950s. Two thirds of the women and over one third of the men who still believed in these risks, or were at least uncertain about them, had never engaged in this sexual activity. Very few of these women had masturbated during the last month. On the other hand, half of the men who had totally lost their belief in the health risks of masturbation, and nearly 30 percent of the women, had engaged in self-pleasuring during the last month. The spread of accurate information had been a major factor in encouraging people to feel free to enjoy their sexuality with self-pleasuring.
Having a steady sexual partner somewhat diminished the need for self-loving: the unmarried, the divorced, and the widowed engaged in self-pleasuring more regularly than did married people. The better educated people engaged in self-loving more often than others. Religiosity did not relate to the incidence of self-loving, but those who consumed more alcohol were more likely to masturbate than others. During the past twenty years, the differences in the incidence of self-loving among the different age groups has disappeared while the differences between the marital status groups and alcohol user groups had grown.
Figure 2 - Masturbation
During the Past Year (1971 and 1992)
|
|
Age Group (in Years) |
|||||
|
18-24 |
25-34 |
35-44 |
45-54 |
55-64 |
65-74 |
|
|
Men 1992 |
77 |
71 |
57 |
43 |
25 |
18 |
|
Men 1971 |
64 |
44 |
30 |
14 |
|
|
|
Women 1992 |
61 |
53 |
43 |
26 |
13 |
11 |
|
Women 1971 |
45 |
28 |
16 |
11 |
|
|
The use of pornographic materials has remained almost the same among men but decreased among women between 1970 and 1990. Even when sex videos were included in the printed publications in 1992, fewer people, on the average, had viewed such material during the previous year. During the past year, 50 percent to 60 percent of the men in different age groups and from 15 percent to 20 percent of the women had watched a sex video or read a sex magazine.
Obviously, interest in pornographic publications was exceptionally high in 1971, because open nakedness had come, for the first time, into the pictures of the sex magazines at the end of the 1960s in Finland. The charm of novelty and the taste of “the forbidden fruit” made this material especially attractive. More recently, this high excitement and attraction have settled down. Besides, the so-called soft pornography is now within everyone’s reach, for example, in the pictures in the afternoon tabloids, although it is no longer referred to as pornography.
A. Children
Small children often play sexual games (doctor games) and masturbate, during which they examine the genitals of both their own and the other sex. According to the KISS study conducted in Finland (Kontula and Meriläinen 1988), sexual games have been played by at least 40 percent of the young adults in their childhood, half of them more frequent than one or two incidents. These games may also include imitating and trying the sex habits the children had seen adults using. This cannot, however, be regarded as an actual initiation of sexual life, because it is not yet conscious activity that could be interpreted as sexual. Sexual meanings are not generally understood before approaching adolescence and the effects of pubertal hormones on the brain. Puberty brings a quite new kind of interest in sexual matters.
B. Adolescents
Puberty
By age 13, about four out of five girls have had their first periods of menstruation and about 60 percent of the boys their first ejaculations. As a result, many young people show considerably more serious interest in the opposite sex than before. Over half of the boys of this age and one third of the girls have already viewed sex magazines and sex videos, and more than half of both boys and girls have kissed, according to the 1992 data. Many have experienced caressing over the clothing. Almost half of the 13-year-olds are ready to accept sexual intercourse in their peers’ relationships. About as many report having already had a dating relationship with the opposite sex. Mostly, this means going around together with the dating partner as part of a group of young people. Sexual intercourse has been experienced by about 5 percent by the age of 13.
Between ages 14 and 15, most Finnish adolescents go to a confirmation class, a one-week church-sponsored camp, after which they are confirmed. This has become a kind of initiation rite for becoming a sexual adult.
Adolescence is a time of rapid changes, and, with age, sexual experience quickly grows. In Finland, the greatest changes in adolescent sexual behaviors occurred between 1960 and 1970. In 1992, Finns between ages 18 and 54 reported they had kissed for the first time, on the average, at the age of 14, had started dating at 17, and experienced their first sexual intercourse at the age of 18. Young people with a long education began sexual intercourse later than others.
Nowadays young people mature, both physically and mentally, earlier than before. Because of the increased economic well-being, they live in a more grown-up way at a fairly young age, when they build their sexual identity through a multinational youth culture. As a result, the age of sexual initiation has fallen. On the other hand, the time spent in education has lengthened and the age of entering into marriage has risen. This explains why young people have more relationships, both successive and casual, today, and why marriage has been displaced by cohabitation, at least before having children.
In the 1992 FINSEX survey, one third of the 18- to 74-year-old women and a quarter of the men reported dating (going steady) by age 15. About four out of five had experienced kissing, and two out of three caressing over the clothing. Petting under the clothing had been experienced by one of every two younger Finns. Sexual intercourse before the age of 16 had been experienced by 31 percent of the girls and 19 percent of the boys according to the 1992 data (Figure 3). On average, Finnish girls begin having intercourse somewhat younger than the boys. This is quite understandable, because girls often date boys from two to three years older than they themselves are. The boys are more eager to have intercourse than the girls, but the girls have better opportunities.
Early Noncoital Experiences
The sexual life of young Finns does not generally begin with sexual intercourse, but with kissing and caressing. These behaviors are often associated with first dating relationships. It has been observed in Finland that four years, on the average, elapse from the first kisses and caresses of the young people to the first sexual intercourse (Kontula 1991). These experiences are surely as important to the young as the first intercourse. In the past, when a great number of people wanted or had to put off beginning sexual intercourse until marriage, kisses and caresses were the only forms of sexual life before entering matrimony.
Figure 3 - 9th Grade Pupils (15-Year-Olds) Who Have Had the Indicated Experiences (1992)
A great number of people have already kissed before their first steady relationship, according to the 1992 FINSEX study. After the mid-1970s, about 60 percent of the men and 70 percent of the women were dating before the age of 18. About 40 percent of the present-day under-35-year-olds had had a steady dating relationship before the age of 16. Before the 1950s, it was quite unusual for women of this age to date. Nowadays, only 3 percent of the over-25-year-olds have never had a dating relationship. Since the 1980s, there have not been great changes in the onset of dating.
The age of sexual initiation has clearly fallen during the past few decades. Both first kisses and dating relationships are experienced at a younger age today than in the past. Four out of five have kissed before the age of 16, and two out of three have been going steady under the age of 18.
Characteristic of those adolescents who initiate a sexual life earlier than the others is a lifestyle that emphasizes a break with the norms of childhood and an orientation towards a freer social life. To these young people, free social life represents a means rather than a goal. The reverse is true for those who have less self-confidence and fewer sexual experiences. The acquired values and moral codes, such as associating love with family, lose their importance after sexual initiation.
Based on the KISS study (Kontula 1991), it can be said that the values associated with starting a sexual life early are today often connected with symbolic opposition or rebellion to authorities. Extended education with its upper-class values is ideal for arousing such opposition.
Sex is used to sell things and ideas to the young, but sex itself is rarely sold to them. Society and parents rarely provide adolescents with interpretations of sex (scripts) that would give a positive and an enjoyable picture of sexuality. Thus, adolescents, girls in particular, do not expect much good of their first sexual experiences, especially of sexual intercourse. Normally, organized education and instruction only provide warnings about the risks of getting pregnant, being infected with an STD or the HIV virus, getting a bad reputation, and similar dangers.
Moral values concerning reproduction and marriage have gradually been replaced by the values of satisfying one’s social needs. This shift has contributed to a widening of interpretations relating to sexual interactions guided by strict Christian and conventional scripts towards “games,” in which various tactics to achieve first sexual experiences are possible. The morals of satisfying social needs, which emphasize the importance of sexual life, give young people permission to initiate a sexual life in various practical situations. This widening of the sexual script towards “games” is one important reason for an earlier sexual initiation among Finnish adolescents during the last few decades (Kontula 1991). Tactics, interpretations, and values, which are all part of sexual interactions, are, however, still strongly regulated socially and culturally.
Dating
The age of first dating, like the age of first kisses, has lowered in recent years. In the 1930s, only half of the under-20-year-old people had dating relationships; currently, more than four fifths of the under-20-year-olds are dating. This increase stopped in the 1980s.
In the Finnish-Karelian culture area, “night courting or prowling” was a common way for young people to become acquainted until the early twentieth century. In rural areas, it was customary for groups of boys to visit several girls during a single outing, since the girls belonged to the same social group. In going to the girls’ sleeping quarters, “night courting” constituted a formal social venture or endeavor, with identifying knocks, introductions, overtures, seductive lines, and poetry. The choice of a conversation partner was made with the help of night proposal rites. The many customary rules and norms in night courting were aimed at the preservation of morality (Sarmela 1967). In their classic study Die Einleitung der Ehe (The Introduction to Marriage) (1937), K. Rob and V. Wikman divided night prowling into two main types: organized group and individual courting. In group prowling, the boys watched, often very strictly, over each other’s behavior. The girls could not refuse the visits of such groups. It was nevertheless in the power of the girls to decide which boys in the group would be allowed into their sleeping rooms in the storehouse or building where they were spending the summer.
Sexarche
Sexarche, first sexual intercourse, requires finding an appropriate partner and becoming sexually aroused. What a person defines as “appropriate” is closely associated with the interpretations given by society. “An appropriate partner” may be understood as a partner with whom one has a love relationship and a relationship in which both partners feel “ready” for sexual intercourse. The importance of these social conditions is emphasized by the fact that about 20 percent of the 15-year-olds with steady partners would have liked to have sexual intercourse, but, for some reason, they had not had that experience. They had had both the chance and the willingness; nevertheless, all the social conditions had not been fulfilled.
At the age of 15, adolescents usually accept the sexual intercourse of their peers on grounds of love. Thus, an important condition for starting a sexual relationship is that two people love each other enough. The importance of love in legitimating sexual relationships of the young people is somewhat greater among farmers and the upper-middle class. This applies to both youths and their parents. This emphasis on love is closely connected with the demand for faithfulness.
Girls tend to value sex less, to masturbate less frequently, and to report considerably less desire for sexual intercourse than boys of their age. Girls who have never had a steady relationship with a boy are less likely to report a strong sexual desire. A female culture that emphasizes love does not attach a high value to sexual enjoyment in the expectations of Finnish girls. The dating institution, however, diminishes the effect of this romantic value that delays sexarche. Among the girls, the importance of sex quickly increases with an increase in experience. Dating clearly brings the expectations of sexual life closer to each other in boys and girls.
Twenty percent of Finns currently experience sexual intercourse before the age of 16; approximately 50 percent by age 18. Seventy percent of the women and half of the men reported that they had had their first experience of sexual intercourse with a steady partner. Only 60 percent of the women and 50 percent of the men reported being in love with their first sexual partner (Figure 4).
Figure 4 - First Sexual
Intercourse by the Age of 18, in Different Decades, Based on the Cohort Analysis
(1971 and 1992)
|
|
Decade |
|||||
|
1933-1942 |
1943-1952 |
1953-1962 |
1963-1972 |
1973-1982 |
1983-1989 |
|
|
Men 1971 |
37 |
30 |
40 |
49 |
|
|
|
Men 1992 |
35 |
41 |
36 |
47 |
58 |
50 |
|
Women 1992 |
9 |
16 |
28 |
42 |
60 |
55 |
|
Women 1971 |
6 |
18 |
21 |
34 |
|
|
The age of first sexual intercourse does not differ significantly in the provinces of Finland. Nor is it related to population density, although people living in the rural areas start having sexual intercourse somewhat later than urban youth, probably because rural living provides less opportunities for making social contacts.
A significant change has also occurred in the extent to which sexual intercourse is involved in the first dating experiences. When ages of first dating relationship and first sexual intercourse are compared, it appears that, as late as the 1930s, sexual intercourse was not generally a part of a steady dating relationship. Less than a third of the women who had been dating at a particular age had had sexual intercourse at that age. After the 1930s, there was a continuous even growth in the proportion of the women who experienced sexual intercourse while dating. By the end of the 1970s, the proportion of women dating who had had sexual intercourse grew to nearly 90 percent. During the 1980s it dropped a little and is now about 80 percent.
Women’s greater sexual initiative and willingness at the first intercourse has contributed to this change. However, for many women the first experience of sexual intercourse is still painful and a disappointment. Many women go through their first experience expecting it as a necessary routine in order to be able to start really enjoying their sexual life after this “puncturing.”
The decreasing gap between the willingness of men and women to initiate sexual relations in the interval between the 1970s and 1990s is statistically very significant. In two decades, the share of the women who were reluctant at their first sexual intercourse fell from 40 percent to 10 percent. This increasing equality between women and men has been matched by an increase in equality in other sectors of life such as education, work, politics, family, and leisure time. Part of this change may be due to the more honest reporting of both men and women to these questions than before.
Early Contraceptive Use
The use of contraception at the first intercourse has increased considerably in recent decades (Table 4). Only a few percent of the over-55-year-olds had used contraception at the first time and about 70 percent had been entirely without contraception. Withdrawal was the most common contraceptive method. The use of the condom as a contraceptive method at the first intercourse increased significantly with the under-55-year-olds, especially among the young after the middle of 1960s. In the 1970s, the use of the condom decreased slightly, according to age group comparisons, but increased again in the 1980s, obviously because of the condom campaigns against AIDS. In the recent years, 60 percent of the men and 65 percent of the women had used the condom at the first intercourse. About 15 percent used no contraception at all. These proportions correspond well with results of the most recent surveys among adolescents.
Table 4
No Contraception at the First Sexual Intercourse (in
Percentages), 1971 and 1992
|
Age |
Men 1971 |
Men 1992 |
Women 1971 |
Women 1992 |
|
18-24 |
26 |
17 |
24 |
13 |
|
25-34 |
39 |
24 |
46 |
22 |
|
35-44 |
58 |
29 |
60 |
18 |
|
45-54 |
57 |
40 |
60 |
42 |
|
55-64 |
|
67 |
|
68 |
|
65-74 |
|
82 |
|
70 |
1971: N = 1,919, with 669 men and 1,250 women
1992: N = 2,048, with 1,002 men and 1,046 women
C. Adults
Single Adults
In 1992, 30 percent of Finnish men ages 18 to 74 and 34 percent of women were not married or cohabiting. One third of these had a steady sexual relationship. In the whole population covered by our survey, 11 percent of both men and women had a steady sex partner with whom they did not live.
The proportion of single adults, i.e., not having any steady sexual relationship, is highest in the youngest and oldest age groups (Table 5). A large proportion of people under 30 years have not yet started to live together with a partner but will probably do so later. Many of the women over 60 years are single because of widowhood and the shortage of older men. Among men, singlehood does not increase with age because they less often get widowed and have more potential partners available.
Singlehood in Finland does not mean celibacy. A large part of single people have a regular sex life: 40 percent of all single men and 28 percent of single women had not experienced periods of at least six months without sexual intercourse over the course of the previous five years. On the other hand, 8 percent of single men and 30 percent of single women had not engaged in sexual intercourse during the previous five years.
Table 5
Type of the Couple Relationship by Gender and Age (in
Percentages, 1992)
|
Type of Relationship |
Age, Years |
||||||
|
18-24 |
25-34 |
35-44 |
45-54 |
55-64 |
65-74 |
Total |
|
|
MEN |
|||||||
|
No couple relationship |
48 |
17 |
14 |
12 |
15 |
16 |
19 |
|
Steady sexual relationship without living together |
29 |
12 |
4 |
5 |
7 |
8 |
11 |
|
Cohabitation |
9 |
27 |
11 |
6 |
2 |
2 |
13 |
|
Marriage |
4 |
44 |
71 |
77 |
76 |
74 |
57 |
|
(N) |
(159) |
(249) |
(266) |
(203) |
(308) |
(96) |
(1103) |
|
WOMEN |
|||||||
|
No couple relationship |
32 |
11 |
15 |
13 |
29 |
49 |
23 |
|
Steady sexual relationship without living together |
32 |
11 |
8 |
9 |
6 |
3 |
11 |
|
Cohabitation |
28 |
22 |
13 |
7 |
4 |
1 |
13 |
|
Marriage |
8 |
56 |
64 |
71 |
61 |
47 |
53 |
|
(N) |
(164) |
(233) |
(250) |
(191) |
(157) |
(149) |
(1114) |
Single men have a more varied sex life than single women. Forty-six percent of single men and 20 percent of single women reported sexual intercourse during the previous month. Thirteen percent of the single men and 3 percent of single women had engaged in sexual intercourse at least once a week during the previous month.
Measured by the number of partners, the sexual life of single adults is also more lively than that of married and cohabiting people. Close to half of all single men and more than a third of single women had had more than one sex partner during the previous year.
For single adults living without a steady sexual relationship, their last sexual partner was usually a sexually unaffiliated person. Fourteen percent of single women and 9 percent of the men said that their last partner was a spouse or steady partner of somebody else. Of single men, 2 percent said that their last partner was a prostitute. One tenth of single men had, during their lifetime, had intercourse with a prostitute. This is the same proportion as for married or cohabiting men. No single women reported contact with a paid sex partner.
Single people do not use as varied sex techniques as cohabiting couples and other people having a steady relationship. The positions used in last intercourse resemble those of married people: the missionary position with the man lying on top and the woman underneath. In the casual sexual relationships of single people, the love play and coital positions are fairly traditional: there is little oral sex and stimulating of a partner’s genitals by hand.
For women, the incidence of orgasm in sexual intercourse varies according to having or not having a steady sexual relationship. However, 26 percent of single women did not recall whether they had an orgasm during their last intercourse, perhaps because this may have been several years ago.
Single adults reported less satisfaction with their last intercourse than other people. Single adults also reported less satisfaction with their sex life as a whole than people having a steady sexual partner. Single people have a lower sexual self-esteem than other people; this may be one reason for their lack of sexual partner. People not having sexual relationships do not receive positive sexual feedback, which might strengthen their self-esteem.
Slightly more single men have had some homosexual experiences during their lifetime than attached males, 7 percent compared with 4 percent. Single men also are more likely to have a homosexual identity or identify themselves as bisexuals than other men (see Section 6). Single women are not more often lesbians than other women.
Masturbation is more common among single adults than other adults. Half of single men and one fourth of single women reported self-loving during the last month, twice as high as married people. Self-loving is most common among single people living with their parents. Most of these are young people.
In addition to using self-loving to compensate for not having a steady sexual partner, singles watch sex videos. Forty percent of single men had watched sex videos at least a couple of times during the previous year. This is the same frequency as cohabiting men and more than married men. Only 5 percent of single women had watched sex videos during the year, less than cohabiting or married women had done. Similar differences were found in the use of pornographic books and magazines. Women with steady partners may get invitations from their partners to watch sex videos or read pornographic materials. Single women seem to be too shy to buy or borrow sex materials to use alone.
Sex toys and aids are generally not used as substitutes for sexual relations (see Section 8). Vibrators are not used more by single than by other women - about 5 percent of all women had ever used them.
Alcohol is associated with the sexual life of single adults more than it is for affiliated persons. As many as 58 percent of single men and 26 percent of single women reported drinking alcoholic beverages before their last intercourse. For single men, this proportion is almost double that of other men, perhaps because the casual relationships of single adults often begin in restaurants and other social situations where alcoholic beverages are served.
Even though single adults suffer from feelings of loneliness more than people living in a couple relationship, not all of them long for a sexual partner. Many deny the importance of having sex or living with somebody.
Cohabitating Adults
All over the world, families and couple relationships have changed in recent decades. In the developed countries, children move away from the parental home earlier than before, cohabitation has become a common form of starting a marriage, divorces have increased, and the number of children has declined.
Because of the higher standard of living, adult Finns today live less often with their parents than in earlier times and more often alone (Table 6). The increase in unmarried cohabitation has decreased the proportion of married people in the population. In 1971, 64 percent of the respondents ages 18 to 54 lived together with their spouse and only a few percent with their fiancees or steady partners. The rapid growth of cohabitation can be seen from the 1992 survey: 16 percent of the 18- to 54-year-olds were cohabiting and only 53 percent of the population in this age cohort was married.
Table 6
Change in Household Structure of People Aged 15 to 54 from
1971 to 1992 (in Percentages)
|
Living Companions |
Men 1971 |
Men 1992 |
Women 1971 |
Women 1992 |
|
Parents or other kin |
26 |
17 |
18 |
15 |
|
Wife or husband |
62 |
52 |
66 |
51 |
|
Cohabiting partner |
3 |
17 |
2 |
18 |
|
Same sex companion |
3 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
|
Other and no information |
2 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
|
Lives alone |
4 |
13 |
7 |
15 |
|
(N) |
(744) |
(877) |
(1408) |
(838) |
The developmental cycle of the present union greatly varies by age in 1992 (Table 7). In the older age groups, 55 years and over, a large majority first moved together after the wedding. In the age category 25 to 44 years, half of the people first lived together and then married. Four fifths of the less-than-35-year-old people living together with someone were cohabiting without marriage. At present, most Finns start their marital life as a cohabiting couple.
Table 7
Developmental Cycle of the Present Union by Gender and Age
(in Percentages, 1992)
|
Cycle of the Union |
Age, Years |
||||||
|
18-24 |
25-34 |
35-44 |
45-54 |
55-64 |
65-74 |
Kaikki |
|
|
MEN |
|||||||
|
From marriage to living together |
6 |
10 |
36 |
80 |
87 |
93 |
50 |
|
From cohabitation to marriage |
11 |
51 |
51 |
12 |
10 |
4 |
31 |
|
Cohabiting |
83 |
39 |
13 |
8 |
3 |
3 |
19 |
|
(N) |
(36) |
(176) |
(218) |
(169) |
(101) |
(73) |
(773) |
|
WOMEN |
|||||||
|
From marriage to living together |
5 |
17 |
43 |
78 |
85 |
94 |
51 |
|
From cohabitation to marriage |
15 |
52 |
39 |
13 |
8 |
3 |
28 |
|
Cohabiting |
80 |
31 |
18 |
9 |
7 |
3 |
21 |
|
(N) |
(59) |
(182) |
(193) |
(150) |
(101) |
(72) |
(757) |
Of all the men interviewed in 1992, 79 percent and of the women 83 percent had lived in a matrimonial relationship. In the oldest age group, 65 to 74 years, there was a gender gap: 1 percent of men and 13 percent of women never had cohabited or married. This is partly explained by the fact that single men die young and single women live long.
A longer life expectancy and the growing divorce rate have contributed to the fact that people have time to enter several unions during their lives. According to the 1971 study, 5 percent of the ever married men and 6 percent of women had been married at least twice. In 1992, the proportions were 17 percent and 22 percent, respectively.
Cohabitation does not always lead to marriage, particularly among young people. One fourth of the 1992 respondents had been cohabiting without getting married to the partner. Among people under 35 years, the proportion was more than half.
Marital, Extramarital, and Postmarital Sexual Behaviors
(1) Sexual Intercourse. The frequency of sexual intercourse twenty years ago was almost as high as nowadays. Finns have sexual intercourse usually once or twice a week. The share of people who had had sexual intercourse during the last two days among the people ages 35 to 54 was higher in 1992 than in 1971 (Figure 5). Sexual relations seem nowadays to remain consistent and regular later in life than they did twenty years ago. The frequency of sexual intercourse does not decrease significantly until after the age of 55, especially among women. Even this change does not necessarily follow from aging but from generational differences.
Sexual intercourse has become more varied. While in 1971, as many as 68 percent of the most recent occurrences of sexual intercourse among 18- to 54-year-old people used the missionary position, in 1992 the proportion was 43 percent. The proportion of those who had used many different positions during their most recent sexual intercourse had increased in a very significant way, from 16 percent to 32 percent.
Twenty years ago, it was usual that the man was the sole initiator of sexual intercourse, in 49 percent of the incidents. In 1992, only 37 percent of the most recent experiences of sexual intercourse were initiated solely by the man. Fifteen percent of the male respondents said that the woman was the initiator of the last sexual intercourse, but this figure was only 10 percent according to the women’s responses. Women were slightly more likely than men to report that both partners took an equal role in initiating intercourse, 51 percent compared with 45 percent. Women may find it more difficult to admit that they have taken an active role in coitus.
Alcohol consumption before the last sexual intercourse became slightly more frequent in the past twenty years. In 1971, alcohol had been used by 21 percent of the men and 11 percent of the women; in 1992, this figure was 25 percent and 16 percent respectively. This reflects an increased consumption of alcohol among Finns in general.
Figure 5 - Sexual
Intercourse Within the Past 48 Hours at the Most (1971 and 1992)
|
|
Age Group (in Years) |
|||||
|
18-24 |
25-34 |
35-44 |
45-54 |
55-64 |
65-74 |
|
|
Women 1971 |
43 |
42 |
34 |
23 |
|
|
|
Women 1992 |
37 |
46 |
46 |
38 |
14 |
3 |
|
Men 1992 |
36 |
50 |
54 |
46 |
33 |
17 |
|
Men 1971 |
34 |
53 |
36 |
31 |
|
|
1. Sex in a sexual-intercourse-centered steady relationship (frequent sexual intercourse with a steady partner);2. sex in casual relationships (many sexual partners, including relationships with foreigners and prostitutes); and
3. alternative sexual habits (anal and oral sex, manually stimulated satisfaction, acquaintance with sexual aids, the use of different sex facilities, and masturbation).
The connection of the social background with these sex styles was examined by regression analyses. As explanatory variables in the simple linear regression model, there were gender, age, place of residence, type of marital relationship, years of education, income, days on working trips, religiosity, and two variables about alcohol consumption: the frequency of alcohol use and of getting intoxicated.
Sex in a steady relationship, meaning frequency of sexual intercourse and familiarity of the last sexual partner, relate naturally to living in a steady relationship, but also to youth and high income with a lower level of education. This sex style is typical of ambitious couples. The regression model explained 41 percent of the variation in the steady-relationship sex.
Those who practice casual sexual relationships, or people who have numerous sexual partners and/or sex with foreigners and paid partners are men, city residents, well-paid, who travel a lot for their work. They are indifferent to religion and often consume alcohol. The people cohabiting or in a steady noncohabiting relationship more often than other people had transient sexual relationships. The typical male practitioners of casual sexual relationships may well be called “rich good-time boys” for their social background even if they can be found in all age and gender groups. The regression model explained 18 percent of the variation in the casual sexual relationships.
Alternative sex was related to male gender, youth, frequency of alcohol consumption, and frequency of intoxication. The married and the single people did not engage in alternative sexual habits as much as the people living in cohabitation or in a steady sexual relationships. Alternative sexual habits are related to the lifestyle of young go-ahead men. As much as 43 percent of the variation in alternative sex was explained by these social factors.
(3) Sexual Partners. For Finns ages 18 to 54, the average number of sexual partners during the lifetime has risen from seven to ten during the last twenty years. In 1971, women of all ages had about three, men about eleven partners; in 1992, correspondingly, six and fourteen. In 1992, the male respondents between ages 25 and 44 years had the most partners, between 40 percent and 50 percent had at least ten partners; of the women in the same age cohorts, about 18 percent had at least ten partners (Figure 6).
In both surveys, the large number of sexual partners is related not only to gender and age, but also to marital status, according to a Multiple Classification (multivariant) analysis: the married people had fewer partners than the unmarried, widowed, and the divorced. Those alienated from religion, as well as the frequent consumers of alcohol, had more sexual partners than the religious and temperate people. Those who had passed the matriculation examination had fewer partners than the less educated; this difference, however, was no longer statistically significant in 1992.
Worldwide, in all the sex surveys, men claim to have had more sexual partners than women. This survey refined this general data by separating out data on Finnish men and women who had foreigners, homosexuals, or prostitutes as partners. When those who had, some time in their life, at least, one foreigner, one homosexual, and one prostitute as a sexual partner were separated from the data on under-56-year-old men and women, the men still had at least ten sexual partners - about twice as many as the women. One explanation of this might be that the Finnish men subconsciously overestimate the number of their partners, while the women underestimate their contacts. Another possibility is that many of the men with multiple sexual partners who responded to the survey have as sexual partners a small group of women who, for the main part, were left outside the survey and were among the nonrespondents of the questionnaire.
Figure 6 - At Least 10
Sexual Partners During the Lifetime (1971 and 1992)
|
|
Age Group (in Years) |
||||||||||
|
18-24 |
25-29 |
30-34 |
35-39 |
40-44 |
45-49 |
50-54 |
55-59 |
60-64 |
65-69 |
70-74 |
|
|
Men 1992 |
22 |
47 |
52 |
46 |
50 |
40 |
35 |
33 |
33 |
16 |
13 |
|
Men 1971 |
21 |
32 |
28 |
16 |
21 |
28 |
29 |
|
|
|
|
|
Women 1992 |
15 |
24 |
23 |
16 |
20 |
6 |
5 |
6 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
|
Women 1971 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
4 |
|
|
|
|
In addition, during the prior twelve months, the Finns more often than the Americans had more than one partner. During the previous year, 21 percent of the Finnish men and 11 percent of the women had had two or more partners; the corresponding figure for Americans was 17 percent and 7 percent respectively. Only 4 percent of the Finnish men and 7 percent of the women reported that they had had no partners at all during the prior year; in the United States, the proportions were 13 percent and 24 percent (Figures 7, 8, 9, and 10).
Figure 7 - Men’s Sexual Partners During Their Lifetime in Different Countries in the Early Nineties
Rgure 8 - Women’s Sexual Partners During Their Lifetime in Different Countries in the Early Nineties
Figure 9 - Men’s Sexual Partners During The Past Year in Different Countries in the Early Nineties
These results suggest that the sexual life of the Finns is at least as active as that of the Americans. Indeed, fear of AIDS and traditional sexual attitudes may restrict the number of sexual partners in the United States more than in Finland.
(4) Extra or Concurrent Sexual Relationships. The partners in the most recent sexual intercourse have mostly been steady partners or spouses in marriage or cohabitation. In 1992, only 6 percent of the men and 4 percent of the women in a steady sexual relationship had had someone other than the steady partner as the last partner. However, a greater and greater share of people have experiences of sexual relationships alongside their steady sexual relationships. Sexual relationships of this kind, including extramarital relationships, are called extra or parallel sexual relationships in the study.
The number of extra sexual relationships has approximately doubled during the twenty years among the Finns between 18 and 54 years old. In 1971, 24 percent of the men and 9 percent of the women who were married at the time of the survey stated that they had had sexual intercourse with some persons other than their spouses during their marriage. In 1992, 44 percent of the men and 19 percent of the women who were living in cohabitation or marriage had experiences of parallel sexual relationships during their cohabitation or marriage (Figure 11).
Figure 11 - More Than One
Sexual Partner During the Past Year by Duration of the Relationship
(1992)
|
|
Duration of the Relationship |
||||
|
0-1 Year |
1-4 Years |
4-9 Years |
9-19 Years |
19+ Years |
|
|
Women |
69 |
5 |
11 |
9 |
4 |
|
Men |
68 |
15 |
15 |
21 |
16 |
(5) Incidence of Oral and Anal Sex. In the 1992 data, stimulation of the partner’s genitals (e.g., fondling and stimulating by hand) in order to give him/her satisfaction without sexual intercourse is a common form of petting and love play. It may or may not be linked to vaginal intercourse. A large majority, 86 percent of men and 76 percent of women, had at least sometimes during their lifetime stimulated a partner’s genitals. During the last month, this had been done by half of men and more than a third of women. More than one year had gone since the last incidence of stimulation by hand for 26 percent of men and 42 percent of women. Women thus have been less active than men in giving satisfaction to a partner without sexual intercourse. Maybe some men offer fondling and stimulating by hand to their partners who otherwise do not have an orgasm in intercourse.
Young people stimulate partner’s genitals by fondling much more commonly than older people. Of women aged 55 and over, half, and of men 30 to 40 percent, have never done it, whereas the proportion among 25-to 34-year-olds is only 5 percent. This huge age gap indicates that fondling the genitals was not considered a part of “normal” sex life to satisfy one’s partner when today’s older generation was in their youth. Vaginal intercourse was then the main sex technique.
Anal sex (sodomy) has been practiced throughout history for pleasure, birth control, and to avoid breaking a virgin’s hymen. Including the anus in sexual activity is taboo in some cultures.
Clinically there is no difference between stimulation of the mouth, ears, nipples, feet, or anus in the production of pleasure sensations to the brain. None of these activities have a direct role in reproduction so it seems inconsistent for people to accept some and not all points of arousal in sexual activity. (Love 1992, 10)
In Finland, anal intercourse is not illegal. Nevertheless, it seems not to have been an acceptable sex technique in earlier generations, as older people rarely admit having practiced it. According to the 1992 survey, only 20 percent of men and 17 percent of women reported having ever practiced anal intercourse. Eight percent of men and 6 percent of women had done it several times. It had most often been practiced by 25- to 34-year-old persons, 31 percent of the men and 29 percent of the women. In this age group, one in ten had had anal sex several times. Only 2 percent of the women over 55, and 5 percent of the older men, had ever tried this sex technique.
Cunnilingus and fellatio are very common sexual practices throughout cultures and history. In the Finnish questionnaire, experiences of oral sex were inquired by the following question: “In the last five years, how often have you had oral sex in your sexual relations, that is, fondling a man’s penis or a woman’s genitals by mouth?” Men reported to have done cunnilingus to their partner more often, 78 percent, than women had done fellatio, 67 percent (Table 8). More than half of the men and 42 percent of the women had done it often or sometimes. Men also had received oral sex more often, 73 percent, than women, 64 percent.
Oral sex was much more common among younger than older Finns. In the age group 18 to 34 years, almost all had done and received oral sex, whereas in the age group 55 to 74, only 35 percent of men had received it from and 46 percent had done it to the partner. Only one in five women admitted it either way. The discrepancy in older men’s and women’s reports of oral sex may be due to the more common experiences of extra sexual relations with prostitutes and perhaps a less-inhibited extra partner.
The wide age differences in the practice of oral sex are connected to the varied sex practices of young people in general. Young people use more varied positions in sexual intercourse, satisfy each other more often by hand and mouth, and have more often experimented with anal sex than older people. The liberated sexual behavior of younger people may be one explanation for their greater sexual satisfaction.
(6) Sexual Satisfaction. Perhaps the most positive result of the Finnish sex survey is the observation that young Finns are more satisfied with their sexual lives than their elders are. Sexual intercourse was more generally regarded as pleasant in 1992 than it was in 1971. The amount of love play was considered more adequate, the steady relationship was experienced as happier, discussing sexual matters with the partner was more open and easier, and sexual life as a whole was estimated to be more satisfying than in 1971. Women had experienced orgasm somewhat more often in their last sexual intercourse, and men had had less problems with getting erections during the prior year.
From the viewpoint of sexual equality, it was remarkable that women considered their experiences of sexual intercourse clearly more pleasant than twenty years ago and nearly as pleasant as men. The gender gap in experiencing sexual intercourse as pleasant or as unpleasant decreased significantly. Men enjoyed their sexual life as a whole more than women, but in the pleasantness of the last sexual intercourse, there was no difference between the genders.
Table 8
Oral Sex by Gender and Age (in Percentages,
1992)
|
Partner has done oral sex to me |
Age, Years |
|||
|
18-34 |
35-54 |
55-74 |
Total |
|
|
MEN |
||||
|
Mostly |
20 |
9 |
2 |
12 |
|
Sometimes |
43 |
34 |
12 |
34 |
|
Seldom |
22 |
34 |
21 |
26 |
|
Not at all |
15 |
23 |
65 |
27 |
|
(N) |
(371) |
(395) |
(163) |
(929) |
|
WOMEN |
||||
|
Mostly |
22 |
9 |
- |
12 |
|
Sometimes |
45 |
28 |
7 |
29 |
|
Seldom |
20 |
32 |
12 |
23 |
|
Not at all |
14 |
31 |
81 |
36 |
|
(N) |
(377) |
(408) |
(241) |
(1026) |
|
I have done oral sex to partner |
|
|
|
|
|
MEN |
||||
|
Mostly |
23 |
12 |
5 |
15 |
|
Sometimes |
46 |
41 |
14 |
39 |
|
Seldom |
18 |
28 |
27 |
24 |
|
Not at all |
3 |
18 |
54 |
22 |
|
(N) |
(370) |
(395) |
(136) |
(901) |
|
WOMEN |
||||
|
Mostly |
18 |
6 |
1 |
10 |
|
Sometimes |
45 |
30 |
5 |
32 |
|
Seldom |
23 |
32 |
12 |
25 |
|
Not at all |
15 |
31 |
81 |
33 |
|
(N) |
(378) |
(368) |
(159) |
(905) |
Sexual satisfaction as a whole is a combination of emotional and physical satisfaction. According to our 1992 survey results, the two aspects are equally important. Among women, the correlation between general sexual satisfaction and finding intercourse pleasant - measured by sum of finding them in general pleasant and considering the last intercourse as pleasant - was 0.47 and 0.40 for men. Happiness in the present steady relationship, meaning emotional satisfaction, correlated with sexual satisfaction as a whole for women at 0.44 and for men at 0.36.
Happiness of life was more strongly connected to emotional sexual satisfaction - for men 0.52 and women 0.59 - than to physical satisfaction - 0.23 and 0.20 respectively. Emotional satisfaction prevents feelings of loneliness - for men 0.27 and women 0.30 - more than physical satisfaction - 0.16 and 0.15 respectively.
Sexual satisfaction is a socially constructed phenomenon. It is related to emotions, sexual practices, and relationships. In Table 9, correlation coefficients between emotional, physical, and overall sexual satisfaction and a number of variables related to sexual feelings, practices, and partners are presented. Perhaps this analysis gives hints as to how to improve sexual life so that it will be more happy and enjoyable.
Loving and being loved is important for emotional, physical, and overall satisfaction in sexual life. Women in particular need love in order to be happy in their steady relationship. A loving relationship greatly increases satisfaction with sexual life as a whole. The quality of the present steady sexual relationship also has an impact on sexual satisfaction. People for whom talking about sex with their partner is not difficult at all, but open and easy, are emotionally, physically, and generally satisfied with their sexual life.
The number of persons one has really fallen in love with only correlates with the unhappiness of men’s but not women’s steady relationships; that is, men who have fallen in love often are not very happy in their present relationship. Perhaps they have known too many women with whom they can compare their present partner in order to feel totally happy with her. Or maybe falling in love very many times in life is an indicator of problems in getting really attached to anyone.
Sexual self-esteem is also more important for women’s than men’s sexual satisfaction. Women who consider themselves as sexually active, having great sexual skills, and being sexually attractive are happy in their steady relationships and especially satisfied with sexual intercourse and sex life as a whole. Men can consider their steady relationship quite happy irrespective of their own opinion of their sexual capacity. But for men’s physical and overall sexual satisfaction, it is important to have a high sexual self-esteem.
The role of sexuality in life is connected more to women’s than to men’s sexual satisfaction. Considering sexual life as an important part of life is associated with emotional sexual satisfaction to the same extent for both sexes. Valuing sexuality counts more for women’s than men’s satisfaction with intercourse and, to some extent, sex life in general. Denial of sexuality in life may prevent women from enjoying sexual intercourse, or vice versa; women who do not like physical sex, may undervalue sexual life as part of their whole life. The subjective experience of an increase in sexual desire in the last five years is more closely correlated with women’s than men’s sexual satisfaction.
Table 9
Correlations Between Sexual Satisfaction and Sexual
Feelings, Practices, and Partners (r) for Men and Women
(1992)
|
Sexual Feelings and Behavior |
Sexual Satisfaction |
|||||
|
Emotional |
Physical |
General |
||||
|
Men |
Women |
Men |
Women |
Men |
Women |
|
|
FEELINGS |
(Correlation Coefficients) |
|||||
|
Love: |
||||||
|
Loves somebody right now |
0.26 |
0.38 |
0.23 |
0.26 |
0.32 |
0.38 |
|
Receives love |
0.24 |
0.36 |
0.22 |
0.26 |
0.31 |
0.36 |
|
Talking about sex with one’s partner is easy |
0.16 |
0.22 |
0.23 |
0.23 |
0.23 |
0.28 |
|
Number of objects of love during lifetime |
-0.10 |
ns |
ns |
ns |
ns |
ns |
|
Sexual self esteem: |
||||||
|
I have great sexual skills |
ns |
0.16 |
0.26 |
0.30 |
0.26 |
0.31 |
|
I am sexually active |
ns |
0.28 |
0.21 |
0.35 |
0.27 |
0.35 |
|
I am sexually attractive |
ns |
0.18 |
0.16 |
0.24 |
0.19 |
0.21 |
|
Role of sex in life: |
||||||
|
Considers sexual life to be an important part of life |
0.17 |
0.19 |
0.25 |
0.37 |
0.23 |
0.28 |
|
Sexual desire has increased in the last five years |
ns |
0.24 |
0.17 |
0.35 |
0.11 |
0.20 |
|
Happiness: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Considers one’s life happy |
0.52 |
0.59 |
0.23 |
0.20 |
0.31 |
0.38 |
|
Is not lonely |
0.27 |
0.30 |
0.16 |
0.15 |
0.30 |
0.29 |
|
PRACTICES |
||||||
|
Intercourse: |
||||||
|
Frequency of intercourse (in general and during the last month) |
0.10 |
0.23 |
0.28 |
0.29 |
0.39 |
0.37 |
|
Both took initiative to last intercourse |
0.12 |
0.12 |
0.11 |
0.25 |
0.13 |
0.16 |
|
Considers the amount of foreplay in intercourse suitable |
0.11 |
0.24 |
0.11 |
0.29 |
0.18 |
0.33 |
|
Several positions in last intercourse |
ns |
0.14 |
ns |
0.22 |
ns |
ns |
|
Other sex practices: |
||||||
|
Stimulated recently partner’s genitals without intercourse |
ns |
0.19 |
0.13 |
0.26 |
0.18 |
0.21 |
|
Partner gives oral sex |
ns |
0.20 |
0.16 |
0.25 |
0.16 |
0.19 |
|
Gives oral sex to partner |
ns |
0.18 |
0.19 |
0.25 |
0.18 |
0.18 |
|
Has had anal intercourse |
ns |
ns |
ns |
ns |
ns |
ns |
|
Masturbates often |
ns |
ns |
ns |
ns |
-0.20 |
-0.12 |
|
Has used sex materials (videos, movies, magazines etc.) during last year |
ns |
ns |
ns |
0.11 |
ns |
ns |
|
Has ever used sex facilities (vibrators, lubricants, erection rings,
sexy underwear etc.) |
ns |
ns |
ns |
ns |
ns |
ns |
|
PHYSIOLOGICAL REACTIONS |
||||||
|
Orgasm in intercourse in general |
0.07 |
0.20 |
0.62 |
0.79 |
0.14 |
0.41 |
|
Orgasm in last intercourse |
0.07 |
0.15 |
0.74 |
0.87 |
0.21 |
0.29 |
|
Experienced own or partner’s impotence during last year |
ns |
-0.22 |
-0.22 |
-0.28 |
-0.15 |
-0.27 |
|
PARTNERS |
||||||
|
Number of sexual partners |
ns |
ns |
ns |
ns |
ns |
-0.10 |
|
Number of extra sexual relations during present or previous steady relations |
-0.20 |
-0.16 |
ns |
ns |
ns |
ns |
Sexual habits or practices have a stronger effect on physical than emotional sexual satisfaction. Most of them correlate more with women’s than men’s satisfaction. From the point of view of sexual satisfaction, the following sexual habits have a positive outcome: frequent sexual intercourse, equal activeness in initiating it, a suitable amount of kissing, petting, or other love play in connection with coitus, and use several positions in intercourse (applies to men only).
In addition to practices related to sexual intercourse, the study also investigated other techniques aiming at sexual satisfaction. Stimulation by hand and oral sex clearly increase women’s emotional, physical, and overall sexual satisfaction, and also to some degree, men’s physical and general but not emotional satisfaction. Anal sex, masturbation, use of sex materials and aids are only to a small degree related to sexual satisfaction. People, particularly men, who masturbate often, are not satisfied with their sexual life as a whole. Women who use sex materials - sex movies and programs on TV, videos, magazines, and wall calendars with naked pictures - are somewhat more satisfied with intercourse than women who do not use them. Perhaps sex materials help women to adopt new, more rewarding sex techniques.
Orgasm during sexual intercourse is very strongly connected to finding sexual intercourse pleasant. The correlations are higher for women than for men. Also general sexual satisfaction, and to some degree, happiness of the steady relationship, correlate with experiencing an orgasm during intercourse.
It is not uncommon that a man cannot enter into sexual intercourse because he cannot get an erection or his penis becomes flaccid when sexual intercourse is started. One’s own or one’s partner’s erectile problem decreases physical sexual satisfaction for both sexes. It is also connected to the emotional dissatisfaction of women in their steady relationships.
The number of sexual partners during a lifetime does not correlate with sexual satisfaction except at one point: women who have had many sexual partners report more dissatisfaction with their sexual lives as a whole than other women. Traditional gender roles may make women uncomfortable with a life in which sexual partners change frequently. This lifestyle probably includes a lot of short-time casual relationships that women do not take as lightheartedly as men have been socialized to take them.
The number of extra sexual relations during present or previous steady relations is connected to unhappiness of the present steady relationship, but not to physical nor overall sexual satisfaction. Parallel relations indicate a wish to escape the unhappiness of the steady relationship, or they may cause jealousy on the part of the steady partner that might deteriorate the relationship.
Determinants of physical sexual satisfaction have earlier been analyzed by using path analysis (Haavio-Mannila 1993). In the path models developed for explaining satisfaction with intercourse for men and women, some more general social factors than those presented in Table 9 were included.
Some of them only had an indirect influence on sexual satisfaction, but some also had direct effects on it. The social factors studied contributing to physical sexual satisfaction were: irreligious and sexually open childhood home, early age at starting sexual life, liberal attitudes toward sexual issues, short duration of the present steady relationship, and young age. These social background factors correlated with the sexual variables increasing sexual satisfaction: the value of sexuality in life, sexual assertiveness, love, use of sex materials, frequency and variety of intercourse, and orgasm.
Divorce and Remarriage
In 1986-89, there were 11.6 officially recorded divorces per 1,000 mean population of married women, compared with 5.3 in 1966-70. In 1989, 47 percent of marriages ended in divorce. The increase in divorces can also be seen in the survey data. In 1971, only 3 percent of the respondents were divorced or separated from their spouse; twenty years later the figure was 8 percent. Even changes in the structure of families with children reflect the increased incidence of divorces. In 1971,90 percent of the respondents reported that their parents had lived together throughout their childhood; twenty years later the figure was 88 percent.
Cohabitation does not always lead to marriage; separation of cohabiting partners is relatively common, especially in the younger age groups. One in four respondents interviewed for the 1992 study had had a cohabitation relationship that had not continued as a marriage. This share was more than one in two in the age groups 35 or younger.
The increased life span and increasing occurrence of divorce allows people time to marry several times. According to the 1971 study, 5 percent of married men and women had been married at least twice. Two decades later, 17 percent of presently or formerly married or cohabiting men and 22 percent of the corresponding women had had at least two such relationships. Women had had a higher number of such relationships before age 54. In older age groups, men had been married more times than women.
Sexuality, Disability, and Aging
There are no serious obstacles concerning values and attitudes in dealing with the sexual needs and activities. In 1992, only 5 percent of the respondents believed that elderly people should not establish sexual relationships. Most Finns, 75 percent, held that people in residential facilities ought to have a privacy room for intimate meetings. Although the majority also approve of sexual relationships for physically and mentally challenged persons, no actual studies have been carried out on sexual issues and the disabled.
There is currently some kind of generation gap between elderly and young Finns in sexual issues. Elderly people, especially women, are more conservative in their attitudes to adolescents’ sexual relationships, casual relationships, relationships without love, and women’s right to take sexual initiatives. Elderly people have lived their childhood in the world where restrictions against free sexual pleasure were enormous. They have learned that sexual issues are not really important and that they have to be careful in order to avoid the problems and risks associated with fulfilling their sexual images and fantasies. They never had any knowledge and education, for instance, how to satisfy the needs of their partners such as young Finns have nowadays. They initiated their dating and sex life much older than the younger generations because sexual activities were interpreted to be as a part of marriage only. Many of them were, in practice, forced to abstain while married because there were almost no contraceptives available.
The frequency of sexual intercourse is increasing among older Finns. Most retired men have had intercourse during last month, and they report their experiences to be as pleasurable as the younger ones. Elderly people are still not as actively engaging in sexual relationships as the younger people. More than half of retired women abstain from sexual intercourse because they are widowed and are not able or willing to engage to some new relationship - there is also a lack of older men. Old women are many times sexually quite inactive because they have learned that sexual initiatives are men’s duty.
The coital positions of elderly people do not vary very much and they quite seldom engage in oral sex, anal sex, or manual stimulation. They even abstain quite often from masturbation and pornographic products. Only 18 percent of men and 11 percent of women over 65 years have masturbated during last year. The sexual inactivity is explained only partly by aging and illness; the education and generation gap is the more important reason for this finding. This can be seen, for example, in data on the number of sexual partners during a lifetime that are much lower among elderly people. Elderly Finns have had much more time to engage in sexual relationships than younger Finns, but they seldom have experienced multiple relationships.
Because of their health status, elderly people have more sexual dysfunctions - lack of desire, problems with having vaginal lubrication, erections, and orgasms - than younger generations. These problems will be discussed later in this chapter.
Finnish homosexuals were studied by the snowball method in 1982 (Grönfors et al. 1984). More than one thousand homosexuals answered a relatively extensive questionnaire. Two thirds of the respondents were men and one third were women. About 60 percent of the respondents reported that they were exclusively homosexual in their feelings and about 70 percent in their behavior. Finnish homosexuals were quite similarly distributed into Kinsey’s categories (Kinsey et al. 1948; 1953). Feelings and behavior were in most cases consistent. However, it is not always possible to combine feelings with practice in real life. There were people who identified themselves as only or mostly homosexual but behaved only or mostly heterosexually.
In the Finnish sex survey of 1992, there were ten questions about sex with same-sex persons. They refer to sexual identity, sexual experiences with persons of one’s own sex, age at first homosexual experience, type and frequency of these experiences, number of same-sex partners, and orgasm in homosexual intercourse.
Homosexual identity was measured by a five-point scale ranging from exclusive homosexuality to exclusive heterosexuality (cf. Kinsey et al. 1948). The question was phrased as follows: “Besides being sexually interested in the opposite sex, people are sometimes also interested in their own sex. Are you at the moment sexually interested in only the male sex, mainly the male sex, both sexes equally, mainly the female sex, or only the female sex?"
In the population aged 18 to 54 years, the proportion of persons interested only or mainly in people of the same sex was 0.8 percent in 1971, in 1992 only 0.6 percent. When one takes into consideration all people who have at least some interest in people of the same sex, the proportions were 7.6 percent and 6.5 percent respectively. When all people aged 55 to 74 years studied in 1992 are included, the proportion of the exclusively or mainly homosexually oriented persons was 0.7 percent and that of at least partly bisexually oriented 6.4 percent. Men more often than women identified themselves as homosexuals, whereas there was no gender gap in the proportion of bisexually oriented people. Same-gendered experiences are more common than homosexual identity. According to the 1992 survey, 4.0 percent of the Finnish men and 3.8 percent of the women had had same-sex partners during their life. In the United States, in 1991, the proportions were 5.0 percent for men and 2.7 percent for women (Laumann et al. 1994). The gender difference is thus larger in the United States than in Finland where there is hardly any gender gap. American women may be shyer than Finnish women in admitting their lesbian behavior, or they may avoid lesbian practices deliberately in order to avoid the social stigma attached to them. In Finland, the liberalization of attitudes toward homosexuality in the last twenty years may have helped lesbians acknowledge and report on their homosexual experiences.
The number of homosexual partners during one’s lifetime was on the average of 7.4 for men and 1.6 for women. Compared with the number of sexual partners in the whole population (10.6), these figures are small. This is due to the fact that most homosexual encounters only have taken place with one person: 53 percent of men and 72 percent of women had had only one same-sex partner. Many homosexual contacts took place a long time ago. Only 29 percent of the same-sex contacts of people ever having had one had happened during the last twelve months. During the last year, 1.3 percent of the Finns and 1.6 percent of the Americans had had a homosexual relationship. This question had been left unanswered by a significantly greater proportion (23 percent) of the Americans than of the Finns (8 percent). This again suggests that there are more social taboos regarding homosexuality in the United States than in Finland.
The first homosexual experiences took place at the same age as first sexual intercourse - that is, on the average at the age of 18.3 years. Men started somewhat earlier than women. Eight percent of these experiences were probably sexual play of children, since they took place when the respondent was less than ten years old.
The most common type of homosexual experiences were arousing fondling without touching genitals (54 percent of people having had homosexual experiences), stimulation of genitals by hand or rubbing genitals against partner’s genitals (also 54 percent), and oral stimulation of the genitals (29 percent). Only 19 percent of men with homosexual relations had been engaged in anal intercourse.
Thirty-eight percent of men and 26 percent of women had had orgasm in homosexual intercourse. This is less than the proportion of orgasm in heterosexual intercourse (see Table 13 below). Homosexually oriented and/or experienced men considered their sexual life as a whole somewhat less often very or quite satisfying (75 percent) than bisexually or mostly heterosexually oriented men without homosexual experiences (87 percent) and exclusively heterosexual men (85 percent). For women, the percentages were 77 percent, 61 percent, and 83 percent respectively.
The lower sexual satisfaction of homosexuals may be related to the prevailing conceptions about the superiority of heterosexual love and sex (Jeffreys 1990). It may be more difficult to enjoy homosexual experiences as freely as heterosexual experiences because of their ambivalent status in sexual culture. This can be concluded on the basis of the fact that 28 percent of men and 38 percent of women interested in their own sex have sometimes been bothered personally by or fearful and worried about their own sexual deviation. This is three times as common as in the population on the average. Of men with homosexual experiences, 38 percent, and of women 19 percent, have felt that kind of fear. This fear still prevails even though the attitudes toward homosexuality have liberalized during the last twenty years (see Table 3 above).
A. Sociological Status, Behaviors, and Treatment
In Finland, the most conspicuous gender minority group have been the transsexuals, because their situation requires both therapeutical and juridical measures to be resolved. Since 1991, Finland has taken specific steps to draft legislation and develop health care to meet this need. Following reports in 1992 and 1994, the National Research and Development Center for Welfare and Health (STAKES) has moved to secure health-care services for transsexuals and provide juridical protection for their gender reassignment and privacy.
In Finland, there are an estimated three hundred people who would benefit from sex-reassignment surgery. A 1994 Social Affairs and Health directive enables staff at university-hospital polyclinics to examine patients seeking sex reassignment and apply for a castration permission from the National Board of Medicolegal Affairs. Once approved, the corrective surgery is paid for by public health care. Since 1997, this surgical treatment has been centralized in Tampere University Hospital. Although the Castration Act was not drafted to deal with transsexuals, it is used as a prerequisite for national insurance coverage. In effect, Finland functions without specific legislation for transsexuals. If the medical treatment and legal problems of transsexuals can be settled by directives and recommendations without a separate law, no new law will be passed. However, if some municipalities decide to provide their own coverage of this treatment and others deny this, a new law may be needed.
SETA (Sexual Equality), originally a national organization for homosexuals and lesbians, has in recent years begun working actively on behalf of other sexual minorities. SETA now arranges group evenings for transsexuals and transvestites, where other sexual minorities have been welcomed. In addition, SETA has vigorously promoted some juridical changes for sexual minorities, such as allowing a change of one’s name and an identity number as part of gender reassignment. A 1993 change in the system of population data collection has also made it easier for the transsexuals to change their names and identity numbers. This can now be done if a person has had hormonal treatment for a year and has a physician’s certificate of transsexualism.
On the recommendation of the “Trans” Working Group of STAKES, the Trans-Support Center has provided social services, psychological counseling, advice on the medical-treatment process, and information from the transsexuals who have already been through the treatment process. This effort, begun in 1994, has been financed by RAY (Finland’s Slot Machine Association). The political activity of sexual-minority groups has been coordinated by TRASEK, the association of transsexuals which now includes other sexual-minority groups such as hermaphrodites. Other new cross-gendered organizations formed in recent years include Postgender, which is open to all genders and tries to fade out the restrictive dichotomy of the gender system. The transvestites’ own organization, Dreamwear Club, plans to be officially registered and active in 1997. Female-to-male transsexuals are also forming a group of their own.
B. Specially Gendered Persons
There are actually no hijra or berdache communities in Finland, but a so-called gender community that includes people from different gender groups such as transsexuals, transvestites, transgenderists, and gender-blending people does exist. There are so few people of each of the groups that they have not formed any subgroups of their own.
A. Coercive Sex
Sexual Abuse, Incest, and Pedophilia
Finnish women have been sexually abused as children more often than men: under the age of 18,17 percent of women and 8 percent of men had been sexually harassed by peers, other boys or girls, parents, or other adults. There was no clear age difference in the incidence of child abuse. Women most often were harassed by male peers and men, and men by female peers and women. Two percent of women had been sexually abused by their fathers. No reports of sexual abuse by a mother have been made.
Sexual Harassment and Rape
Incidence of sexual harassment was studied by using the following question: “In the last five years, has anyone laid hands on you or touched you in an offensive way (with a sexual purpose) either in your apartment or elsewhere, e.g., in a restaurant, workplace or at school?” Affirmative answers were given by 3 percent of men and 9 percent of women. Younger women reported more sexual harassment than older women. For men, age made no difference. Sexual harassment in most cases was described as approaches (men 88 percent and women 69 percent), but 0.4 percent of all women described the incidence as rape, and 1.1 percent of all women defined it as attempted rape. Of all men, 0.2 percent described the harassment as attempted rape; no men reported actual rape. Regression analysis showed that becoming an object of sexual harassment was connected with being sexually abused as a child, young age, and female gender. Persons who were sexually harassed were more likely than other persons not to have steady sexual relationships and to have had extra sexual relations and homosexual experiences. Drinking to intoxication and having many sexual partners was also related to having been sexually harassed.
The harassers were mostly men. About half of the respondents knew the harasser before the incidence. Very few of the harassed - 6 percent of the harassed men and 7 percent of women - had informed the police about the incident. The most common reason for not reporting sexual harassment to the police was that it was considered to be of minor importance. The second reason was that the respondent personally resolved the matter.
Becoming an object of sexual harassment increased sexual fears and worries. Other social factors influencing sexual fears were female gender, young age, lack of steady relationship, stress symptoms, casual and extra sexual relations, and sexual practices alternative to intercourse. One third of the variation of sexual fears was explained by these factors. In order to diminish sexual anxiety, it is worthwhile to discuss and control sexual harassment publicly.
Prostitution
Prostitution itself is not illegal in Finland, but it is against the law to organize prostitutes’ services, for example, by maintaining a brothel. Until the beginning of the 1990s, prostitution was scarce (Järvinen 1990). One of the consequences of the fall of the Soviet Union was that many Estonian and Russian women came to Finland to earn money as prostitutes.
Attitudes toward prostitution differ greatly by gender. In 1992, men more often (51 percent) than women (21 percent) had nothing against people earning money by selling sexual services in Finland. This activity was opposed by 34 percent of men and 65 percent of women. People over 50 years were most negative toward prostitution.
There has been recurrent public discussion about establishing brothels under the control of the state as there were in the beginning of this century in Finland. Brothels might be a means to fight problems connected with prostitution: i.e., liability of clients and prostitutes to venereal diseases and connections to criminality, particularly drug dealing. Approval of state-controlled brothels was greater among men than women: 42 percent of men but only 17 percent of women approved public brothels while 41 percent and 67 percent respectively opposed them. Middle-aged people were most favorable to brothels. Support for public brothels has clearly increased since a 1972 survey. At that time only 20 percent approved establishing state-controlled brothels (Markkula 1981).
There is a certain amount of demand for paid sexual services in Finland. Twenty percent of women and 8 percent of men had during their lifetime been persuaded to intercourse by being offered money or similar economic advantages. Women under 35 years of age most often reported having received these kinds of offers. This indicates that they have increased with time. Only 0.2 percent of Finnish women and 1.5 percent of men admitted that they had complied with the request.
Men use paid sexual services more than women. Eleven percent of Finnish men and 0.3 percent of women had offered money or similar economic advantages for intercourse. One percent of all men and women said that their initiatives had not led to sexual activity.
For Finnish men, traditionally, buying sexual services starts at about age 40 when men begin to have the economic resources for it. Having sex with prostitutes was connected with having many sexual partners, extra relationships, sex with foreigners, high sexual self-esteem, and few homosexual experiences. Using paid sexual services was not related to sexual satisfaction nor sexual fears.
Pornography and Erotica
In Finland, between 1971 and 1992, women’s attitudes to pornography became somewhat more negative, whereas men’s attitudes have remained unchanged. This may be related to the contents of pornography becoming “harder” and less satisfying to women’s expectations than before. The consumption of pornographic products has remained almost the same among men but has decreased among women. Even when sex videos are included with the printed publications, fewer women, on the average, used pornographic materials during the year in 1992 than in 1971.
Interest in pornographic publications was exceptionally great in 1971 because open nudity had only recently become available in pictures in sex magazines. The charm of novelty and the taste of the forbidden fruit made people anxious to have and use them. Since this initial interest, the greatest excitement and attraction have settled. Besides, the so-called soft pornography has come within everyone’s reach - for example, in the pictures of the afternoon tabloids. Such material, however, is no longer referred to as pornography. There are legal restrictions against hard pornography in Finland, but soft pornography and erotica are shown even on public television.
Sex magazines published in Finland are forbidden by the Ministry of Justice to present pictures of anal and oral sex, sexual violence, sadomasochism, sex with children, sperm, paraphilias with sex models, and close-up pictures of genitals. All movies and video films are inspected by state authorities and hard-core pornography, as listed above, is not allowed to be presented in cinemas or to be rented in video markets. However, in practice, hard-core videos can be bought or leased from specific sex shops. Films presented on TV are not under any legal regulations.
Paraphilias
In Finland, the use of sexual aids and toys such as a vibrator or vibrating penis, lubricants, pills or substances increasing potency, erection rings, a penis enlarger with pump, ropes or gags, an artificial vagina, sexy underwear, sex dolls, and whips or handcuffs or fetters in masturbation or in sexual intercourse by the respondent or his/her partner is fairly rare.
Sexy underwear was the most commonly used aid: one fifth of people told about using it. In the younger age groups, under 35 years, the proportion was about one third, in the oldest age groups only a few percent.
Lubricant was the next popular aid: 17 percent of men and 15 percent of women had used it. Lubricant use increases with age because it lessens problems connected with vaginal lubrication during intercourse.
Vibrators or vibrating dildos were used by the respondent or a partner according to the replies of 7 percent of men and 6 percent of women. These were most popular among those around 30 years old (10 percent). The interest of young people in vibrators indicates that their use will increase in the future. The other sexual aids listed above were each used by less than 2 percent of the respondents.
Use of sex aids did not correlate with sexual satisfaction except in one case: use of a pump penis enlarger and sex dolls was related to women’s unhappiness in steady relationships. These devices are meant for fighting impotency or for compensating for lack of a human sexual partner. As mentioned in the section of sexual satisfaction, impotency and lack of partner indicate an unhappy steady relationship as was mentioned above.
A. Contraception
A decline in birthrate has been a common phenomenon in most west European countries and in all the Nordic countries during the past several decades. In Finland, the birthrate was at its highest after World War II; for instance, in 1947, as many as 108,000 children were born. After this, there was an even decline, so that, after 1968, the birthrate has been lower than the replacement birthrate, which would be about 70,000 births per year. At its lowest, in 1973, the birth rate was 56,787 births. In the 1990s, it has been about 65,000 children per year. Unless immigration increases, the population is estimated to grow until 1999, after which it will begin to decrease.
Contraception has been well taken care of in Finland. Young people may obtain contraceptives from their school health care services. The law or other regulations require that those who have given birth or had an abortion be given counseling in contraception. Generally, counseling and even the contraceptive methods themselves are easily available. There is also a variety to choose from, thanks to the development in the research and production of contraceptive methods. From an international viewpoint, Finland is considered a model country in organizing contraception.
In 1988, contraceptive use among 13- to 17-year-olds was surveyed (Kontula and Rimpela 1988). No contraception had been used at the first intercourse by 27 percent of the 15-year-olds. Most of them, 66 percent of boys and 71 percent of the girls, had used the condom during the first intercourse. A few percent had used the pill. At the most recent intercourse, use of the pill was reported by 17 percent of the girls and 7 percent of the boys. At the same time, the proportion of those who used the condom had diminished to 59 percent with the girls. The share of those with no contraception had remained almost the same as at the first intercourse, about one in four.
Use of the contraceptive pill quickly becomes more common among the young as they settle into a relationship. As many as 44 percent of the 17-year-old girls in Helsinki had used the pill at their most recent sexual intercourse; the proportion using condoms remained at 45 percent. Nationwide, the proportion of 17-year-old boys relying on the pill was 25 percent; for girls, 56 percent. The differences in these responses stems from the fact that the girls usually have intercourse with boys some years older than themselves.
According to the 1971 sex survey, only about 3 percent of those who needed contraception did not use any method. According to a study conducted in 1977, one in ten women who needed contraception did not use any method (Riihinen et al. 1980).
In 1992, 29 percent of the men and 18 percent of the women did not need contraception at their last intercourse (Erkkola and Kontula 1993). About one fifth of the middle-aged people reported that they did not need contraception. A very important reason is that about 12 percent of the 35-to 54-year-old women had undergone hysterectomy which becomes more common with age.
The prevalence of contraceptive methods was surveyed by a question about the method used at last intercourse. Slightly over 3 percent of the men who had thought they needed contraception in their steady relationship had not used any method at their last sexual intercourse. No method had been used at the last intercourse by 5 percent of the 18- to 54-year-old women who thought they needed contraception.
The condom and contraceptive pill are popular with young people (Figures 12 and 13). After the age of 30, the pill loses most of its users although about one tenth of the women still use it after that age. This is due in part to the health officers’ recommendations. The condom, however, holds its popularity fairly steady among users of all ages. This may be due to the protection the condom affords against diseases.
Use of the intrauterine device (IUD) increases considerably around the age of 30, at the same time as the popularity of the pill wanes. The IUD maintains its popularity until the age of menopause, after which it is naturally no longer needed. The IUD is used by about one third of women. The use of sterilization as a contraceptive method increases a little later than the use of the IUD. Sterilization is mostly used around age 40 years, with about 25 percent of middle-aged women using this method. Based on generation comparisons, it seems likely that the use of sterilization will clearly increase in the coming years.
The pill, IUD, and sterilization had been used by 59 percent of women; 27 percent had used the condom. Only slightly over 3 percent had used withdrawal or the rhythm method (“safe period”); the latter had been used by only a few women. About 4 percent of the female respondents had used two methods at their last intercourse, mostly the condom with some other method.
Figure 12 - The
Contraceptive Method Used During the Most Recent Intercourse Among Men Who Need
Contraception and Have Had Intercourse (1992)
|
|
Age Group (in Years) |
||||||||||
|
18-24 |
25-29 |
30-34 |
35-39 |
40-44 |
45-49 |
50-54 |
55-59 |
60-64 |
65-69 |
70-74 |
|
|
Condom |
53 |
42 |
45 |
38 |
24 |
30 |
36 |
50 |
50 |
56 |
38 |
|
Pill |
44 |
45 |
28 |
13 |
8 |
15 |
7 |
4 |
7 |
6 |
0 |
|
IUD |
1 |
10 |
19 |
33 |
33 |
32 |
32 |
23 |
14 |
0 |
13 |
|
Sterilization |
0 |
1 |
4 |
7 |
23 |
16 |
13 |
12 |
14 |
6 |
0 |
Regional differences in contraceptive methods used are fairly insignificant. There are hardly any regional differences in the use of the pill and the IUD, but the condom has been more used in the big towns than in the smaller localities according to the women’s responses.
Finns who had their last intercourse with a steady cohabitation partner or spouse and needed contraception had used the condom less frequently than others, 32 percent of the men and 27 percent of the women, compared with 46 percent and 28 percent respectively for those who had had their last intercourse with some other steady partner, and 68 percent and 45 percent of those with someone other than a steady partner. The condom was most often used at the most recent intercourse by men, 71 percent, and women, 39 percent, who had no steady partners. No contraception had been used by 5 percent of men and 10 percent of the women with the latest not-steady partner, although they reported that they needed contraception. The pill had been used by 28 percent and the IUD by 10 percent of the women with their latest not-steady partners. Slightly over 40 percent of those men and women who had had their last intercourse with somebody else’s spouse or steady partner had then used the condom.
Figure 13 - The
Contraceptive Method Used During the Most Recent Intercourse Among Men Who Need
Contraception and Have Had Intercourse (1992)
|
|
Age Group (in Years) |
||||||||||
|
18-24 |
25-29 |
30-34 |
35-39 |
40-44 |
45-49 |
50-54 |
55-59 |
60-64 |
65-69 |
70-74 |
|
|
Pill |
60 |
57 |
24 |
14 |
11 |
0 |
7 |
14 |
9 |
0 |
0 |
|
Condom |
38 |
25 |
30 |
25 |
26 |
29 |
43 |
32 |
14 |
20 |
31 |
|
IUD |
1 |
10 |
31 |
31 |
32 |
33 |
29 |
11 |
0 |
0 |
8 |
|
Sterilization |
0 |
0 |
7 |
19 |
28 |
25 |
18 |
14 |
18 |
10 |
0 |
B. Teenage Unmarried Pregnancies
Women under age 20 account for about 2,000 pregnancies each year, about 3 percent of the total number of 65,000 pregnancies. Teenage pregnancy and live births have been relatively one of the lowest of the whole world. The number of live births to unmarried women has been growing fast and is nowadays about 20,000 a year. The proportion of unmarried women giving birth is about 30 percent, a share that has doubled during last twenty years. There are no separate statistics of unmarried, noncohabiting couples. The estimated figure has been, according to surveys, about 5 percent of annual live births.
C. Abortion
In the earlier decades when prevention of pregnancies was poor and abortions illegal, the women in their despair resorted to infanticide in Finland. Nowadays, the situation is considerably better in this respect, but there is still discussion of the justification of abortions. In Finland, the situation is exceptionally good, for abortions had clearly decreased due to the improved contraception during the last twenty years, and abortions are exceptionally few by international comparison.
The current law regarding termination of pregnancies, which was preceded by a fierce debate, was enacted in 1970. As a result of this liberal law, abortion became practically free, and illegal abortions were believed to have almost entirely ceased. With the new Primary Health Care Act instituted in 1972, the cost of abortions was essentially paid by the municipalities.
A 1978 amendment to the abortion law required permission of the Central Administrative Board for termination of a pregnancy after twelve weeks. The latest law concerning abortions came into force in 1985, making it possible to terminate pregnancy prior to the twenty-fourth week of pregnancy on the grounds of the illness of the fetus, instead of the earlier twentieth week. If the mother’s life or health is at stake, termination of pregnancy is permitted at any stage of pregnancy, even after the twenty-fourth week. In practice, termination of pregnancy has been without restriction, at least prior to the twelfth week of pregnancy, for the past over twenty years.
In the 1992 FINSEX survey, 57 percent of the men and 53 percent of the women supported free abortion, disagreeing with the statement, “I do not approve of free abortion (termination of pregnancy).” Agreement with this statement was expressed by 28 percent of the men and 34 percent of the women. Most abortion opponents were in the older age groups. Opinions on abortion did not vary much in the other age groups, or between men and women.
There are hardly any opponents of abortion in Finland when the pregnancy would seriously endanger the woman’s health or the child would probably be born abnormal. Mostly, people understand free abortion as the right of the married people or sexual partners to decide about having the child when the pregnancy is unwanted.
Men’s attitudes on abortion mainly reflect their religious views and their general sexual liberality. With women, the acceptance of abortion relates to the modern urban lifestyle, which emphasizes women’s right to self-determination in sexual matters. Free abortion is generally accepted by women with a long education and a white-collar background who live in big population centers. Again, free abortion is opposed by religious and conservative women who have had only one sexual partner in their lifetime. These women connect sexual intercourse with a faithful marital relationship that they had entered young; they do not regard women’s sexual initiative as proper and they often use unsafe contraception. Becoming pregnant is generally not experienced as a problem when it happens in a steady marital relationship (Kontula 1993).
In 1992,18 percent of the women of fertile age thought that they would terminate their pregnancy if they just then found out that they were pregnant. One in two woman thought that they would not want to terminate their pregnancy. If a pregnancy had been a current problem, 16 percent of the men would have supported their partner’s abortion and 69 percent would have opposed it. Women want to have abortions clearly more often than men, especially after the age of 35. Women’s desire to have children is clearly concentrated within narrower age limits than with men - around the early 30s. With women, wanting to have an abortion is most centrally related to their age. Almost half of the young women under 25 and women over 40 years of age want to have their pregnancy terminated.
As a result of the 1970 law, the number of abortions rose quickly, reaching its peak of over 23,300 abortions, about 41 percent of the births, in 1973. After that, the number of abortions declined evenly to 11,200 abortions, about 17 percent of the births, in 1992. Since the early 1980s, the relative number of abortions has been about 30 percent lower in Finland than in the other Nordic countries (Ritamies 1994). With young people under 20, abortions have also decreased after the early 1970s. Abortion is more than twice as common among young women in the United States than it is in Finland, 44 per 1000 compared with 9 per 1,000.
Twenty percent of the women who had at some time been pregnant reported having had an abortion, 80 percent of these women having had only one. Thirteen percent had had two abortions; 4 percent, three abortions; and 2 percent, four abortions. Twelve percent of the men reported that a pregnancy resulting from their sexual relationship had been terminated. Sixteen percent of these men reported two or four abortions. The data suggests that in nearly half of the cases, the woman had an abortion without the man’s knowledge.
In the big towns, about one third of the pregnant women had undergone an abortion. In smaller localities, only one in five pregnant women had an abortion.
Concerning the possible effect of abortions on the degree of gratification gained in sexual life, women who had had an abortion experienced orgasm at their last intercourse more often than women who had not had an abortion. Age was not a factor in this. The sexual life of the women who have experienced abortion is quite satisfying according to these results.
D. Population Control Efforts
Due to the low birthrate, Finnish population policies are directed to support families with children, not to limit the number of children. Child allowances, paid parental leaves, parents’ right to stay at home for child care without losing their job or pension benefits, high-quality municipal day-care service for children, and other family policies aim at encouraging childbirth. The birthrate has remained relatively stable, and in the future, the population will decrease if fertility does not grow. There is some discussion about the compensation for the lack of births by loosening the strict immigration laws in order to avoid a population decline.
The 1992 FINSEX study shows that 15 percent of the men and 11.5 percent of the women surveyed had contracted gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia, condyloma, or the HPV, and/or genital herpes during their lifetime. Three percent of the men and 2.8 percent of the women had experienced at least two of these diseases. During the prior year, 0.7 percent of the men and 1.5 percent of the women had an STD infection. Based on the total population, these numbers suggest that 450,000 Finns had sometimes suffered from an STD, more than one STD had been contracted by about 100,000 people, and during the year about 38,000 people had been infected.
For the time being, the STDs have been somewhat more common with men than with women. Based on the under-35-year-old women’s responses, women’s morbidity is likely to surpass that of men’s in the future. This change is due to the considerable spread of chlamydia and condyloma among young women. Among men, those who have had an STD appear rather evenly distributed in the different age groups because of gonorrhea, which has been prevalent among men since World War II. However, other STDs have replaced gonorrhea as the leading infections.
Compared to the corresponding study of the year 1971, morbidity among men only slightly rose; with women, the rise was fivefold. This can be explained by the fact that in 1971, only gonorrhea and syphilis were surveyed and diagnosed. In 1992, reports of chlamydia and condyloma greatly enlarged the share of the women who had experienced an STD.
One in ten middle-aged and older man has had gonorrhea. In the younger age groups, especially the under-25-year-olds, gonorrhea is significantly decreasing; none of these men had contracted gonorrhea during the prior year, and only 0.2 percent of the women. Earlier, gonorrhea had been relatively infrequent among women, but it has become more common in the younger age groups with the spread of other STDs. Genital herpes remains less frequent than gonorrhea. The responses to the survey suggest that only a few thousand Finns had suffered from herpes during the prior year (Table 10).
Table 10
The Shares of Those Men and Women of Two Age Groups Who Had
Sometime in Their Life Been Infected with Different STDs (in
Percentages)
|
Age |
Gonorrhea |
Chlamydia |
Condyloma |
Herpes |
||||
|
Men |
Women |
Men |
Women |
Men |
Women |
Men |
Women |
|
|
18-34 |
2.8 |
4.1 |
9.6 |
10.3 |
6.9 |
7.7 |
0.8 |
2.8 |
|
35 plus |
11.5 |
2.0 |
2.3 |
1.5 |
1.9 |
3.1 |
11.9 |
1.0 |
Condyloma is also mainly a young adults’ problem. It is more common among women than among men. Only a few of the older Finns have had it during their life. Among the under-35-year-old women, one in ten has suffered from condyloma. During the prior year, condyloma has centered on men around 30 years of age and on women under 40. Of all the women, almost 1 percent had been infected by the HPV during the prior year; 0.5 percent of the men. This means about 25,000 infections for the year in the total population.
Of those who had at some time suffered from an STD, 8.3 percent had had an infection during the year prior to the survey. All men who had been infected by an STD, excepting herpes, during the prior year were under age 35. With women, there were infected women in all age groups under the age of 55, with the highest incidence among 18- to 24-year-olds and 35-to 44-year-olds. Condyloma and chlamydia were clearly the most frequently contracted diseases.
Those men who had had at least ten sexual partners during their lifetime had had 81 percent of the men’s infections. The women of the corresponding group had 43 percent of the STDs. The women’s lower number comes from the fact that only 15 percent of all the women had had more than ten partners, while 44 percent of the men had had that many partners. About 2 percent of the people had contracted an STD, although they had had only one partner during their lifetime. Keeping to one sexual relationship only does not always guarantee safety against the STDs.
Of the men who had had sexual intercourse with at least ten partners during their life, 29 percent had sometimes had an STD and 7 percent had had more than one STD. With women who had more than five sexual partners, the corresponding figures are 35 percent and 14 percent. Half of those who had had twenty or more partners had been infected with an STD. Thus, in reality, most Finns have been spared an infection in spite of multiple partners.
Still, the number of sexual partners is directly linked with the risk of contracting an STD. The probability of the men’s being infected by chlamydia or condyloma clearly increases after five partners; after ten partners for gonorrhea; and after as many as over fifty partners for herpes (Table 11). In the group with over fifty partners, one half had had gonorrhea. Yet, even in this group, most of the people had escaped the other STDs.
Table 11
The Shares of the Men Who Had Been Subjected to Different
STDs During Lifetime According to the Numbers of Sexual Partners During Lifetime
(in Percentages)
|
Partners during lifetime |
Gonorrhea |
Chlamydia |
Herpes |
Condyloma |
(N) |
|
1-3 |
1.6 |
0.3 |
0.3 |
1.0 |
(307) |
|
4-9 |
2.3 |
3.3 |
0.5 |
3.3 |
(214) |
|
10 or more |
17.4 |
10.9 |
2.7 |
6.7 |
(403) |
About 40 percent of those who contracted an STD during the last year had had only one partner during this time. Only one in ten had had more than five partners. This suggests that a great part of the STD infections still come from the steady partner and only a small share from people who continuously have many sexual relationships.
Table 12
The Shares of the Women Who Had Been Subjected to Different
STDs During Lifetime According to the Numbers of Sexual Partners During Lifetime
(in Percentages)
|
Partners during lifetime |
Gonorrhea |
Chlamydia |
Herpes |
Condyloma |
(N) |
|
1-3 |
- |
1.1 |
0.4 |
1.8 |
(541) |
|
4-9 |
2.7 |
8.1 |
2.4 |
7.5 |
(295) |
|
10 or more |
14.1 |
16.2 |
5.6 |
20.4 |
(142) |
With women’s sexual liberation and willingness to initiate, the sources of infection have been “equalized.” More and more women are infected by casual partners or friends/acquaintances and men by their steady partners. Almost half of the under-30-year-old women have been infected by casual partners. One third of the under-30-year-old men, again, have been infected by their steady partners. This reflects a change particularly in women’s sexual behavior.
In earlier times, a significant part of the men’s infections were contracted from foreign women. During the past few years these infections have increased also with women. Twenty-nine percent of men and 27 percent of women who had at some time had sexual intercourse with a foreigner while in another country had had an STD. Seven percent of these men and 11 percent of these women had contracted more than one disease.
Fourteen percent of middle-aged men who reported an STD said they had been infected by a foreign woman, either by an acquaintance on a vacation or a prostitute. A foreign prostitute was the source of infection for 29 percent of the men who had had sexual intercourse with more than fifty partners during their life and had sometimes undergone an STD.
The anxiety about AIDS had caused about one tenth of all the people to decrease the number of sexual partners, and a little more than one tenth reported that they would find out more about the people they were going to have sexual intercourse with. This opinion was supported by 34 percent of the men and by 39 percent of the women who had had several partners during the year. The risk of HIV influences people’s sexual life even if they did not restrict the number of their partners. One tenth of the people had felt fear of AIDS during the last year. Even the people who have no actual risk of becoming infected are often afraid of AIDS.
One fifth of the people reported that they had kept to only one partner more strictly than before. These people were, however, not always those with only one sexual relationship. One third of these men and women had had several partners during the year. Certain sex practices, obviously most often anal intercourse, was avoided by 8 percent of all the men and 5 percent of the women.
The use of the condom had, as reported, increased with 20 percent of men and 12 percent of women. An increase in condom use was reported by 30 percent of those under age 25 years. Among those who increased their use of the condom because of AIDS, not all use it regularly. Only 46 percent of the men and 40 percent of the women who reported they had increased their condom use actually used a condom in their last intercourse.
About 30 percent of men and women under age 35 who had experienced an STD reported having decreased the number of their partners for the fear of HIV infection. Every other man and one third of the women reported increasing their use of the condom for the same reason. The condom had been used as the contraceptive method in the most recent sexual intercourse by 25 percent of the men and 20 percent of the women who had at some time undergone an STD. With the other men and women, the corresponding shares were 32 percent and 24 percent.
Of the men who had never been infected with an STD and whose sexual partner in the most recent intercourse had not been a steady partner, 67 percent had used the condom on this occasion. The corresponding share was 57 percent with the men who had at some time had an STD. Of the corresponding groups of women, 45 percent and 38 percent reported using a condom. Those who had at some time had a STD did not much deviate from others in their habits of condom use in casual relationships. A previous infection did not seem to “teach” anyone the use of the condom.
About half the men and women who had experienced an STD reported that a physician had advised them in connection with the treatment on how to avoid STD infection. One third had been left completely without counseling. About one tenth had been given a brochure, and about 5 percent had received counseling from a public-health nurse or a nurse. So, there is still much to improve within the public health care system on STD prevention.
The first public statements about AIDS in Finland were issued in 1983, with a general discussion following in 1985 and 1986. Health officials were immediately involved, concentrating their efforts on general information about AIDS and its transmission and about other sexually transmitted diseases, strongly recommending the use of condoms in casual sexual contacts. At the same time, together with communal health organizations, health officials also directed an effective information and support campaign for groups at special risk of AIDS. In schools, the AIDS issue was - and continues to be - associated with general sex education and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.
Public discussion and education concerning AIDS was at its strongest from 1986 to 1988, but the tone was considerably calmer than, for example, in the United States or the United Kingdom. By September 1990, the cumulative AIDS incidence rate per million of population was 14.3, compared with 66.3 in the United Kingdom.
By 1994, about 600 HIV infections had been diagnosed, and about a hundred people had died of AIDS. The proportion of the HIV-infected in Finland has remained fairly small in international comparison. This is mainly due to the scarcity of prostitution and intravenous drug use in Finland.
In the FINSEX study, 6.4 percent of the men and 7 percent of the women reported having taken the HIV test on their own initiative by the beginning of 1992. Multiple tests were reported by 30 percent of these men (1.9 percent of all men) and by 16 percent of the women tested (1.1 percent of all women). At the beginning of 1992, about 250,000 Finns had been tested for HIV, and about 50,000 of those who had had themselves tested several times. Multiple tests were most common among 30-year-old women. The young age groups had had themselves tested more frequently than older Finns. One tenth of young adults had taken the test.
Some of the HIV-tested had not had very many partners during their lives. One fifth of the men and one fourth of the women tested had had three partners at the most. About half of all the males tested had had at least twenty partners. Of the women tested, 40 percent had had at least ten partners. Eleven percent of the men and 17 percent of the women with more than one partner were tested during the prior year. This shows that, with the risk of infection rising, women were quicker to have themselves tested.
Seven percent of current or past intravenous drug users and 16 percent of men and 19 percent of women with a previous STD infection of the women had taken the HIV test on their own initiative. Of the other men and women, the test had been taken by 6 percent. Of those who had reduced the number of their sexual partners or increased their use of the condom because of anxiety experienced for AIDS or HIV, from 16 percent to 18 percent had taken the HIV test. Of the people who had sometimes used drugs intravenously, 7 percent had themselves tested for HIV.
In Finland, sexual dysfunction can be treated - depending on its causes - using sexual counseling, sexual short therapy, intensive therapy, medicines, and/or surgery. Sexual advice is given both in communal health-care centers and in medical and therapeutical service centers specializing in counseling. It is possible to get sex therapy all over the country.
In the FINSEX study, the prevalence of different kinds of sexual problems was surveyed, as well as the help sought to resolve these problems. Half of the men and 26 percent of the women in a steady relationship reported no lack of sexual desire during the prior year. Fifteen to 55 percent of women in a steady relationship in different age groups experienced a lack of sexual desire fairly often. The women had succeeded in concealing this lack of desire in many cases, since clearly fewer men than this, when asked about their partners’ lack of desire, had experienced their partners’ lack of desire as a problem in each of the age groups. The men’s reports on their own lack of desire and the women’s opinions about their partners’ lack of desire fit well together. Five to 20 percent of the men had experienced a lack of sexual desire at least fairly often.
Married women clearly suffered from a lack of sexual desire more often than the women in other steady relationships. According to their own responses, 35 percent of the married women had experienced a lack of sexual desire at least fairly often during the prior year. For women in cohabitation and other steady sexual relationships the corresponding share was 15 percent. A similar perception, though slighter, could be found in the men’s responses, where 18 percent of the husbands, 13 percent ofcohabitors, and 8 percent of the men in some other steady relationship reported that their partners had had a lack of sexual desire at least fairly often during the past year. Partly, these differences are due to the fact that the married people are older, on the average, than those in other relationships, and a lack of sexual desire is noticeably frequent in over-55-year-old women.
In sexual therapy, it is presumed that love, trust, and security are generally needed as essential elements in the creation of sexual desire. Anxiety has been observed to inhibit sexual arousal from taking place (Kaplan 1987). Why then was there less desire in marriages that would appear more secure than other relationships? Important causes are certainly found in the effects of aging on sexual desire, the facilitation of marital relationships, and, in some cases, a sexual life changing into an obligation. Many speak about marital relationships’ turning into boring routine. Most passion has been observed in new and, in some respect, insecure relationships. Particularly long-standing marital relationships may be regarded as already too secure, thereby lessening the sexual excitement (Hatfield and Rapson 1987).
During the prior year, 58 percent of the women and 52 percent of their male partners reported some problem with vaginal lubrication. In this respect, the women’s and the men’s responses corresponded very well to each other. On the other hand, 15 percent of the women reported suffering fairly often, often, or regularly from insufficient vaginal lubrication, while only 5 percent of the men reported this problem. This suggests that it is sometimes difficult for men to notice the woman’s problems with vaginal lubrication. Men notice only what affects the insertion of the penis, but, obviously, they do not actually know how much pain and discomfort insufficient vaginal lubrication may cause the partner during sexual intercourse.
With women, vaginal lubrication problems increased considerably with age. About one tenth of the middle-aged women reported fairly frequent problems with vaginal lubrication; after age 50 this rose to about a third with hormonal changes a prime factor.
Many of the women who suffer from problems with vaginal lubrication experience intercourse as painful. Intercourse had fairly often been experienced as painful by 29 percent of the women who had suffered from vaginal dryness at least fairly often during the year. The corresponding proportion is 16 percent with the middle-aged and 40 percent with the aging. Of the same women, two out of three had experienced their sexual intercourse as painful at least sometimes during the year.
Almost half of the women who had suffered from problems with vaginal lubrication, at least fairly often during the year, had obtained lubricant cream to facilitate intercourse and to remove the possibility of pain, according to both the women’s and the men’s responses. Lubricants had been of evident help, for a greater number of the women who used lubricants experienced orgasm during the last intercourse than those who did not use lubricants.
On the average, 3 percent of the under-45-year-old women had consulted a physician for problems of lubrication; of the older women, more than 10 percent. About nine out of ten seekers felt they had been helped. The problem is thus quite easily resolved in most cases with the help of a lubricant.
Problems with vaginal lubrication have a strong connection with sexual desire and its possible deficiency. Half of the women who had experienced a lack of sexual desire at least fairly often during the year had also at least fairly often had problems with vaginal lubrication.
For the 1992 survey, 49 percent of the men who had intercourse during the prior year reported that they themselves had had at least some problems with having an erection during that year; 47 percent of the women reported the same about their partners. Six percent by the men and 9 percent by the women reported this a fairly frequent problem, a fairly good convergent appraisal, although men obviously tend to conceal their more difficult erectile problems. Comparatively, it seems that men’s erectile problems are slightly less frequent than women’s problems with vaginal lubrication.
Two clear observations emerge when the results of the years 1971 and 1992 are compared: on the one hand, erectile problems seem to have diminished during the twenty years and, on the other hand, they are very much age-bound. In 1971, 4.3 percent of the under-55-year-old men reported having experienced erectile problems during the last year; in 1992, 2.2 percent. The corresponding figures with women about their partners were 6.2 percent and 4.4 percent. Both vaginal lubrication and erectile problems become clearly more common after the age of 50. In the age group of the 70-year-olds, almost one third of the couples had at least fairly often suffered from them.
According to the 1992 survey, men’s erectile ability is strongest around the age of 30, when two men out of three have no problems having erections, as reported by both the men and women. With the 50-year-olds, the corresponding share is about 40 percent; with the 70-year-olds, about one fifth. So, a significant number of men live throughout their life without experiencing any problems with having erections. Here, it may be of great importance what kind of partners men have intercourse with, among other things, and how healthy they themselves are.
Men were also asked about their experience with continuous erectile dysfunction during their life. The continuity was not defined except by options of varying spans of time, the shortest of which was the option of “a few weeks’ time.” Fifteen percent of the male respondents reported experiencing a continuous erectile dysfunction for a span of at least a few weeks at least once (Figure 14). The incidence of erectile problems increased significantly for those over age 50. Half of the 70-year-olds had experienced continuous erectile dysfunction. While erectile dysfunction remains a very common problem, it did decrease slightly between 1971 and 1992.
Figure 14 - Men Who Have
Sometimes Experienced Continuous Erectile Dysfunction (1971 and
1992)
|
|
Age Group (in Years) |
|||||
|
18-24 |
25-34 |
35-44 |
45-54 |
55-64 |
65-74 |
|
|
Men 1971 |
7 |
7 |
16 |
19 |
|
|
|
Men 1992 |
3 |
7 |
7 |
18 |
35 |
53 |
Slightly under 4 percent of all men in 1992 had consulted a physician for erectile problems, about one third of the men who had reported having sometimes experienced continuous erectile dysfunction. Nearly half of the men who had suffered from at least half a year’s continuous erectile dysfunction had sought a physician for help. In 1971, fewer men than at present, 16 percent, had talked about the matter to a physician. More than half of the men who sought help in 1992 and about one fifth of the men who sought help in 1971 felt that they had been helped. So, seeking treatment and the efficiency of this treatment improved during the twenty years.
Of the men whose partners had had problems with vaginal lubrication at least fairly often during the last year, 31 percent had themselves had problems with obtaining or maintaining an erection at least fairly often. Twenty-three percent of the women who had had problems with vaginal lubrication reported that their partners had fairly often had problems having an erection during the same time. So, one’s partner’s sexual problems had obviously had an effect on the other’s sexual responses. If the partner does not seem really eager to have intercourse, one’s own excitement may easily die halfway.
About 5 percent of the men who had at least occasionally suffered from erectile dysfunction told that they had sometimes used some substances or pills that increase potency. Rings to maintain erection or penis enlargers with pumps, on the other hand, had not been much used by the men who had erectile problems. Neither had vibrators or vibrating dildos been used by these men with their partners more often than by the others. These devices had not been sought to substitute for deficiency in obtaining an erection.
Experiencing orgasm is a focal matter in view of the gratification of sexual life. This is true even though the FINSEX study shows that many women reported enjoying their sexual life although they had not experienced orgasm or had seldom experienced it during intercourse. However, those who had experienced orgasm more regularly were clearly more satisfied with their sexual life and their partners than the others.
About half of the men and from 6 percent to 7 percent of the women reported, irrespective of age, that they always experienced orgasm at sexual intercourse. This shows that only a small share of women experience orgasm very easily and that orgasm is not a self-evident matter even to men, for instance, if - from their point of view - their coitus is interrupted. With women, having no orgasm is often a consequence of the quickness of their partner’s “coming” after which the love play ceases.
Most men have orgasm during sexual intercourse, either always, almost always, or, at least, mostly. Less frequently than this, orgasm had been experienced by 8 percent of the 18- to 24-year-old men and 19 percent of the 65- to 74-year-old men. In the other age groups, from 1 percent to 2 percent of the men obtain orgasm during intercourse less frequently than “mostly.” Thus, men remain without orgasm during intercourse mostly at the beginning of their sexual life and at retirement age when their physical condition is declining.
With women, experiencing orgasm is much more occasional than with men. Orgasm is experienced at least mostly during sexual intercourse by slightly over half of the women; by about 60 percent of the middle-aged women. When the incidences of women’s orgasms by the 1971 and the 1992 surveys are compared, the regularity of experiencing orgasm had slightly increased with the over-35-year-olds. With women younger than this, no change had happened. At least mostly, orgasm had been experienced during intercourse by 53 percent of the under-55-year-old women in 1971; in 1992, by 58 percent.
Comparing orgasm data in 50-year-olds of 1971 with the 70-year-olds twenty years later in 1992, experiencing orgasm had not decreased in spite of aging and the increased morbidity (Table 13). So, the preconditions for sexual satisfaction seem to have improved in this respect. On the other hand, since a considerable number of women do not experience orgasm during intercourse, it is a clear sign of the many restraints there still are obstructing women on their way to enjoyment. And if the woman does not find real satisfaction in sexual intercourse, the man cannot enjoy himself to the full either.
Table 13
Women Who Have at Least, Mostly, or at the Most
“Seldom” Experienced Orgasm During Intercourse (in Percentages), 1971
and 1992
|
Age |
Mostly 1971 |
Mostly 1992 |
Seldom 1971 |
Seldom 1992 |
|
18-24 |
52 |
50 |
16 |
12 |
|
25-34 |
58 |
59 |
8 |
10 |
|
35-44 |
51 |
64 |
9 |
9 |
|
45-54 |
44 |
56 |
17 |
5 |
|
55-64 |
|
44 |
|
8 |
|
65-74 |
|
45 |
|
16 |
1971: N = 1,231;
1992: N = 1,031
A third of a percent of the men had not experienced orgasm during intercourse; of the women, 4.4 percent. This is a relatively small percentage when one looks at the United States, for instance, where about 10 percent of women do not have orgasm during intercourse (Darling et al. 1991).
Orgasm during intercourse had been experienced seldom or never by 0.7 percent of the men and 10 percent of the women according to the 1992 data on 18- to 74-year-old Finns. In 1972, 12 percent of the women under 55 years old had experienced orgasm seldom or never. In 1992, 9 percent of the women under age 55 reported orgasm never or seldom; quite seldom orgasm had been experienced by 30 percent of the women between the ages 18 and 74 years. Thus, sexual satisfaction has remained significantly deficient for a large number of women and little improvement has been observed in this regard between 1971 and 1992.
Achieving orgasm reportedly is decisively important to finding sexual intercourse pleasant. Of the men who report that they always experience orgasm at intercourse, half consider sexual intercourse very pleasant; while only 18 percent of the men who have orgasm approximately on every other occasion or less frequently regard intercourse as very pleasant. With women, the corresponding shares are 65 percent and 15 percent. Some women considered intercourse very pleasant, although they had never experienced orgasm.
Ninety-two percent of the men and 56 percent of the women reported having experienced orgasm in the latest intercourse (Figure 15). There was a rise in this level of experiencing orgasm for all the women’s age groups between 1971 and 1992. In 1971,56 percent of the under-55-year-old women had experienced orgasm at their last intercourse; in 1992, 63 percent. The possible change concerning men is not known, for, in 1971, only the women had been asked questions about experiencing orgasm. With women, the level of experiencing orgasm had stayed at 60 percent until the age of 50, after which it had fallen to about one third.
Fifty-five percent of the married women, 71 percent of the cohabiting women, 64 percent of the women in other steady relationships, and 41 percent of the women with no steady relationship experienced orgasm in their latest intercourse. Perhaps it is surprising that orgasms are experienced less frequently within marriages than in other steady relationships, for it has been presented that having orgasm is in an important connection with the feeling of security experienced in a relationship (Kaplan 1987).
The regularity of the orgasms experienced by women at sexual intercourse is clearly related to their sexual desire and to the quickness of the partner’s “coming” (Table 14). The women who had reported having themselves suffered from a lack of sexual desire during the last year experienced orgasm less frequently than the other women. Also a great number of the women who feel that their partner “comes too fast” are usually left without orgasm.
Figure 15 - Orgasm at the
Most Recent Intercourse (1971 and 1992)
|
|
Age Group (in Years) |
|||||
|
18-24 |
25-34 |
35-44 |
45-54 |
55-64 |
65-74 |
|
|
Men 1992 |
92 |
99 |
99 |
98 |
98 |
81 |
|
Women 1992 |
62 |
69 |
62 |
57 |
34 |
33 |
|
Women 1971 |
58 |
65 |
50 |
41 |
|
|
|
|
Orgasm at least mostly |
Orgasm every other time |
Orgasm at the most quite seldom |
(N) |
|
Lack of sexual desire |
||||
|
Very often |
26 |
14 |
60 |
(62) |
|
Quite often |
45 |
18 |
37 |
(161) |
|
Quite seldom |
62 |
17 |
21 |
(370) |
|
Never |
73 |
13 |
14 |
(205) |
|
Partner comes too soon |
||||
|
Very often |
28 |
11 |
61 |
(36) |
|
Quite often |
35 |
23 |
42 |
(141) |
|
Quite seldom |
62 |
17 |
21 |
(350) |
|
Never |
73 |
12 |
15 |
(250) |
The partner’s sexual desire is also connected with the woman’s orgasm. Only 38 percent of the women whose partners had at least fairly often suffered from a lack of sexual desire during the last year had experienced orgasm during intercourse at least mostly. That is clearly fewer women than average.
The orgasms experienced by women during their most recent intercourse has a clear connection with the sexual practices applied. The best practice at sexual intercourse, in this respect, had been using two or three positions; the second best had been the “woman-on-top” position. The shares of the women who had experienced orgasm in these cases was 72 percent and 67 percent respectively. In the “man-on-top” position, 49 percent of the women had experienced orgasm. Practicing varying positions at intercourse and the woman’s own activity thus greatly increase the probability other experiencing orgasm.
A number of people experience their first orgasms before their first sexual intercourse during various kinds of petting experiences. Most of the men, however, have their first intercourse-related orgasm at the same time they have their first sexual intercourse. Less than a third of the women reported achieving an orgasm in their first intercourse. Half of the women and one tenth of the men had not experienced their first orgasm until a few years after their first experience of sexual intercourse. There has not been much change in this timing even in the younger age groups. With one tenth of the women, more than ten years had elapsed between their first intercourse and their first orgasm. Four percent of the women reported no orgasm at all.
There has been some informal courses for sexual therapists in order to provide those who work as sex therapists with some professional skills. However, anyone can start working as a sex therapists without any special training, certification, or licensing.
A. Institutes and Programs for Sexological Research
In Finland, sexological research is conducted by individual scholars working at universities and research institutes or projects financed mainly by the state. A bibliography of sex literature for the time period 1549-1989 includes over 2,000 authors (Turpeinen 1991). Most of the articles and books listed are written by medical doctors, but some important sociological studies on sexual behavior have also been published in this century.
B/C. Post-College Sexuality Programs and Sexological Publications
None currently exists in Finland.
D. Sexological Organizations
Two sexological organizations are active in Finland:
Seksuaalipoliittinen Yhdistys Sexpo Ry (Sexual Policy Association). Address: Nilsiänkatu 11-13, SF-00510 Helsinki, Finland
Seksuaalinen Tasavertaisuus SETA Ry (Sexual Equality Association). Address: Oikokatu 3, SF-00170 Helsinki, Finland
CEDAW Convention. 1993. Second Periodic Report by Finland. Helsinki: Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Christensen, H.T. and C.F. Gregg. 1970. “Changing Sex Norms in America and Scandinavia.” journal of Marriage and Family, 32:616-27.
Darling, C. Anderson, J.K. Davidson, and R.P. Cox. 1991. “Female Sexual Response and the Timing of Partner Orgasm. “Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy, 17(1):3-21.
Erkkola, Risto, and Osmo Kontula. 1993. “Syntyvyyden Säännöstely” (Birth Control). In Suomalainen Seksi (Finnish Sex). Osmo Kontula and Elina Haavio-Mannila, eds. Helsinki: WSOY, pp. 343-370.
Gershuny, J. 1990. “International Comparisons of Time Budgets - Methods and Opportunities.” In: R. von Schweitzer, M. Ehling, and D. Schäfer, eds. Zeitbudgeterhebungen - Ziele, Methoden und Neue Konzepte. Stuttgart: Metzler Poeschel.
Grönfors, M., E. Haavio-Mannila, K. Mustola, and O. Stålström. 1984. Esitietoja Homo-ja Biseksuaalisten Ihmisten Elämäntavasta ja Syrjinnästä (Preliminary Data on Lifestyle and Discrimination of Homo- and Bisexual People). In: K. Sievers and O. Stålström, eds. Rakkauden Monet Kasvot. Espoo: Weilin+Göös.
Haavio-Mannila, E. 1991. “Impact of Coworkers on Female Alcohol Use.” Contemporary Drug Problems, 18(4):597-627.
Haavio-Mannila, E., and K. Kauppinen-Toropainen. 1992. “Women and the Welfare State in the Nordic Countries.” In: H. Kahne and J. Giele, eds. Women’s Work and Women’s Lives - The Continuing Struggle Worldwide. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.
Haavio-Mannila, E., T.R. Harris, A.D. Klassen, R.W. Wilsnack, and S.C. Wilsnack. 1996. “Alcohol and Sexuality Among American and Finnish Women.” Nordisk Sexologi, 4(3): 129-146.
Haavio-Mannila, E., J.P. Roos, and O. Kontula 1997. “Repression, Revolution and Ambivalence: The Sexual Life of Three Generations.” Ada Sociologica, 40(1):2-22 (in press).
Haavio-Mannila, E., and O. Kontula 1997. “What Increases Sexual Satisfaction?” Archives of Sexual Behavior, 26 (in press).
Hatfield, E., and R.L. Rapson. 1987. “Passionate Love/Sexual Desire: Can the Same Paradigm Explain Both?” Archives of Sexual Behavior, 16(3):259-78.
Järvinen, M. 1990. Prostitution i Helsingfors - En Studie i Kvinnokontroll (Prostitution in Helsinki - A Study on Control of Women). Åbo: Åbo Academy Press.
Jeffreys, S. 1990. Anticlimax: A Feminist Perspective on the Sexual Revolution. New York: New York University Press.
Kaplan, H.S. 1987. The Illustrated Manual of Sex Therapy. 2nd ed. New York: Brunner/ Mazel.
Kinsey, A.C., W.B. Pomeroy, and C.E. Martin. 1948. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Philadelphia: Saunders.
Kinsey, A.C., W.B. Pomeroy, C.E. Martin, and P.H. Gebhard. 1953. Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. Philadelphia: Saunders.
Kontula, Osmo. 1991. “Sukupuolielämän Aloittamisen Yhteiskunnallisista Ehdoista” (Cultural Terms of Sexual Initiation). Sosiaali-ja Terveyshallitus. Tutkimuksia 14/1991. Valtion Painatuskeskus. Helsinki.
Kontula, Osmo. 1993. “Ketkä Hyväksyvät Vapaan Abortin (Who Approves a Free Abortion)?” In: Suomalaisia Mielipiteitä Raskauden Keskeytyksestä. STAKES. Julkaisusarja Aiheita 34/1993. Helsinki, p. 23-39.
Kontula, O. 1996. “Sex Education in Finland.” Paper presented in the 39th Annual Meeting of The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS) held in Houston, November 14-17, 1996.
Kontula, Osmo, and J. Meriläinen. 1988. “Nuorten Kypsyminen Seurusteluun ja Seksuaalisuuteen” (Adolescents’ Maturation for Social Intercourse and Sexuality). Lääkintöhallituksen Julkaisuja. Sarja Tutkimukset 9/1988. Valtion Painatuskeskus. Helsinki.
Kontula, O., and M. Rimpelä. 1988. “Onko AIDS-Valistus Vaikuttanut Nuorten Seksuaalisuuteen 1986-1988” (Has AIDS Education Influenced the Adolescents’ Sexuality 1986-1988)? Suomen Lääkärilehti, 43:3493-3500.
Kontula, Osmo, and E. Haavio-Mannila, eds. 1993. Suomalainen Seksi: Tietoa Suomalaisien Sukupuolielämän Muutoksesta (Finnish Sex: Information of Changes in Sexual Life in Finland). Juva: WSOY.
Kontula, O., and E. Haavio-Mannila 1994. “Sexual Behavior Changes in Finland in the Past 20 Years.” Nordisk Sexologi, 12 (3): 196214.
Kontula, O. and E. Haavio-Mannila 1995. Matkalla Intohimoon: Nuoruuden Hurma Ja Käsimys Seksuaalielämäkertojen Kuvaamana (Along the Way to Passion: The Joy and Suffering of Youth Revealed in Sexual Autobiographies). WSOY, Juva.
Kontula, Osmo, and Elina Haavio-Mannila. 1995. Sexual Pleasures: Enhancement of Sex Life in Finland, 1971-1992. Aldershot, Brookfield USA, Signapore, and Sidney: Dartmouth.
Kontula, O., and K. Kosonen 1996. “Sexuality Changing from Privacy to the Open - A Study of the Finnish Press over the Years from 1961 to 1991.” Nordisk Sexologi, 14(1):34-47.
Kosunen, E. 1993. “Teini-ikäisten Raskaudet ja Ehkäisy” (Teen-age Pregnancies and Contraception). STAKES. Helsinki; Raportteja, 99.
Laumann, E.O., J. Gagnon, R.T. Michael, and S. Michaels. 1994. The Social Organization of Sexuality. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.
Love, B. 1992. Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices. Fort Lee, New Jersey: Barricade Books.
Markkula, H. 1981. Maksettu Nainen (Paid Woman). Hämeenlinna: Kustannus-Mäkelä Oy.
Niemi, I., and H. Pääkkönen. 1989. Ajankäytön Muutokset (“Changes in the Appropriation of Time in the 1980s”). Tutkimuksia (Research Reports), 153. Helsinki: Tilastokeskus (Statistics Finland).
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