SEXUAL INITIATION AND GENDER - A COMPARIS ON OF TRENDS IN 12 EUROPEANCOUNTRIES

Data from surveys on sexual behaviour conducted in twelve European cou ntries are used to study the evolution in age at first intercourse ove r the last fifty years. The age of women at sexual initiation fell mar kedly during this period. whereas a smaller change was observed for me n: and age at firn intercourse stabilized everywhere in the 1980s. The AIDS epidemic developed in this context of relative stabilization and although it has produced no change in the calendar of sexual initiati on, the conditions of first intercourse have been modified, with use o f the condom increasing at the expense of oral contraception. In this ge neral context. two gender-based patterns of sexual behaviour can be clearly identified. In the countries of southern Europe, the behaviou r of women has become more like that of men, though women still have f irst intercourse significantly later. In the Nordic countries, the age s of men and women at sexual initiation have been similar for several decades. There are numerous indicators, however. that in both northern and southern Europe women experience sexual initiation very different ly from men.