Sexual pressures faced by young women

Young women feel increasingly expected to display a sophisticated level of knowledge about sex, yet simultaneously must deal with being labelled a "slag" or "slut" if they are too forthcoming about sex, a new report from the Crisis Pregnancy Agency finds.

Young women are often negotiating this contradictory pressure alone. The report also finds young women living in rural areas are as sexually active as their urban counterparts, but are more vulnerable and more constrained due to moral judgments and lack of privacy.

The Follow-up project on the perceptions of women about fertility, sex and motherhood, comes in addition to one in 2004, this time studying low-income rural women and also using some of the data that could not be included in the original.

It finds a dearth of information for younger women in rural areas, compounded by "a lack of knowledge about the need for contraception and where to obtain it without drawing unwelcome attention to oneself".

One woman (22) said: "In nearly every chemist in the town, you know somebody or someone will see you. Someone who doesn't work there will be there and, you know, you always seem to get caught in the act of walking to the counter with something."

They also spoke of the cost of accessing contraception, especially if it entailed a GP appointment.

The women spoke of the dual pressure to have sex but being labelled for doing so.

The report says becoming sexually active features as a strong component in a young woman's personal identity but "at the same time, these interviews reveal the pressures to have sex in contexts they experience as more negative".

The authors say that while social norms have largely shifted in Ireland and society is more open about sex, a paradox emerges that "becoming sexually active remains hard work - the harder if one is more marginalised".

Among the issues low-income rural women contend with are:

Lack of social supports from parents and schools.

The need to offer sex to have a boyfriend.

The sense of isolation in having sex and that sex is also shameful.

Being labelled both for having sex and for choosing not to.

Finding it difficult to insist men use condoms.

Lack of supportive services that respect a young woman's decision making and anonymity.

The authors say the women's accounts are "illustrative of the deep contradictions and double standards that these young women confront in settings where there is virtually no overt, positive social support for their being sexually active".

There was also a pressure to "appear more knowledgeable and more sophisticated about sex than they may be feeling".