Infidelity in the mainstream media usually involves the scenario of a ‘dirty dog’ husband satisfying his primal urge to the detriment of the unsuspecting faithful wife. This suits the easily digestible social narrative: woman good, men: bad.
Woman indulge in infidelity more often than you would think, in fact there is evidence to suggest that woman may have surpassed men.
American based research can give us an indicative snapshot by recording survey responses of married couples and in particular mapping changing trends between the sexes.
The data that is a few years old now records that between all aged groups, men are more likely than women to cheat. In fact 20% of men and 13% of women reported that they’ve had sex with someone other than their spouse while married, according to data from the General Social Survey(GSS).
However, the same survey shows that young women have turned the tables, with women aged 18 to 29 more likely to cheat than men.
Although the study claims that men are more likely to cheat than woman overall, we can also conclude that there is a trend that woman are increasingly more likely to cheat when compared to men.
When analysing the survey results we have to apply a critical mind and overlay what we know about the behavior of woman. I suspect that the actual instances of woman committing infidelity is far greater than reported.
Woman are most likely to under-report instances of infidelity. Woman are notorious for not telling the truth; in particular about sex. In this regard, woman are masters of deception from lying about their virginity, the number of sexual partners they have had, past sexual experiences, their orgasms … and answering survey questionnaires about cheating!
Woman more motivated to lie about infidelity. The main reason may be the fear of loosing the provision of resources from her husband; this is especially apt for a one-night stand or the early stages of an extramarital relationship when she has been unable to secure another male benefactor to monkey-swing to.
A woman is socially conditioned to lie about sex. She is willing to play along with societal norms that would rather focus on male shortcomings and overlook adverse female behavior. The topic of woman committing infidelity is largely unspoken of in society and the sisterhood code dictates they will not go out of their way to change this.
Although not directly related to infidelity, incredibly it is women that are initiating 70 – 75% of American divorces. Woman are very much in the driver’s seat when it comes to dictating adverse marriage outcomes.
I suspect that when it comes to infidelity, woman have accelerated past men as the gender that cheats the most! #MeToo?
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