Victorian women had more ORGASMS than we do today, according to the world’s first ever sex survey
Dr Mosher quizzed 45 middle-class women – some of whom were born as early as 1862 - about their attitudes to sex, marriage and contraception
IT SEEMS Victorian women weren’t just “lying back and thinking of England” in the bedroom.
A fascinating sex survey - believed to be the first ever conducted - has revealed wives in the 19th century were much more sexually liberated than history would have us believe.
Historian Carl Degler unearthed long-forgotten questionnaires conducted by ladies during the era in Stanford University’s archives.
The research was conducted by Dr Clelia Duel Mosher – a feminist teacher who worked in the establishment in the 1920s.
Dr Mosher quizzed 45 middle-class women – some of whom were born as early as 1862 - about their attitudes to sex, marriage and contraception.
And the findings make enlightening reading.
Nearly 80 per cent of the study participants said they desired sex while three quarters said they had experienced orgasms.
And 75 per cent of women said they had sex at least once a week.
Describing her attitude to sex, one respondent wrote: “The highest devotion is based upon it, a very beautiful thing, and I am glad nature gave it to us.”
Another said sex was “perfecting the spiritual union”, while a third described how she and her husband enjoyed “intercourse for its own sake… we wish it for ourselves and spiritually miss it”.
The research revealed most women know little about sex before marriage, while some admitted picking up the facts of life by observing the habits of farm animals.