Source: Anna Kudinova/123RF.com

When it comes to , traditional roles dictate that men should be dominant and women should be submissive. For those who subscribe to such beliefs, what are the implications for their sex lives? Research finds that people who believe in traditional gender roles not only appear to have have less ability to obtain sexual satisfaction, but they also seem less inclined to practice female-controlled methods of safer sex.

In a 2012 study published in the journal Sex Roles, male and female college undergraduates completed a survey that included questions about their general support for social inequality (e. ., “It’s OK if some groups have more of a chance in life than others”) as well as their support for traditional gender power dynamics in the bedroom (e.g., “The man should be the one who dictates what happens during sex”).

The survey also inquired about participants’ sexual , defined as their perceived ability to turn down sex, to achieve sexual satisfaction, and to initiate safe-sex practices.

After completing this survey, participants were individually taken to a private cubicle, in which a bowl of female condoms sat next to a sign reading: “Please take some! FREE FEMALE CONDOMS.” After each participant exited the cubicle, a research assistant counted the number of condoms remaining to determine how many were taken.

The results revealed that, for both men and women, general support for social inequality was associated with endorsing traditional gender power dynamics in the bedroom. In other words, those who supported inequality at a very general level were more likely to support a more specific form of inequality (in this case, gender inequality in the bedroom), even if it wasn't in one's own personal best interests.

Support for traditional gender roles was, in turn, associated with lower sexual self-efficacy. Moreover, support for traditional gender roles predicted taking fewer female condoms--however, this effect held only for women, not men.

These results suggest that holding onto beliefs about men being the initiators and decision-makers in the bedroom could potentially undermine both male and female sexual satisfaction by reducing sexual self-efficacy.

In addition, they suggest that women who hold such beliefs may feel as though they have less power to negotiate safe sex practices and may defer those decisions to their partners.

These results are limited in that the data were correlational. As a result, we cannot say how traditional gender role beliefs might play out in the context of an actual sexual encounter or whether such beliefs truly cause changes in sexual behavior. However, the fact that women who strongly believed in male sexual dominance took fewer female condoms is a worrisome finding and it would be worth exploring whether female sexual empowerment has the potential to reduce this effect in future studies.

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To learn more about this research, see: Rosenthal, L., Levy, S. R., & Earnshaw, V. A. (2012). Social dominance orientation relates to believing men should dominate sexually, sexual self-efficacy, and taking free female condoms among undergraduate women and men. Sex Roles, 67, 659-669.