Two were physically disabled.” Orenstein states that she interviewed girls from the East Side of Manhattan and the South Side of Chicago as well as girls whose parents managed hedge funds to those whose parents managed fast food restaurants. About 10 percent identified as lesbian or bisexual, though most, particularly those still in high school, had not acted on their attraction to other girls. “The majority was white, but many were Asian American, Latina, African American, Arab American or mixed race. She reports that she sought out young women who felt they had “all options open to them, the ones who had most benefited from women’s economic and political progress.” Most came disproportionately from upper-middle-class families, with some range of economic background. Her sample doesn’t claim to reflect the experiences of all young women, since most who she interviewed were in college or college-bound and self-selected to participate in the interview. Orenstein notes that the average American has first intercourse at 17 and by 19 years old, three fourths of teens have had sex. Orenstein, a professional journalist and parent to a daughter, interviewed more than 70 young women between the ages of 15 and 20 years old, the age span between which most will become sexually active. Are girls today, Orenstein wonders, better equipped to resist stigma, advocate for mutuality, and to explore joy?

Despite positive changes in expectations and opportunities for girls of the current generation, Orenstein questions whether today’s young women have more freedom and more influence than their mothers did in shaping and asserting themselves within their sexual encounters and relationships.

Girls & Sex by Peggy Orenstein