Oz women today are getting less sex and more domestic violence

Melbourne, Mar 25 : Australian women today are having less sex than they used to three decades ago and are increasingly becoming victims of sexual violence, says a new survey.

In fact, a survey of 15,000 women by The Australian Women's Weekly has also stated that it's the women who still do the majority of the household chores and would not prefer to marry the same man if they had their time over.

Touted as the biggest survey of its kind undertaken in Australia, it has come up with important revelations about women living through the late nineties.

"Our readers have told us how they live, how they love, what they think and what they want,'' news.com.au quoted editorial director Deborah Thomas, as saying.

The survey discovered that women are having less sex than they did almost 30 years ago, with only 47pct saying they do it at least once a week, in comparison to 57pct in 1980. However, there's a possibility that women may be more honest when they enjoy it, as only 32 pct said that they had faked orgasm, in comparison to 37 pct in 1980.

While one in four women above 65 years of age said that they had sex at least once a week, there was no evidence from 1980 to support the assumption that women may be having sex later in life.

On the infidelity front, 15 pct of those with a partner said they were guilty of cheating, and 6 pct said they had done so more than once. However, when the tables were turned, it was discovered that one in four respondents suspected or knew their partner was cheating on them.

Another aspect that came to the fore during the survey was that 27 pct of the wedded women said that given their time over, they might not marry the same person again.

This could be explained as 49 pct women said that they still did the majority of household chores. On the other hand, only 46 pct said chores such as cooking, cleaning and shopping were shared equally at home, while five per cent said they did no chores at all.

The most disturbing finding of the survey was that there was an alarming rise in domestic violence. 18 pct women admitted to being physically abused by a partner, while 35 per cent said they had suffered emotional abuse while in a relationship.

When asked if they had ever been raped by their husband or partner, 22 pct of women said they had, up from 13 pct in 1980. There was an overall rise from 8 pct in 1980 to 13 pct now in the number of women who said they had been raped.

The first part of the three-part survey, covering women aged over 20, will be published in The Australian Women's Weekly.

ANI