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Want a better sex life? Date a feminist.
This advice holds true for men and women, according to a newly published study that aims to debunk stereotypes of feminists as romantically challenged.
The two-part study asked 242 undergraduates and 289 older adults about feminism and their relationships. The results, published in this week's issue of the journal Sex Roles, showed that women who identify themselves as feminists are more likely than non-feminists to be dating or married, and that men and women with feminist partners tend to be happier with their relationships and more satisfied with their sex lives.
"They're not man-hating lesbians and all that sort of stuff," says Laurie Rudman, an associate professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey who co-authored the study with PhD student Julie Phelan.
But is anyone except Rush Limbaugh still railing against those fearsome "feminazis" any more?
Apparently, yes. We may have come a long way, baby, but stereotypes about feminism just won't die.
"People avoid the 'F-word,' " Dr. Rudman says. "The idea you cannot be a feminist and feminine at the same time is huge in the popular imagination."
Dr. Rudman documented the persistence of the F-word stigma in a study published this summer in Psychology of Women Quarterly. She surveyed hundreds of university students and found they believe feminist women are uglier and less likely to find romantic happiness than non-feminists.
"These are ideas I thought went out with my grandma's gartered stockings, but it turns out they are still a concern," Dr. Rudman says. She's also heard similar attitudes in conversations with university-aged women who don't want to identify themselves as feminists.
Dr. Rudman suspected that feminism's reputation as a romantic buzzkill may be scaring young women away from adopting the label, so she decided to investigate whether those stereotypes held any truth.
The first study found that among university students who were in heterosexual relationships, it didn't matter to a man's relationship satisfaction whether his partner was feminist, but that women dating feminist men reported better relationship health.
The second study, which surveyed adults aged 18-64 in heterosexual relationships, found that both men and women reported healthier pairings when their partner was a feminist.
In both studies, relationship health was measured with a series of questions about how often people confided in their partners, quarrelled with them, or felt relaxed and happy with them, for example.
Dr. Rudman says the question of why feminism seems to boost relationship health is a subject for future study. Her hypothesis, supported by marriage research, is that mates who feel like equal partners tend to be happier and to stay together longer.
"Who wants to have all the power in a relationship, or to be on the other end, where you have no say in anything?" Dr. Rudman asks.
For now, she hopes her research will, in some small way, help young women embrace feminism without fear of losing their romantic mojo.
"There's a lot of work to be done," she says.
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