Hanna Rosin on Young Women and Casual Sex

The most recent issue of The Atlantic has an interesting piece by Hanna Rosin who argues that handwringing over the "hook-up" culture of casual sex at modern colleges does not victimize young women.

Rosin points out that only a minority of college students have a large number of sexual partners and that the great majority hope to marry.

But most of her ink is devoted to puncturing the assumption that casual sex is bad for young women.  Rosin points out that the average woman at college is doing much better than her male counterpart, and that she's more likely than him to get a good job and make good money right after college.  Many such women conclude that it is unwise for them to take on children, husbands, or even serious boyfriends at a critical time in their lives--at or soon after college.  "Hooking up" enables them to enjoy sex without the burden of a relationship that will take up their valuable time--and might saddle them with a man who is apt to make less money and do less housework than they are.

Back in the 1950s, Hugh Hefner urged well-to-do young men to "rent" women rather than "buying" (marrying) them.  The dynamics that Rosin describes are a bit different, but the fact that many ambitious young women are avoiding commitments to young men is one more indication that the average young woman is apt to be more successful than her male counterpart.