Marital Sexuality in Four Cultures of Poverty

Patterns of marital sexuality in four countries-the United States, England, Puerto Rico, and Mexico-indicate that among the lower classes of these countries, significant similarities exist in the sentiments expressed by husbands and wives concerning sexual experience and their expectations about sexual role performances by marital partners. The generally negative attitudes toward wives' enjoyment of sexual relations in these cultures of poverty can be seen as an example of a more general hypothesis: In societies where there is a high degree of segregation in the role relationships of husbands and wives, the couple will tend not to develop a close sexual relationship, and the wife will not look upon sexual relations with her husband as gratifying.