Development of Sexuality in Female Children and Adolescents^*

Abstract

S ince the late 1960s much valuable work has been done to improve our understanding of women. The socialization of women around the expression of aggression was an early focus of interest. Many women entered consciousness raising or therapy groups to unlearn old ways and develop new ways of expressing anger. Sexuality (meaning sexual desire, excitement and orgasm) was also discussed, often in the context of women's need to regain control of their own experience. Efforts to define and legitimize women's own experience of their sexuality have continued. However the integration of these new views into the body of psychiatric (especially psychoanalytic) theory has not occurred as actively or as successfully as has been the case with our understanding of anger.It seems likely that many factors impact on the development and expression of sexuality. Biological factors such as individual difference, temperment, and intra-uterine hormonal environment; early experience with inner state regulation, intimacy, and affection; and socialization via parent