A Qualitative Examination of Withdrawing Sexual Consent, Sexual Compliance, and Young Women’s Role as Sexual Gatekeepers

Abstract

Introduction: Withdrawing consent for sex may be difficult for young women due to gendered sexual scripts and male persistence. Method: 40 students from Canadian universities (31 women; Mean age = 20.20 years; 75% heterosexual) were asked open-ended questions about sexual experiences and consent; data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Women perceived that: (1) women were responsible for communicating consent, (2) they were unaware it was acceptable to withdraw consent or did not know how to, (3) male partners often persisted in response to withdrawal of consent, and (4) these experiences factored into compliance. Conclusion: Sexual consent education, at least in North America, should increase emphasis on withdrawing consent.

Keywords:

• Sexual compliance
• sexual consent
• withdrawing sexual consent
• sexual scripts
• qualitative

Ethical approval

Research ethics board approval was obtained from the University of New Brunswick (2014-014). The research presented in this manuscript was conducted in accordance with the ethical guidelines.

IRB statement

This study has been conducted in an ethical and responsible manner and is in full compliance with all relevant codes of experimentation and legislation, including the principles stated in the Declaration of Helsinki. Ethical approval was obtained from the appropriate Institutional Review Board (University of New Brunswick) and written informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to commencement of the study.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article. All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript. The authors have no financial or proprietary interests in any material discussed in this article.

Additional information

Funding

This manuscript describes original work funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [Grant No. 435-2012-0628].