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, according to new research that suggests that decades after the sexual revolution, the "orgasm gap" is still very much in effect.

One of the study's lead authors at the that the gap persists because many Americans continue to "prioritize men's pleasure and undervalue women's sexual pleasure."

, these attitudes toward sexual pleasure have a long history.

But so do efforts to push back against them.

Almost a century ago, a pioneering American sex researcher named Katharine Bement Davis challenged that respectable women did not—and should not—experience sexual desire or have sex, except to please men or to have children.

Davis's 1929 book, "," completely upended this thinking.

By surveying everyday American women, she was able to show that it was completely normal for American women to have sex for the sake of pleasure.

An unlikely advocate for sexual liberation

Davis spent the first half of her career policing women's sexuality, not promoting it.

In 1901, after earning her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, Davis became superintendent of the . While there, the women in her care. Most female convicts, she concluded, were "immoral women."

Davis' efforts to enforce sexual morality drew the attention of philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. In 1917, he invited her to lead his private agency, the , founded to study and combat prostitution and venereal disease.

During World War I, Davis promoted among soldiers and civilians. Through this work, she became convinced that sexual ignorance—not sexual immorality—posed the greatest danger to women's welfare.

Davis had long , which condoned men's sexual experimentation but condemned women's sexual experience.

Now, she also recognized that this double standard promoted women's chastity at the expense of knowledge. that discussions of women's sexuality were "taboo," "distorted views, baffled speculation, and unfortunate experiences."

Tackling a taboo topic

that Americans needed accurate information to achieve "a sane outlook on all matters pertaining to sex," Davis made it her mission to teach women about sex.

But first, she needed to learn about women's actual sexual experiences. Davis decided to undertake a large-scale study of what "the sex life of normal women."

Davis' approach was a dramatic departure from existing studies of "abnormal" sexuality focused on institutionalized populations. "Except on the pathological side," , "sex is scientifically an unexplored country."

By contrast, , she wanted to understand "the woman who was not pathological mentally or physically."

To that end, Davis distributed a detailed questionnaire to "women of good standing in the community" from 1921 to 1923. The resulting study sample of 1,000 married women and 1,200 unmarried women was not representative—it skewed white, well-educated and well-to-do. But their responses allowed Davis to redefine female sexuality.

America's first sexual revolution

Davis launched her study of women's sexuality during what historians now refer to as . The second—and more well-known one—.

In the 1920s, as , a "revolution in manners and morals" was underway. Sex suffused popular culture. Contestants in beauty pageants displayed their charms in skimpy bathing costumes and short skirts. Actresses flaunted their sex appeal on stage and screen.

New attitudes about sex affected the daily lives of average Americans, too. Young women throughout the nation adopted the sexy look of "," the term used for women who sported short skirts, rolled stockings and bobbed hair.

Prior to the 1920s, courtship often took place in the home, allowing parents to closely supervise couples. But the ubiquitous automobile—which "a house of prostitution on wheels"—rendered adult chaperonage obsolete and granted young people unprecedented sexual freedom.

Meanwhile, birth control activists like distributed contraceptive devices and disseminated sexual information in defiance of , which had defined birth control and sex education as "obscene" and made circulating such materials a federal crime.

Sex, secrecy and shame

Even amid the nation's first sexual revolution, the facts of life remained in short supply.

According to surveys Davis distributed to married women, only believed that they had been "adequately prepared … for the sex side of marriage."

After expanding her study to include unmarried women, Davis found that received sex education from their parents.

Many women didn't know how pregnancy occurred. Some had been unprepared even for menstruation. that when she experienced her first period, "I naturally thought I was bleeding to death."

In place of information, many women imbibed shame. "Having acquired the feeling as a small child that any sex pleasure was shameful and a great sin," , some could never overcome their discomfort with sex. all sexual thoughts as "something to be shunned like the devil."

One response : "Our present secrecy, fear, and repression are responsible for most of our sex ills."

Challenging the conspiracy of silence

Many women were eager to challenge a "conspiracy of silence" surrounding female sexuality.

Study participants ended up providing Davis with over 10,000 pages of handwritten responses. She used this information to produce , a 400-plus page book brimming with both statistical data and personal stories.

"" covered a wide range of topics, ranging from sex education to sex play. Running throughout the entire work, however, was one central idea: Women liked sex.

Davis included data on birth control, same-sex relationships and masturbation. At the time, these practices were universally stigmatized and often criminalized. Yet significant proportions of study participants engaged in all these activities.

using contraceptives. Many probably took advantage of state laws allowing physicians to prescribe diaphragms to protect patients' health. Surprisingly, nearly 1 in 10 women admitted having abortions, even though in every state.

More than half of unmarried women and nearly one-third of married women stated that they had experienced "" with other women. In each group, approximately half described those relationships as sexual. This was a remarkably high figure, given and .

Nearly 65% of unmarried women and more than 40% of married women . Since , Davis assumed the actual numbers were even higher.

Davis' data demonstrated that "normal" women experienced what "natural sex feeling." In short, her study showed that many women enjoyed sex for its own sake.

that reliable data would lead to "more satisfactory adjustments of the sex relationship." In other words, better information would lead to better sex.

Davis paved the way for future studies that validate women's sexual pleasure. While researching female sexuality, she the . The Rockefeller-funded committee later subsidized studies of human sexuality.

Davis' legacy lives on. The findings from the Kinsey Institute's latest study show that discussing sexual pleasure still matters, particularly for women. It also suggests that Americans' understandings of sex have improved over the past century.

When Davis conducted her study in the 1920s, for participants who were unclear on the concept. Now, a generation of better-informed Americans ponder how to address a persistent "orgasm gap."

This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .