To be willing to care for children, women need certain personal characteristics. First of all, they need to be less motivated than men to follow their own activities. Second, they must be relatively passive in order to be willing to subjugate their own activities and focus on nurturing others. Women’s lack of sex drive is probably related to a lack of personal drive.
Most girls focus on social activities and not physically active play. To survive, women have evolved to be more passive and docile. Not everyone fits these stereotypes, but many do. Women need to deal with men who can be aggressive and ruthless. Men like meek women, but they also disrespect women because they are easy to dominate.
From a young age, most girls already display a more passive and shy personality than most boys. This gender difference is evident before the onset of puberty and is not caused by hormones. The first sign of puberty for girls is the growth of pubic hair, which begins to develop at 12.3 years of age on average. Female puberty focuses on a woman’s reproductive role rather than her responsiveness. The growth of a girl is completed at 15.8 years. Regular ovulation does not begin until sixteen or eighteen years of age.
A woman has a monthly cycle that includes ovulation and her period. The age of the first menstruation ranges from 9 to 25 years, but the average girl begins her period at 13 years. A period is not liquid blood but rather jelly-like clots. A woman’s period involves the loss of the cell lining that builds up in her uterus each month as her body prepares for a possible pregnancy.
During adolescence, girls are interested in motherhood. Girls from the age of 15 start talking about the man they might marry one day and the children they hope to have. This interest in a future family is not focused on one man in particular. But once she has a boyfriend, a girl can look at the long run. This is in contrast to children who are much more short-term in their thinking and who often want to keep their options open.
Most women ovulate between day 11 and day 21 of their cycle, counting from the first day of the last menstrual period (LMP). Women use sanitary pads or tampons to absorb blood. Some women spend days in bed with stomach cramps and have premenstrual tension (PMT), which can put them in a bad mood. Other women do not experience menstrual cramps.
A woman has a lifetime supply of eggs inside her body from the day she is born. After puberty, a woman ovulates automatically (without consciousness). A mature egg is released from an ovary each month. Once she releases the egg, she descends into the fallopian tube, where she stays for about 24 hours. A woman can conceive (if sperm from a recent ejaculation is present) during that time. If the egg is not fertilized during that time, the egg disintegrates and menstruation (blood flow) begins 2 weeks later.
A woman can get pregnant any time she has sex. A man only needs to ejaculate in her vagina (or near her). Sometimes sperm can enter the vagina if a man ejaculates right outside. To know the days when she is fertile, a woman needs to keep track of her temperature. Few women do this and assume they can conceive anytime after she finishes her period.
Male puberty makes men have a new curiosity about their own genitalia and also about any opportunity to observe nudity in others. Female adolescence does not include this sudden and intense increase in responsiveness that boys experience. Women can have a general curiosity about genitalia just like boys. Women are not automatically turned on by hormones like men. They are also not aroused by looking at or thinking about a lover’s genitalia. So most women are not even remotely curious about masturbation.
The female anatomy is more susceptible to infections than the male one due to the proximity of the orifices: urethra, vagina and anus. The opening of the vagina is between the urethra and the anus. A woman needs to wash both sides of the vaginal opening, including cleaning the folds between the labia majora. When a woman washes between her legs, she needs to use soap and lather the pubic hair on both sides of the labia majora (outer lips or skin folds). As she ages, these become wrinkled and slightly baggy, reminiscent of the male scrotum, which is the equivalent male anatomy.
A woman does not need to clean the inside of the labia minora (inner lips or skin folds), which are much more delicate and open into the vagina. She may insert a finger into the vagina to check for discharge. She may find a creamy substance that can be washed off her fingers in the shower. Most of these discharges are quite natural. Women are persuaded to buy douches in the belief that the vagina is dirty. There is nothing inherently impure about the vagina. Douching can be dangerous and should not be used without medical advice. A woman should wash the crack between the buttocks and the anus separately, lowering her hand behind her.
…the ability to reproduce is not synonymous with the ability to become erotically aroused and responsive to the point of orgasm… (Alfred Kinsey 1953)
