There's a lot to pick apart in this Chicago Tribune report from an academic conference on women's sexuality. But what's missing from the article, though hopefully not from discussion among these experts themselves, is an accounting for social conditioning. To what extent are women just not taught to value their own sexual pleasure equally to that of men? Or to feel ashamed of their bodies and sexuality in a way that inhibits them in bed? Check this out:

Since the 1960s, researchers have operated under a variation of the simple model proposed by William Masters and Virginia Johnson that says the human sexual response starts with desire, progresses through excitement or arousal and ends with orgasm. But experts argued that notion might reflect the experience of men more than women, many of whom don't see orgasm as a goal.

In recent years the field has moved toward a more complicated model based on the observation that many women go into a sexual encounter without being in the mood--perhaps they're seeking intimacy or hoping to please their partner--and may not really want sex until after they become aroused.

But it wasn't until very recently that anyone thought to test those theories by asking women. Sand, who was awarded a prize for his innovative research, found that 57 percent of women felt a straightforward model best described their sexual experience. The 29 percent who endorsed the more complicated model were more likely to have sexual problems.