2010 Complete Election Coverage: Why so few women in infidelity club?
- Bill Clinton, David Vitter, Eliot Spitzer, John Ensign and Mark Sanford have all had affairs. Why haven't more prominent women? AP Photo
Evolutionary psychology can also explain the dearth of married females entangled with infidelity.
“The tendency or willingness to transgress sexual boundaries in general is much more likely in men than in women,” said Paul Abramson, author of the forthcoming book “Sex Appeal: Six Ethical Principles for the 21st Century.”
Abramson, a psychology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, added that “women are socialized to be much more cautious about sexuality due to the fact that they can get pregnant. Having an affair is a sexual risk, and women are much less inclined to do that.”
In her role as a relationship counselor, Johnson has seen many men tempted by novelty and exoticism (which harkens back to Sanford’s “exotic” jaunt to Argentina). Women, on the other hand, often are attracted to closeness and intimacy, she said.
“That’s the reason you don’t see more female politicians having affairs,” Johnson said. “Women are less likely to have physical affairs but more likely to have emotional affairs, and there’s no way to bust those.”
And, of course, there is always the possibility that female politicians have their own sexual indiscretions the public simply doesn’t know about. Those secrets may stay hidden for a while. According to Johnson, “women are way more clever at covering [affairs] up.”