Hite, Shere

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Hite, Shere 1942-

Author Shere Hite ignited nationwide discussion on the roles of gender and culture in sexuality with the publication of her controversial series of books known as the Hite Reports. Hite has been praised by some for advancing theories of human sexuality by incorporating concepts of societal influences on sex and by revealing the previously overlooked sexual experiences of women. However, she has been criticized by many social scientists for her research methods, which have been described as nonscientific and biased.

Hite was born Shirley Diana Gregory in Saint Joseph, Missouri, and was later adopted by her stepfather, Raymond Hite. She earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in history at the University of Florida and subsequently enrolled in a doctoral program at Columbia University from which she ultimately withdrew. The first book in Hite’s series, The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality, was based on replies to a questionnaire distributed by Hite while she served as director of the Feminist Sexuality Project for the National Organization for Women (NOW). This book, consisting primarily of verbatim responses from more than three thousand women, became a best seller when it was published in 1976. Contrary to the theories about female sexuality prevalent at that time, which were centered on vaginal penetration, the testimonies of women quoted in Hite’s book demonstrated that almost all women could regularly achieve orgasm through clitoral stimulation. In contrast, only about 30 percent of women sampled reported achieving orgasm regularly through vaginal intercourse. Feminists embraced the book for presenting attitudes and experiences in the women’s own words and for reporting findings that suggested that a woman’s sexual enjoyment was not dependent on the presence of a male. Ultimately, the first Hite Report called for an expansion of the conceptualization of female sexuality to include desires, emotions, and cultural influences on expectations of sex, rather than the limited focus on biology and reproduction.

The inclusion of emotions and societal influences in sexuality theory was also prevalent in Hite’s second publication, The Hite Report on Male Sexuality (1981). This work argued that male sexuality extended beyond the accepted model that men are solely interested in penetrative sex. Rather, men desire a diversity of sexual activities and are affected by cultural expectations regarding emotions and behavior. Hite has gone on to publish more than ten books generally focusing on sexuality and relationships.

Despite the commercial success of Hite’s publications, her methods drew criticism from the scientific community. Although the sample for Hite’s initial study of over three thousand women is seemingly large, it represents only 3 percent of the 100, 000 women who were sent Hite’s questionnaire. Such small response rates are generally indicative of a self-selecting bias, in that only the women who felt strongly enough about the material would be willing to complete the time-consuming survey, which consisted of about sixty open-ended essay questions. Thus, it is often those with the most extreme views who are willing to participate in these types of studies. Additionally, research methods for studies in which statistics are presented as an estimate of population value require the use of a randomly selected sample. However, Hite’s survey was sent to a number of women’s groups, many of which were considered to be feminist organizations. Hite continued to use similar methods for each of her studies and has repeatedly drawn criticism for presenting statistics and developing theories using samples that are not representative of the population.