We are in the midst of a sex recession. Young people today are having half as much sex as previous generations did, roughly the same amount as seniors.

Solutions to this decline tend to place the burden on women. Go online and you’ll find endless advice urging women to get their sex drive back. Self-help books, herbal supplements and pharmaceutical ads promise to reignite female libido, as if women’s desire is something that mysteriously breaks and needs to be repaired.

For decades, women’s lower sexual desire has been treated as biological fact — the product of evolution or hormonal destiny.

But the experiences that shape desire tell a different story: The libido gap begins long before adulthood, in the earliest experiences that teach young women what sex is like and who is entitled to enjoy it.

Early experiences of sex

Adolescence is a window of opportunity for learning how to have healthy, enjoyable sex. The adolescent brain is especially attuned to reward and peer social connection, so early experiences with closeness, communication and pleasure can leave lasting marks.

And yet it is during this window — when interest in sex comes online and the brain is primed to learn from experience — that most young women get the worst sex of their........

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