The Hite Reports (1976, 1981) and Masters and Johnson's Report (1966-1979) changed the way people thought about sex. Masters and Johnson began to study female sexuality in a way in which it had never been explored before. For example, they found that women could fake orgasm and that intercourse is not necessary to achieve an orgasm for women. They conducted surveys of women as part of their research.

Hite also conducted surveys of over 1,800 women for her 1976 book. She discovered, from asking actual women, the importance of clitoral stimulation to achieve an orgasm and questioned the traditional idea that women can achieve a vaginal orgasm. She also studied the importance of masturbation.

These works opened up different directions in the field. For example, women's perspectives became more important, and researchers were more aware of the variety of sexual experience.The field was opened to exploring other experiences, such as those of the LBGTQ+ community. Researchers no longer looked at people's experiences of sex in a unidimensional way or one that only reflected heterosexual men's point of view. In addition, they realized that the way people experience sex is quite different from the way they often speak about sex in public.