The issue of marital rape is a thorny one: until recently, the law presumed consent in marriage, and the idea of « marital duty » presided over any judgment on couples’ sexual lives. For a long time, consent was taken for granted in French law for any sexual act performed within a marital context. It was only in 1990 that a judge recognized the existence of marital rape for the first time. What is the situation today? Is marital sexual violence still commonplace?
This Ifop survey for ELLE, carried out in July 2025 among 3,015 people, including 1,710 women, sheds light on this little-studied subject, which is still largely misunderstood and underestimated.
Women are more likely than men to accept having marital sex without wanting to.
1. In July 2025, almost half of all French people (48%) claim to have had marital sex without wanting to.
2. The proportion of women is much higher: 57% say they have had marital sex without wanting to, compared to 39% of men.
3. 10% of women say they have often had sex with their partner without wanting to, a figure that rises to 16% among women under 35.
Similarly, women are more likely to have sex with their partners against their will, sometimes using force.
4. In all, one in five French people claim to have had marital sex against their will. However, this reality is much more marked among women: almost one in four (24%) claim to have been confronted with this situation, compared with 14% of men.
5. Experience of non-consensual sex is even more common among younger people. Nearly one in three women (31%) under the age of 35 report having experienced such a situation, underlining the heightened vulnerability of this age group.
6. Among the women concerned, 5% say they are often confronted with such forced intercourse. Even more worryingly, 1% say they are subjected to it almost every day, revealing a recurring form of control and violence. In addition, an alarming 5% of women say their partner has used physical force to obtain sex in the last twelve months.
7. If 4% of women were unwilling or unable to answer these questions, this silence can be interpreted as an expression of shame or fear, which prevents them from putting into words an intimate and painful reality.
Marital rape remains a common, underestimated practice whose definition is poorly understood.
8. « Marital rape » is defined as an act of vaginal, anal or buccogenital penetration committed by coercion, violence, threat or surprise by a spouse. On this basis, 10% of French people claim to have experienced marital rape in their lifetime.
9. 14% of women claim to have been victims of marital rape, compared with 6% of men. This difference highlights the fact that women are clearly over-represented when it comes to this type of violence. Even more worrying is the fact that 5% of these women claim to have been victims of marital rape in the last twelve months.
10. Exposure is particularly marked among younger women: 24% of women aged 18 to 34 say they have been subjected to marital rape. The proportions then fall with age: 13% of women aged 35 to 64 and only 5% of women aged 65 and over.
The practice of consent is becoming more widespread, but remains less systematic in the marital context.
11. The study shows that a majority of men declare that they systematically check their partner’s consent during sexual intercourse. However, almost one in five (19%) admit to not doing so every time, although this proportion is down on 2019 (24%).
12. In the marital context, this vigilance is even weaker: only 75% of men say they systematically check their partner’s consent, which means that a quarter do not do so on a regular basis.
A non-negligible proportion of men admit to having already had non-consensual intercourse with a woman.
13. 13% of men have had sex with a woman when she didn’t really want to, a figure that rises to 20% among men aged 18 to 34.
14. Faced with a woman’s explicit refusal to have sex, 7% of men say they have gone ahead anyway, a figure that rises to 17% among 18-34 year-olds.
15. These trends are also reflected in the way forced sexual intercourse is described: 31% of men consider that forcing their partner to have sex despite her refusal does not fall within the definition of rape. Interestingly, the trend reverses with age: 41% of men aged 65 and over share this opinion, compared with only 23% of men under 35.
