In the big sex-equality debate, sex itself and the way we approach it surely has a significant part to play.

So what would happen to the male-female dynamic if women wanted and enjoyed sex just as much as men? A new book by journalist Daniel Bergner asks just that, with surprising results. He suggests that women do want as much sex as our male counterparts, if not more.

What Do Women Want? Adventures In The Science Of Female Desire (Cannongate, £10.99) proposes that women have been conditioned by ‘presumptions’ formed from a combination of societal values, religion and scientific ‘evidence’, to feel a certain way about sex; namely that we don’t want/like it as much as men and that an emotional connection is needed for it to be enjoyable.

A series of expert sexologists quoted in the book explain evidence that shows women are naturally promiscuous and that we are highly sexual, for example even heterosexual woman can find other females sexual (because we want to be desired ourselves). It raises questions about the power that women could gain by acknowledging ourselves as highly sexual beings, not just in our own sex lives, but in life in general.

Could men handle it? The debate begins…