Survey: Women in Czechia More Satisfied in Relationships and More Tolerant of Same-Sex Marriage Than Men

According to the results of the "How Czechs Love" survey, conducted from June 1 to July 5, 2026, women are generally more satisfied with their relationships and sex lives than men. Nearly half of the female respondents said they were satisfied with their relationship and sex life with their partner, while among men the largest group consisted of those who were generally satisfied but wished their partner were more sexually active.

According to researcher and couples therapist Sylvia Boschetti, women's greater satisfaction may stem from the fact that today they are better "in touch" with their sexuality and see it as a natural part of life that they themselves can initiate. "Thanks to emancipation, media, blogs, magazines, and even pornography — which women watch more often than before — they are more satisfied with their sexuality today than ever. But keep in mind that surveys like this tend to attract people for whom the topic is especially relevant," she notes.

Women's growing independence also plays a role: 41% of respondents believe that female emancipation has a positive effect on the development of romantic relationships, while 28% see it as having a negative influence, and the rest remain undecided. Women tend to rate emancipation positively more often, while men are more skeptical of it.

According to Jakub Binter, a researcher at Jan Evangelista Purkyně University and analyst for Deník.cz, emancipation is changing the conditions under which men achieve social status, build relationships, and make sense of their role in society. "Some people may perceive emancipation as a loss of their own standing, an increase in competition — both in personal life and beyond — or a threat to their own identity," he explains, adding that people interpret the very concept of "emancipation" differently: some see it as equal opportunity, others as unfair preferential treatment for women or a weakening of the traditional family.

Interestingly, when it comes to dating, women more often want the man to take the initiative: one in three women wants this, compared to just one in five men. Men, meanwhile, are more likely to say that gender doesn't matter in this regard, and are more welcoming of women taking the initiative. When choosing a partner, men tend to focus more on appearance, while women focus more on character.

"Women are the ones who are more often competed for. For a man to work up the courage to approach a woman, he needs to occupy a sufficiently high position among other contenders. A woman perceives being approached as a sign of a man's confidence and status — provided the context is appropriate," explains researcher Tomáš Hladký from the same university.

Women More Often Experience Partner Infidelity

When asked whether they had ever cheated on their partner, men and women answered identically — 45% admitted they had, while 55% said they had not. But when asked whether they had experienced infidelity from their partner, the answers diverged significantly: women were far more likely to say yes, while men more often answered no or were unsure.

Opinions also differed on what actually counts as cheating. Romantic correspondence with someone outside the relationship is considered infidelity by 7 out of 10 women, but only 58% of men. A similar gap appears in views on kissing another person or having sexual fantasies about someone else.

Jakub Binter cautions that people's actual behavior often differs from what they report in surveys with fixed answer choices. "That said, in general terms one can say: women tend to view behavior that creates emotional attachment as the more serious offense, while men are more bothered by physical manifestations of infidelity," the researcher says.

Women Significantly More Supportive of Same-Sex Marriage

A large gap between men and women also emerged regarding attitudes toward same-sex marriage. Six out of ten women support it, compared to only 37% of men, while 45% of men are opposed to such unions.

Filip Milde of the "Jsme fér" initiative, which campaigns for the legalization of same-sex marriage in Czechia, compares this data with representative surveys on the same topic, where support has held steady at around 65% for several years. "In our experience and according to other studies, women really do support marriage equality more often than men. We don't have an exact explanation, but perhaps women more often see marriage as an affirmation of love, care, and mutual commitment. It's also possible that greater empathy plays a role, along with a lesser tendency to see others' rights as a threat to one's own. For us, what matters most is that marriage equality isn't about privileges for one group — it's about equal dignity and legal protection for all couples," Milde notes.

Women are also more likely than men to believe that same-sex love is no different from heterosexual love. "Women in general are far more tolerant and empathetic, and better able to put themselves in another person's shoes. They are less prone to discriminating based on a partner's gender and more often have personal experience with same-sex relationships, sexual behavior, or fantasies they view positively," confirms Tomáš Hladký.

Around Prague, based on reporting by denik.cz