A study recently published in the February issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology examining the development of sexual identity in young, non-heterosexual women revealed that female sexual development appears to be a great deal more fluid than that of male sexuality.

University of Utah researcher, Dr Lisa M. Diamond, the spent the last seven years observing a sample of 89 women who began the study between the ages of 16 and 23. She noted that some women have known they were not heterosexual from an early age, while others discover attractions to other women out of the blue, later in life, or go back and forth.

Diamond has noted that while most the subjects in her sample group continue to call themselves lesbian or bisexual, a significant number have dropped their labels, and don't care to define themselves one way or another.

"Calling myself a lesbian used to be important to me," said one, Diamond recalled, "but now I care more about my IRA."

Over the period the study was conducted, nine women dropped out, a small number consider themselves officially heterosexual, and a few are evaluating their gender status.

Diamond also highlighted that observing the process, rather than the end result, has allowed her to recognise the large role that social context and relationships play in female sexuality, and to note the wide variations that characterise female development as opposed to male development.

She said a large number of her subjects warned her that they were not good candidates for research, since they broke the mold in a variety of ways but instead, she thought that their reaction was in fact, normal for the survey.

Fluctuations, said Diamond, are not to be confused with deliberately "changing" one's sexual orientation; rather they reflect the uneven dynamics of female development.

"Fluidity and change does not mean that [a woman] is choosing her sexuality," she said, adding that many women feel no control over their attractions and attachments.

Too many people "conflate change with choice," Diamond said, "and that absolutely does not fit the data that I've collected."