Disclosed is a female contact of unitary construction employing a torsion bar joined at one end to one of two opposing, spaced apart, elongated contact blades. The two blades have a relatively high spring rate and are forced apart when a male contact is inserted between the blades to provide the desired contact retention forces. One of the two contact blades is oriented edgewise with respect to the plane of a rigid opposing blade to provide a high spring rate in the direction of outward displacement. The outward displacement of the edgewise-oriented blade and hence the contact pressures applied thereby to the male contact are primarily a function of the torsional characteristics of the torsion bar to which it is joined. If desired, this contact pressure may be essentially doubled by providing two juxtaposed edgewise-oriented contact blades, each joined to a respective torsion bar.