La ménopause comme espace de tension entre production du genre et résistances des femmes

le cas français

Abstract

In this paper I address the question of menopause in the French context as a space of tension between the production of gender and women’s resistance. Based upon the analysis of a corpus of medical discourses and interviews with menopausal women, this paper aims to analyze the mechanisms of the social construction of menopause and women’s lived experience. First of all, I analyze the construction and social treatment of menopause as efficient spaces of gender production. I then emphasize the experience of menopause as a process of individual and collective lack of control. Finally, I underline forms of resistance within women’s experience of menopause, which consist in disapproval of the process of categorization as well as of medical injunctions.