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The second part of the XXth century in France, following the end of the Second World War, belongs to women: the right to vote, finally obtained in 1945, represented the first loosening of the social shackles that tied women down. Women's emancipation became fact in the decade from 1965–1975, particularly with laws giving them control over their sexuality and reproductive lives.
The radical change in the second half of the 20th century was underpinned by medical progress, the best known and most widely publicised of which concern women's sexuality in the broadest sense of the term: access to the contraceptive pill, legalisation of abortion and, simultaneously, the right to motherhood with the rise of medically assisted procreation.
A few years later, the generalisation of cancer screening methods (breast, colon) and hormone replacement therapy for the menopause further improved women's quality of life.
The vaccine against cervical cancer, which has been available since 2006, is the most recent medical innovation specifically for women at the present time.
This book highlights the important changes wrought in our society through the major advances that, thanks to medicine, have changed women's lives.
Its author, Professor Catherine Weil-Olivier, is a paediatrician. Other than the medical care provided to children from birth through to adulthood, this is a profession that gives a general overview of life itself.
Dealing not only with childhood diseases, the paediatrician's sphere is much more vast, ranging from helping a child find its place within the family to the various dimensions of social adaptation.
It is within this context that the author wishes to review the progress that has changed the lives of women. As a woman and mother but also simply as a member of the human race, it is impossible not to wonder at their contribution to the profound changes French society has undergone and to the new status of women this has implied.