« Qu’elles se fassent un rappel avec leur téléphone ! »

Abstract

The use of contraceptive pills requires daily compliance, which guarantees the effectiveness of the method. Faced with this expected skill, women resort to digital tools (telephone alarms, menstrual monitoring applications), in order not to forget to take their pills. The objective of this article is to question the ambiguity of the uses of these technologies: they can relieve a "mental load" induced by a feminized contraceptive management, but also reinforce a gendered self-control. Resulting from doctoral research in sociology on the prescription and use of oral contraception in a context marked by the "pill crisis", the article is based on more than seventy interviews with pill users, their partners and health professionals, and on the observation of nearly one hundred gynecological consultations. Under the guise of a promise of easier contraceptive management, these applications ultimately extend medical and gender norms.

Keywords

• contraception
• gender
• neoliberalism
• digital practices
• healthcare workers