Women’s Sexual Desire

Much of the research on women''s sexual desire adopts a biomedical approach to the study of women''s sexuality. Feminist thought has been critical of this approach because it posits women''s biology as the sole determinant of women''s sexual experiences, such that sexual response is represented as universal, static, and unmalleable. This essentialist approach to women''s sexuality is especially problematic for midlife and older women due to institutionalized ageist medical ideology, in which postmenopausal women are viewed as deficient and diseased. This research on women''s sexual desire has been primarily quantitative, and therefore there is currently a dearth of information on women''s experiences and meanings of sexual desire. Based on these perceived shortcomings of the research on women''s sexual desire, especially among postmenopausal women, this research project was developed. A qualitative grounded theory research design, situated within a feminist paradigm, was used to fulfill the goals of this study.