[Growing old as a woman]

Growing old as a woman. Since Diderot, a classic writer, and his friend Sophie Volland with whom he corresponded, debated the difference between the "handsome old man" and "beautiful old age", or a hypothetical "beautiful old woman", the representations of growing old have changed, to the benefit of women. Has the considerable contribution of female writers to the debate played a role? In what ways does literature, through its figurations of the ages of life, provide a valuable perspective of the contemporary mutations of the view of old age?