Redefining sexuality from women's own experiences

Traditionally women's sexuality has been defined and described using narrow and socially prescribed concepts. In the past 20 years new ideas about women's sexuality have emerged. At the same time, sexuality has become a legitimate concern for health professionals. Nurses and their clients can benefit from learning about the emerging woman-centered concepts of sexuality. Women's sexuality is not primarily a response to men's sexuality but has its own characteristics. A woman's sexuality is an expression of mutuality, involving not only physical gratification but also a sense of herself as a woman in the context of her life, her relationships, and emotions. Several groups of women whose sexual needs have traditionally been unmet by nurses and other health care professionals include adolescents, physically disabled women, lesbians, and older women. A self-care frame-work differentiates socially constructed definitions of sexuality from lived experience and suggests the importance of attending to individual women's experiences throughout life.