Sociology Reading

Social Science & Medicine 72 (2011) 1342e1350

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Social Science & Medicine journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/socscimed

The pharmaceutical corporation and the ‘good work’ of managing women’s bodies
Tasleem Juana Padamsee*
Department of Sociology, Ohio State University, 238 Townshend Hall, 1885 Neil Avenue Mall, Columbus, OH 43210, United States

a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history: Available online 3 March 2011 Keywords: Women Gender Medicalization Pharmaceutical corporations Health care Menopause Infertility Reproduction

a b s t r a c t
Pharmaceutical companies are intricately intertwined with every aspect of contemporary medical reality, and they increasingly drive the social process of medicalization in order to establish and dominate markets for their drugs and devices. In addition to funding the majority of clinical research, organizing it to generate an evidence base that favors their innovations, and in uencing the regulation of pharmaceutical drugs and devices, companies still spend substantial resources on direct attempts to shape the attitudes, dispositions, and prescribing behavior of physicians. This article sheds new light on our picture of the relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and physicians by examining a novel form of physician-directed communication produced by one prominent corporation. An interpretive, thematic analysis of ORGYN e the unique, full-length magazine published by the Organon Corporation between 1990 and 2003 e reveals two overarching messages it communicated to physicians during that period. First, it offered a compelling picture of the “good work” obstetricians and gynecologists do, which involves enabling women of reproductive age to control their fertility through contraception and infertility treatment, and providing symptom relief and preventive bene ts to older women by increasing compliance with hormone therapy regimes. Second, it included

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