Medical progress in the field of procreation and the near-total autonomy they give to conception lead us to revisit Francoise Héritier’s theory about « the differential valence of the sexes ». What is happening with the relative dependence of women compared with men in France today ? The developments observed over the last twenty years, both in fertility techniques and in new family arrangements, tend to reveal new inequalities between men and women in their respective relations with sexuality and parenthood. So the appearance of new models of procreation, exemplified by lesbian couples, will introduce the elaboration of a new fantasy of origins : the subject will gain access to symbolization much more through his certainty of being his parents’ « child of the desire for a child » than through the working of a fantasy of the primal scene.

Adolescence, 2014, 32, 1, 71-83.