[1] She studied at the École normale supérieure de lettres et sciences humaines, and completed a 3rd cycle thesis entitled Quand nos grand-mères donnaient la vie : la maternité en France dans l'entre-deux guerres (When our grandmothers gave life: motherhood in France in the interwar period).

Affiliated with Institut des Etudes Genre de l’Université de Genève (Institute of Gender Studies of the University of Geneva) and Labex EHNE (Écrire une histoire nouvelle de l'Europe [fr]), some of Thébaud's research has focused on:[4] In her book Quand nos grands-mères donnaient la vie (When Our Grandmothers Gave Life) (1986), Thébaud draws on censuses, demographic and economic statistics, medical theses, obstetrics and childcare manuals, to reconstruct the experience of motherhood.

She shows in particular that pronatalist propaganda pushes women to be convinced that childbearing is a national duty, at the same time as an accomplishment of their nature.

In her review of the book, the historian Marie-France Morel writes that Thébaud proposes "new issues in the history of women", as well as a questioning of the medical power and the functioning of maternities.

Thébaud edited volume 5 of Le XXe siècle (from the Histoire des femmes collection, Plon-Laterza, 1992; reissue completed in paperback in 2002) and published Écrire l'histoire des femmes (ENS Éditions, 1998).