WOMEN’S HEALTH AT WORK
E very October there is a flurry of awareness- raising, online discussion, celebration and social media exchanges around World Menopause Month. While for some this is momentary – and occasionally, it has to be said, tokenistic – for many companies and business leaders it provides the opportunity to think about enabling and supporting an experience that impacts 51 per cent of the population directly and 100 per cent vicariously: menopausal transition. Menopausal transition encompasses the period of time immediately prior, (called perimenopause) plus the time afterwards, ie post-menopause, which marks the end of menstruation and is when a variety of symptoms can begin to occur. Women usually experience it at around 51 years of age, but can do so potentially at any point, with one in 100 experiencing menopause before they turn 40. Menopause is both a universal and a unique experience that can be accompanied by a constellation of symptoms, including hot or cold flushes, sleep disturbance, joint aches, heavy bleeding and anxiety, among many others. Symptoms vary in their frequency or severity but are usually most acute just before and after the menopause, which formally marks the one-year anniversary of not having had a period. While many employees work through the menopause with minimal disruption, others find that significant symptoms have an impact on their workplace performance. Menopause in the workplace has come a long way since I first began exploring my own research just over 10 years ago. Celebrities such as Davina McCall and Jennifer Aniston have spoken about their experience, which has helped to make it more visible and raised its profile. There are now menopause and menstrual health at work guidelines produced by the Awareness events such as World Menopause Month help to start the conversation around women’s health in the workplace. Perhaps, however, they also underline the need for a longer‑term commitment to an inclusive environment where literally ‘every body’ is supported, ponders Adam Smith Business School’s Kathleen Riach
British Standards Institute and a forthcoming international set of guidelines from ISO. Recent studies from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development suggest that around 25 per cent of organisations in the UK consider menopause as a workplace issue, while awareness of menopausal transition at work is growing, albeit unevenly, in workplaces across the world. At the same time, a study from the Fawcett Society in 2022 suggested that one in 10 women leave the workforce due to menopausal symptoms, while others suggest this could be as many as one in four; this is despite the fact that, in some economies, midlife women are one of the fastest-growing segments of the labour market. Until recently there has been a bias towards only understanding white women’s experience of menopause, ie those who predominantly hold well-paid, professional jobs. In spite of significant numbers of working women of average menopausal age not being based in office environments – employed instead in healthcare, education and training or retail and hospitality – accounts tend to assume a workplace that is fixed, office-based and somewhere the employee has a certain degree of autonomy. Moreover, while there are some small-scale studies currently being undertaken around how menopause intersects with other experiences such as neurodiversity, or how minority ethnic communities may experience menopause differently, there is still a lack of evidence and insight around how those within precarious work or lower paid jobs negotiate this transition. Work & menopause: a two-way street Despite claims of menopause impacting women’s productivity, there is no credible evidence that is universally the case, with most commentaries emerging from self-reported accounts from employees, or studies undertaken with those who have already sought healthcare support for their symptoms. However, employees with symptoms that are severe or bothersome are more likely to report outcomes such as a higher intention to quit their jobs, or lower engagement, compared to those with less severe symptoms. It is unclear to what extent these outcomes hold over time given that menopause symptoms can fluctuate and evolve. Just as symptoms associated with the menopause may impact employee outcomes, workplace environments and cultures can also have a significant impact on symptoms. Cultural hostility and stigma can not only make employees experiencing menopause feel unsupported or problematised, but can lead to behaviours that aggravate symptoms as women try to ignore or self-manage them. For example, in a study of healthcare workers, one fifth of respondents with disruptive menopausal symptoms changed what they ate or drank at work, which has implications for occupational health, particularly when working long shifts or in the community. Given these parameters of conditional acceptance around working women as they grow older, it is unsurprising that many employees actively choose not to disclose they are experiencing menopause or problematic symptoms. As succinctly summed
Ambition | NOVEMBER 2024 | 23
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