Menopause and the workplace: New directions in HRM research and HR practice

Abstract

This paper offers two key arguments. The first is that HRM scholars and HR practitioners need to pay a good deal more attention to the bi‐directional relationship between menopause and the workplace—how menopausal symptoms can affect women's experience of work and how work can exacerbate a woman's symptoms. We outline the social responsibility, demographic, legal and business cases which explain the urgency of more research and more concerted practice in this area. Our second argument concerns the importance of future research and practice adopting an intersectional political economy approach, in order to better understand the considerable differences between how women going through menopause transition experience work. Here, we offer arguments ranging from the macro‐ through the meso‐ down to the micro‐level of these differences, in so doing setting an agenda for the work to come on this very significant issue.

Managing menopause at work: The contradictory nature of identity talk

“…Organizational managers, in order to change how the menopause is understood by women, must incorporate menopause strategies that consider how the individual nature of the menopause impacts work. Atkinson et al (2020) highlight knowledge gaps in how employment type, income, and education contribute to managing the menopausal body. This article contributes to this work by providing evidence that menopause talk is a great leveler in many respects in that it is largely indiscriminate.…”

“…Menopause remains shrouded in mystery, a taboo topic at work, a "problem" that women must seemingly face alone and in private (Atkinson et al, 2020;Grandey et al, 2020). This way of thinking is clearly detrimental to women's identity where male-dominated or gender-neutral work structures do not allow for the undisciplined body STEFFAN -209…”

“…As the Baby Boomer generation reach retirement, the "old-age dependency ratio," where a smaller proportion of working age adults support the broader population, continues to increase (Edge, Cooper, & Coffey, 2017). As such, delaying retirement and extending working lives is the subject of intense social and economic focus (Altmann, 2015;Loretto & Vickerstaff, 2012), however, we know little about how experiences of the appearance of bodily ageing interact with working longer and even less about how the menopausal body is seen, understood, and managed by women and others within their organizational contexts (Atkinson et al, 2020). Organizational research on older workers tends to problematize age, constructed as limited with declining health and social and economic redundancy, or the "ubiquitous narrative of age as decline" (Trethewey, 2001).…”

“…Organizational research on older workers tends to problematize age, constructed as limited with declining health and social and economic redundancy, or the "ubiquitous narrative of age as decline" (Trethewey, 2001). This enquiry is set against a backdrop of the "problem of ageing" as gendered and in need of a solution (Coupland, 2007), where an ageing body is synonymous with "degeneration and slowing down" (Riach, 2007) in a world of work where the menopause is often considered taboo (Atkinson et al, 2020;Grandey et al, 2020).…”

“…Trethewey (1999) asserted that female professional bodies are inherently and overtly sexualized at 196 -STEFFAN work where menstruation and pregnancy are "always a potential professional liability" (p. 445), however, her paper ignored the menopause. More recently, there is a growing literature around menopause at work (Atkinson, Beck, Brewis, Davies, & Duberley, 2020;Grandey, Gabriel, & King, 2020;Jack et al, 2016), however, there exists a paucity in empirical studies that explore how menopause is actually experienced at work. This article addresses several calls for action.…”