The Menopause Taboo at Work: Examining Women’s Embodied Experiences of Menopause in the UK Police Service

Abstract

This article contributes to the growing body of knowledge about gendered ageing at work through an examination of the embodied experiences of women undergoing menopause transition in the UK police service. Drawing on 1197 survey responses, providing both quantitative and qualitative data gathered across three police forces in 2017–18, the findings highlight the importance of a material-discursive approach that considers contextual influences on women’s bodily experiences. The article evidences gendered ageism and the penalty suffered by women whose ageing bodies fail to comply with an ideal worker norm. It makes an important contribution both to theorising embodiment, drawing in age as well as gender discourses, and to promoting a material-discursive approach that recognises the materiality of the body while also offering the potential for agency, reflection and resistance.

Women’s Health in/and Work: Menopause as an Intersectional Experience

“…The interest in the open-text responses was to give space for open reflection and critique beyond the deductive approach used in the survey instrument, while providing a broader landscape of ideas that could help round out the more in-depth (but small numbers) of interviews undertaken. Complementing recent interview-based studies of menopause at work that have focused on an interpretivist approach [9,10], this research adopted an phenomenological approach, which has gained popularity in exploring women's health in other spheres [34,35]. Here, 'If one wants to study the world as lived through, one has to start with a 'direct description of our experience as it is' [36] (p. vii)'.…”

“…The aim of this article is, therefore, to advance understanding of women's menopausal transition at work through the lens of intersectionality. Complementing recent studies that have sought to depart from biomedical approaches to the menopause at work through feminist [9] or sociomaterial [10] approaches, this study focuses specifically on the ways in which menopause is experienced through multiple axes of power that presume a normative embodiment; that is to say, built around a series of age-related, gendered and ableist, and work status (such as full-time) ideals. Focusing on healthcare and higher education workers, this paper is relevant for the study of menopause at work given that these sectors have female majority workforces but also because they are institutions where women in general turn for support, research and information surrounding menopause.…”

Menopause as a well-being strategy: Organizational effectiveness, gendered ageism and racism

“…Only 20% of respondents stated that their workplace provided information about menopause but 85% stated that they would like this information to be provided at work. Those who stated that they did not want this information provided at work report on common issues 14,15 including gendered ageism and sexism. Qualitative responses within the survey thus show that there is an expectation that raising a 'women's issue' would exacerbate already present ageism: 'the work place is sometimes age-ist as it is' and a clear understanding that the intersection of gender and age is creating a particularly unpleasant working environment for older women: 'I think there is enough bias against older women here without giving the guys another excuse to justify their assumed superiority'.…”

Do Menopausal Symptoms Affect the Relationship between Job Demands, Work Ability, and Exhaustion? Testing a Moderated Mediation Model in a Sample of Italian Administrative Employees

“…On the other hand, empirical evidence has also shed light on hindrances in the workplace that may undermine women’s well-being during menopausal age. Regardless of whether they are actually in menopause, older women (e.g., over 50) are at a higher risk of being subjected to social stigma and targeted for workplace discrimination due to their (supposed) menopausal status [ 7 , 16 ]. Negative stereotypes, which are culturally rooted in many workplaces, characterize menopausal women as irrational, emotionally unstable, and non-performative and may work as self-fulfilling prophecies [ 17 ], thus impeding women’s abilities to fully express their potential at work.…”

“…Overall, these studies indicated that the generalization of a non-specific menopause effect on work seems to be completely inappropriate and that to understand how menopause affects women’s work ability and well-being, it is important to focus on the specific menopausal symptomatology experienced by each woman rather than on menopausal status alone. Making menopause a major focus of this line of research without clarifying the real effects of menopausal symptoms on women’s abilities to respond to job demands could have the undesirable side effects of disempowering menopausal women and reinforcing negative stereotypes that characterize menopausal women as lacking and not fit for the lifestyle and demands of the workplace [ 16 ]. Based on this, the present study proposes that menopause interferes with work, depending on the cocktail of symptoms and their intensity, both of which vary considerably between individuals [ 29 ].…”