Enabling perimenopausal and menopausal women to thrive in the workplace

By Lisa Wright – Menopause the Wright Way

The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) is #EmbraceEquity and there are a number of underlying missions to this theme to help in the development of a gender equal world. As a women who now works in the health and well-being space, with a specific interest in menopause, and also drawing on my previous corporate life as one of very few senior woman in the organisation, one of this year’s IWD mission statements particularly resonates with me.

Women represent 47%** of the current UK labour force, so the IWD mission of “forging inclusive work cultures where women’s careers thrive, and their achievements are celebrated” should surely be a given? Statistics show that women are much more likely to go to university than men, are more likely to complete their studies but are less likely after graduation to be in “highly skilled” employment. Furthermore, male graduates earn at least 9% more than women when they start work, and a staggering 31% more than women after 9 years of employment*. Equitable status between men and women in the workplace doesn’t get any better when we look at the numbers of women who make it into senior positions. In 2021 the 30% Club (formed in 2010, with the aim of achieving 30% female board representation in listed companies) identified that the FTSE 100 had just 8 female CEOs,16 female CFOs and that Women of Colour fared even worse with board representation at 5.4%. When these statistics are viewed in concert with those reflecting the number of women who left work (1 in 10), reduced their hours, or didn’t apply for a promotion as identified in a survey*** published in April 2022 by the Fawcett Society, it appears that women aren’t necessarily finding it that easy to thrive in the workplace at any level.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published new rules with regard to listed companies having to be more publicly transparent about ethnic and gender diversity of their boards. So, for example requiring 40% of the board to be women, ensuring that at least one senior board position (CEO, CFO) is held by a woman and that at least one member of the board should be from a non-white ethnic minority. The FCA has the power to fine companies, however such fines would only relate to the provision of transparent data as opposed to the actual implementation of greater gender and ethnicity diversity on said boards, again not necessarily legislation implemented to give women (irrespective of who they work for) the chance to thrive in the workplace.

Given the demographics of women in the workforce, and specifically those that are of perimenopausal and menopausal age (circa 9m women) the Fawcett survey also reported that 80% of survey respondents said that their employer had not put in place any interventions to support them during the menopause. The wide range of menopause symptoms, differing severity and frequency from which women may suffer them, means that it’s not possible to have a “one size fits all solution” and organisations should look to address menopause via a number of routes. Successful employer interventions include strategies such as culture change; training, education, and professional advice on menopause; adaption of HR policies such as flexible working, sickness and absenteeism and incorporating menopause support into employee assistance programmes or making environmental changes, such as the provision of desk fans or redesigned uniforms. If we think about it logically, a number of these interventions potentially span the wider issue of creating a work environment that allows women to thrive and be equitable with their male counterparts. Organisation wide culture change has to be driven by the senior team, often supported by the training and education of managers, who in turn help foster cultural shifts within their teams and amongst colleagues. Changes in employment law, determined by legislation such as the 2010 Equality Act, have ensured that sex, race, pregnancy/maternity are now just three of the nine protected characteristics that women no longer have to fear in terms of workplace discrimination and unequitable behaviour from less than scrupulous employers.

True equity in the workplace leads to a harmonious culture, a good mixture of skills and experience, increased staff retention and reduced staff attrition, evidence that it makes great organisational sense for both men and women to feel valued and treated equally.

* House of Commons Library Research briefing – Equality of Access & Outcomes of Higher education in England, January 2023
**House of Commons Library Research Briefing – Women and the UK economy, March 2022
***Menopause And the Workplace – Fawcett Society, April 2022