While Japan is another country that has begun to confront the issue, elsewhere this swelling demographic group has yet to draw adequate attention. In the U.S., menopause in the workplace isn’t part of the conversation.
Economic Impact
On the eve of the Covid-19 crisis, employment among 50-to-64 year-olds in the U.K. was 73%, the highest since records began in 1975. The number of women has grown almost twice as fast as men, with the female state-pension age raised and more of them working longer to make ends meet after the financial crisis.
The economic impact during the pandemic on this group of women was worse than in any major crisis period since the 1980s, a report by the Resolution Foundation think tank found. Many of the women forced to quit their jobs may have been in “precarious or low-paid work—or have taken on debts during the pandemic—so this will have a knock-on effect,” said Nikki Pound of the U.K. Trades Union Congress.
Even before the pandemic, menopause was driving some women out of the workforce. A 2019 survey—released in May—conducted by BUPA and cited by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, or CIPD, a London-based association for human resource management professionals, reckoned almost 900,000 women in the U.K. left their jobs over an undefined period of time because of menopausal symptoms. Left unsupported, women will be leaving “at the peak of their experience” and will “impact productivity,” said the CIPD’s Rachel Suff.
With women in that age group likely to be eligible for senior management roles, their exit can dent C-suite diversity. It also contributes to the gender pay-gap and feeds into a disparity in pensions, said Jo Brewis, a professor at the Open University.
Big Difference
The CIPD found that three in five menopausal women were negatively affected at work. Many don’t disclose symptoms to a male or younger manager, according to a 2017 U.K. government report. Unlike pregnancy, menopause is not commonplace in HR policy, it said.
At Severn Trent, efforts to address the menopause question began with removing the British stiff upper lip in conversations about the topic. The second phase included flexible hours and better access to washrooms and fans.
“Small changes can make a really big difference,” said the CIPD’s Suff.
Other companies with female leaders, including Alex Mahon, 45, chief executive of Channel 4, and Emma Walmsley, 52, chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline, have introduced similar measures. The drugs giant, half of whose female employees are over 45, established a menopause support group at its global headquarters in the U.K. in 2019.
“From a standing start of five years ago—when there was absolutely nothing in the U.K.—we’ve made progress,” said Deborah Garlick, founder of Henpicked: Menopause in the Workplace, which offers training on the issue.
Women can now bring menopause-related cases for age or sex discrimination under the 2010 Equality Act. At BlackRock Inc., the world’s biggest fund manager, executive Rachel Lord backed a petition calling on the U.K. government to mandate that employers with more than 250 workers have menopause policies. London Mayor Sadiq Khan added the idea of “menopause leave” in his re-election campaign manifesto. It’s set to be introduced at City Hall in the coming months.
“Employers need to wake up in order to minimize their legal and reputational risk,” said Emma Clark, employment partner at Keystone Law.
Meanwhile, Garfield—one of a handful of female CEOs at Britain’s 100 biggest companies—is calling on women to speak up rather than throw in the towel.
“Be clear if you’ve had a rubbish night’s sleep, because there will be lots of other women going through exactly the same thing,” she said.
—With assistance from Yuko Takeo, Andrew Atkinson and Thomas Hall.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.