Still here, still peri/menopausal...

So here we are at the start of November, the wonderful flurry of activity, workshops, webinars, community events and more that menopause awareness month brought us has receded into a pre-Halloween memory.

And...those of us who are peri/menopausal still have our symptoms the other 11 months of the year. Still need support, understanding, and an organizational culture that creates the psychological safety we need to share our stories, struggles, and successes.

Almost one-third of UK workers say they’ve quit a job because of a negative workplace culture, according to a new survey by the CMI that underlines the risks of managers failing to rein in toxic behaviour.

And according to a survey of 2,000 women by Evernow , 65% of respondents felt their needs are overlooked, and are concerned about experiencing ageism if they speak openly about their experience with menopause.

Research by MetLife UK in 2022 revealed that two thirds of those who have experienced, or are currently experiencing, perimenopause or menopause, say they are too uncomfortable to talk to their manager about how their symptoms are impacting them at work.

If managers don't understand how menopause impacts someone in their team, and they don't feel empowered and educated to have supportive conversations, guess what happens...? I'm delighted to say that our new self-directed online courses for line managers will be launching before the end of 2024 - if you'd like to find out more please drop me a DM.

Having worked for several decades in academic research, it pleases me greatly that I still get to read (and cite) scientific research articles. This analysis by Tatiana Rowson PhD, SFHEA, CMBE et al was a fascinating exploration of how the portrayal of menopause in the UK media has changed over time, and how the skew towards the negative compounds stigma in the workplace - here's a snippet from their article (emphasis mine):

"The results indicate increased attention to menopause and, more recently, to menopause and work. However, the narrative consistently foregrounds negative aspects associated with dysfunction, decline, and unpredictable behavior, especially around litigation. These discursive representations reinforce the stigma around menopause by constructing women at this stage of life as the dangerous other, affected by physical and mental abnormalities. For women not to be disadvantaged at work, menopause representations must be more balanced by including more positive stories."

Speaking of positive stories, this is a beautiful short animated film about peri/menopause from the talented team at FORMED FILMS CIC using the voices of real women - why not add it to your Resources list today! If you don't already have a 'Further Resources' list for your employees, drop me a line and I will send you one.

I recently delivered a session for Taylor & Francis on gendered ageism in the workplace - something that I would dearly love to do more of, so if your organization is looking to kick off some work in that space please let me know (I find it staggering that 92% of organizations do not include ageism in their DEI strategies).

A big thank you to Fiona Counsell PhD for this lovely testimonial:

"The colleague-run-network I help to run at Taylor & Francis, Women in Publishing, were looking to find a speaker to help us cover the topic of the intersection of Age & Gender in the workplace. From our first approach Emma was brilliant. She listened to our ideas, engaged with them in a thoughtful way and was able to build on them to craft a fantastic session titled 'Is gendered ageism one of the least examined piece of the diversity and inclusion jigsaw puzzle?'.

Working with Emma through the pre-session admin was really easy, she was really responsive and available. We had to reschedule the session due to a major event within the company and she was really understanding and flexible. On the day we had some technical difficulties at our end and Emma was so professional and was able to adapt her session on the fly to fit into the time available.

The session content was excellent, totally fit the brief and exceeded expectations of the network and colleagues who joined the session. Emma's slides were great but it was her engaged delivery, command of the material, and the seamless way with which she wove together the different aspects of the topic which really impressed. The feedback from colleagues to the session has been excellent. With an aging workforce and multi-generational workplaces, ageism is an important topic for employers and ERGs to be thinking about and Emma is an excellent partner to work with."

If you haven't already heard it, then I encourage you to spend half an hour this week listening to my interview with Dr Lucy Ryan , author of "Revolting Women: Why midlife women are walking out and what to do about it" here: https://middlingalong.com/episodes/middling-along-dr-lucy-ryan-on-why-so-many-midlife-women-are-revolting/

And last, but definitely not least, I'm excited to be working on a collaboration with Holly Whelan, PhD on which more soon - but if you want a sneak peak and a chance to be involved with our pilot...you know where to find me!

Emma