Fifty-one per cent of the population will experience menopause; around a third of women – 13 million – are estimated to either be going through or have gone through it. Yet like so many aspects of female health and wellbeing – from pregnancy to conditions such as endometriosis and childbirth – menopause is stigmatised, under-researched and its symptoms undertreated thanks to the sexism and ageism directed at middle-aged and older women.
So the new guidance for employers, published last week by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), on their legal obligations to female employees in relation to menopause is to be welcomed, although we must be alive to the risks that, without a broader campaign to change attitudes towards older women, there is a risk it could play into harmful societal stereotypes about women in the workplace.
