Menopause in Diversity and Inclusion

Welcome to this series in which I join menopause coach Kate Usher to talk about menopause in the workplace. In this video we talk about menopause as a diversity and inclusion issue.

Menopause is often seen as a wellbeing topic rather than a diversity and inclusion issue and although it very much is about wellbeing for the women in this phase of life, it is a crucial part of Diversity and Inclusion – particularly for organisations who want to retain female talent and take steps towards closing the gender pay gap.

Psychological safety

Often when we talk about diversity and inclusion, we talk about psychological safety, which is about feeling safe to be your authentic self and speak up and feel that your views are welcomed. If the organisational culture is such that it doesn’t feel okay to be open about the fact that you’re menopausal, you may feel excluded, which, in turn, could trigger a woman’s physiological responses of fight, flight or freeze, and if it is flight, they will choose to leave the organisation, taking their experience and ability with them.

Addressing the bias

Organisations can pay attention to how biases may influence attitudes and beliefs around this phase in life. What is the underlying perspective of women in menopause? What’s the banter? Is menopause viewed with empathy or disdain? Are women encouraged to step forward and seek help or is there a culture of silence? What is the precedent? How have women been treated previously? Many organisations forget that they need to specifically support and equip their managers to be able to support the women in their teams with sensitivity and understanding.

A good starting point may be to look at organisational data. Who’s joining? Who’s leaving? When and why are they leaving? If the majority of leavers are women of menopausal age, this is a good clue to start looking at what measures need to be taken to change that.

Menopause occurs for most women just at the point that they start to focus on the big push into senior roles, which is, of course, terrible timing. 25% consider leaving and 10% do leave at this time. Many women decide to step back or step off the talent pipeline, which is bad news for both women and organisations, as it can take years to mentor an executive. If we are to gain an increase or any form of parity in women in senior positions, menopause support and awareness needs to be a cornerstone of Diversity and Inclusion.

Our top tips for how you can contribute to menopause diversity and inclusion in your organisation:

Create awareness
Start the conversation around menopause and listen to the language in your organisation. Create safe sharing spaces, listening circles, surveys & interviews. Awareness is the foundation to creating change around this subject, from the post room to the board room. If this approach is sidestepped it creates silos of awareness beyond which women cannot progress. This is not a once and done activity. Conversations around this and other subjects need to be a part of everyday discussions.

Make it part of your process
Menopause awareness needs to be part of the onboarding and annual compliance programmes, signalling to all that menopause is a supported part of life.

Provide support and training
Additional support such as coaching should be provided to women as they progress through the menopause to ensure they feel able to stay on their career trajectory. In addition to this, mentors, sponsors and line managers benefit from specific training to enable them to support women during this time..

You can connect with Kate Usher on LinkedIn.

Other videos in the series:

Video 1:
Letting Go While Managing Societal Perceptions of Ageing

Video 2:
Identifying What We Want on The Other Side of Menopause

Video 3:
Managing the Menopause with Young Children and Teenagers