INTHEBLACK October 2021 - Magazine - Page 39
AT A G L A N C E
Workplace policies around
menopause are rare and
typically only found in
Australia and the UK.
Research indicates that about
45 per cent of women consider
retirement or an extended
break from work when going
through menopause.
Many women cite fear of
discrimination and a lack of
understanding and support
from their workplaces as
primary concerns.
EMPOWERING
CHANGE
F E W W O R K P L A C E S H AV E P O L I C I E S R E L AT E D T O M E N O PA U S E . H O W E V E R ,
M O R E E M P L O Y E R S A R E N O W S TA R T I N G T O S E E T H AT S U P P O R T I N G W O M E N
T H R O U G H T H E T R A N S I T I O N B E N E F I T S N O T O N LY T H E I R S TA F F M E M B E R S , B U T
T H E B O T T O M L I N E AS W E L L .
STORY SUSAN MULDOWNEY
W
hen Kim Lion began to experience
symptoms of menopause in her late
40s, she did what very few women in
the workforce would even consider
doing – she told her boss.
“He was the CEO, and he’d only been in the
role for a couple of weeks,” says Lion, head of
culture and leadership at IPG Mediabrands.
“I thought that even saying the word ‘menopause’
at work would make me stumble, but I wanted to
do it for the sake of other women experiencing it
and for the sake of our future workforce.
“I told him that it was affecting me, and that
I believed we needed to take a position as an
organisation. Basically, I presented it as a
business case.”
Lion’s timing could not have been better.
The ageing profile of labour markets in many
industrialised countries coincides with an increase
in women’s workforce participation and a growing
push among organisations to pursue diversity, equity
and inclusion initiatives.
Women over the age of 50 now represent an
increasingly large portion of the workforce. Data
from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, for
instance, shows the employment-to-population ratio
for 65-year-old women in 2020 was 35.6 per cent.
This compares to just 7 per cent in 1980 and about
10 per cent in 2000.
To support the contribution – and longevity –
of women in the workplace, attitudes towards
“the change” will simply need to change.
intheblack.com October 2021 39