Who would've believed that ?
Menopause is about to become THE new subject of women's empowerment.
The idea: to change the outlook on this often complicated period of their lives, and to encourage companies to better support them in a moment which is also a moment of power, the one when they access the highest positions.
The fight is big.
In the United States, Hollywood stars – Angelina Jolie, Naomi Watts and Gwyneth Paltrow in the lead – speak of their own experience, of how they fought or “made do with” the loss of confidence, the disabling effects… Michelle Obama made it a key point of his speeches.
And in the United Kingdom, many figures from the economic world are taking a strong position on the subject, asking companies to adjust their schedules and provide dedicated training.
To discover
The keys to supporting women in their working lives
Scandals
Podcast
: Gwyneth Paltrow, the strange guru from the Upper East Side
LISTEN TO THE EPISODE
France late?
The media world is not left out: journalist Lorraine Kelly delivered her own testimony on air, when Davina McCall, presenter of the reality TV show “Big Brother”, devoted two documentaries to it, and Alex Mahon , boss of Channel 4, implemented the first dedicated HR policy, in 2019, within her channel.
These pioneers earned a nickname: “
menopause warriors”
.
Their message is clear: with the right support, women can transform the post-50 period into a time of fulfillment and power.
Also readLeaving a perfect job, falling in love again, going back to school... 50, the new age of possibilities
Meanwhile, in France, where one in two women will be menopausal in 2050, the debate is progressing slowly.
Many people suffer in secret, hampered in their lives and careers by symptoms that are still poorly recognized.
Several books published in recent months are raising awareness and offering new tools to raise awareness and take action.
How ?
An update with Laetitia Vitaud, researcher specializing in the world of work, one of the rare experts to speak clearly on this subject.
Madame Figaro
.
– The consideration, in the company, of certain subjects linked to women's well-being continues to progress.
However, there is a delay on the issue of menopause.
For what
?
Lætitia Vitaud.
–
In France, activist actions relating to periods or maternity have enabled societal progress, such as the reduction of VAT on hygienic protection, the consideration of endometriosis from a medical point of view and in the world work.
The issue of menopause has only been addressed for two or three years, but we are still very far from it.
It remains a big taboo in the company, and struggles to make its way into CSR policies
(corporate social responsibility, Editor's note)
and discussions on the quality of life at work.
Women never talk about it themselves because, very often, it leads to them being stigmatized or discriminated against.
Therefore, they dare not ask anything.
Hot flashes, depression, problems sleeping, concentrating, exhaustion… How disabling are the symptoms of menopause at work
?
A study published on the occasion of World Menopause Day, on October 18, revealed that 82% of respondents considered leaving their job because of these symptoms.
Among them, 12% actually did so.
And almost all of the women surveyed (90%) said they experience these symptoms at work, causing them to struggle.
They sometimes have to go home, or take days off, and when they do, the overwhelming majority do not dare to give the real reason for their absence.
Also read: Live better, work less... How to pass the 50-year mark at work?
How can we change the culture
so that menopause no longer means “expired” in the collective imagination, or the eyes of colleagues
?
In the United Kingdom, it has been around ten years since human resources managers took up the subject: suggesting through tendentious remarks that menopause coincides with the idea of a woman's expiration date is one thing. absolutely impossible.
Conversely, we remember that here, in France, a CNews editorialist had described the ecologist Sandrine Rousseau as “menopausal Greta Thunberg” during the primaries – a way of disqualifying the candidate.
In Anglo-Saxon countries, women attack more for discrimination.
This is not why they are not victims.
In France, when we detail the reasons for cases of harassment and discrimination at the industrial tribunal, we find maternity at the top of the list, but also this presumed link between occurrence of symptoms and less productivity.
Menopause and motherhood are the two times in life when women are particularly vulnerable.
In the company, those over 50 feel pushed towards the exit and all the arguments are good to encourage them to do so.
Career development shouldn't be reserved for twenty- and thirty-somethings.
Exactly, how can we take this period into account without making it a discriminating factor
?
To get things done, figures, models, incarnation are important.
We could see this with cancer: personalities from the business world spoke out, which had a strong impact on how to better integrate the illness into work.
The podcast
The End of Rules
(
by Aude Hayot, Editor’s note
) has this virtue.
Women come to talk about menopause, even if we feel that they are on guard.
Fortunately, feminist thought helps to advance these subjects, by naming things, by continuing to document them intellectually and without taboo.
But it is important that public figures, with strong symbolic power, speak about it, in order to truly change views on this issue.
Also read: Charlotte Montpezat: “At 50, like when you are a teenager, you have to look for what you want to do with the rest of your life”
What measures would make it possible to better support women
?
Organizations are undoubtedly more mature today to bring menopause out of the invisibility in which it was.
A few simple arrangements – more flexible hours, holidays, air-conditioned work or rest rooms, etc. – could work miracles.
Even more important would be to make fifty-somethings more visible in the company, to offer opportunities for growth, mobility and training to women who often experience this period of life as a professional turning point.
When they understand that we are ready to capitalize on their potential, employees experience this turning point much more peacefully.
After all, when the majority of women are menopausal, they have between 15 and 20 years of active life ahead of them, they do not or no longer have the responsibility of young children, and find more time available.
Career development shouldn't be reserved for twenty- and thirty-somethings.
Also read “My whole life, everything has revolved around my husband’s career”: at 50, these former stay-at-home mothers who return to work
And from a medical point of view
?
More precise information on symptoms would make it possible to advance the change in mentalities in the professional environment.
The very negative medical discourse on hormonal treatments has led many women to abandon them, which means that today, many of them suffer from osteoporosis, fractures and heart problems.
Information should circulate at the same pace as scientific knowledge, even if this is done against lobbies.
Doctors, including some gynecologists, are still poorly trained on menopause.
Very often women consult and are prescribed antidepressants, instead of hormonal tests.
The medical world itself is lagging behind.