Women’s health in/and work: menopause as an intersectional experience

Riach, K. and Jack, G. (2021) Women’s health in/and work: menopause as an intersectional experience. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(20), 10793. (doi: 10.3390/ijerph182010793) (PMID:34682537) (PMCID:PMC8536086)

Abstract

This paper employs an intersectional lens to explore menopausal experiences of women working in the higher education and healthcare sectors in Australia. Open-text responses from surveys across three universities and three healthcare settings were subject to a multistage qualitative data analysis. The findings explore three aspects of menopause experience that required women to contend with a constellation of aged, gendered and ableist dynamics and normative parameters of labor market participation. Reflecting on the findings, the paper articulates the challenges of menopause as issues of workplace inequality that are rendered visible through an intersectional lens. The paper holds a range of implications for how to best support women going through menopause at work. It emphasizes the need for approaches to tackle embedded and more complex modes of inequality that impact working women’s menopause, and ensure that workforce policy both protects and supports menopausal women experiencing intersectional disadvantage.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This research was partially funded by the La Trobe University Building Healthier Communities Fund and by the Department of Management, Monash University.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Riach, Professor Kathleen

Creator Roles

Riach, K.: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing, Funding acquisition

• Authors: Riach, K., and Jack, G.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Management
• Journal Name: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 1661-7827
• ISSN (Online): 1660-4601
• Published Online: 14 October 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 The Authors
• First Published: First published in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18(20): 10793
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License