The impact of the menopause on the progression of women into senior leadership roles

We are working with Standard Chartered Bank and the Financial Services Skills Commission on a research project to explore how the menopause transition affects the progression of women into senior roles in the Financial Services Industry.

While the experience of the menopause transition is different for every woman, previous research has identified common symptoms of the transition such as hot flushes, migraines, and depression. How these symptoms affect women’s economic participation is not fully understood, but there is strong evidence that experiencing these symptoms present challenges for women in work and can result in lower productivity and job satisfaction, greater absence rates due to illness – and for some women, a reduction in working hours or an exit from the workforce.

This project aims to understand the effect of the menopause transition on the progression of women through the Financial Services Industry and identify how employers can intervene to tackle barriers to progression and support women experiencing the transition.

We will achieve these aims by:

• Surveying employees in the Financial Services Industry to understand the experiences of employees going through the menopause transition compared to their colleagues
• Reviewing good practice and recommendations in supporting employees through the menopause transition
• Testing recommendations with current and former employees through focus groups and interviews.

We will work from an intersectional approach which analyses and challenges the ways that differently positioned women experience the menopause transition, for example on the basis of their ethnicity.

Find out more about the project here.