From Davina to the Countess of Wessex, finally people are starting to talk about the menopause and it’s about time too.  Despite the indisputable fact that every woman will go through it, there is a shocking lack of awareness and understanding of what the menopause is and the impact it can have on a woman’s life – physically and psychologically, both at home and at work.  Our recent survey conducted in partnership with Britain Thinks, showed that half the population agreed Menopause was still a taboo and that only 1 in 4 women felt prepared for it.

I am constantly frustrated by the lack of support from our industry which seems to fail to recognise the power of middle-aged women both in the workplace and in the creative work itself.  I’ve asked myself what is the reason behind the industry’s menopause malaise?  Afterall, there is a whole industry around the male midlife crisis so why can’t we talk about the power and pain of menopause?

It probably starts with the lack of representation in the industry itself, there simply aren’t enough middle-aged, menopausal women working in the industry. According to a Guardian report in 2008, just 3.6% of the world’s creative directors were women.  By 2016, it had only risen to 11%. The IPA’s Agency Census 2020 shows that the percentage of women in C-suite positions has fallen from 34% in 2019 to 32.4% in 2020.  That’s a snapshot of all women. The percentage of men and women aged 51-60 working in agencies is 5.1%, aged over 61, 0.8%. I’ve not been able to find data on the number of middle-aged women working in creative and media but can only imagine that it’s a lot less than 5%. 

In our survey, 67% of the menopausal women interviewed agreed that a woman’s experience of the menopause can negatively impact her career and 77% her performance at work. This could be a combination of both the physical and emotional symptoms which can lead to women feeling too tired, losing confidence in their abilities, feeling overwhelmed, convinced they’re underperforming, until removing themselves from the situation to go part-time or quit entirely feels like their only option.

Breaking the silence

This reluctance to discuss the menopause (at home as well as at work) is also wrapped up in ageism.  We live in an ageist society that venerates youth so by sharing her menopausal status, a woman is linking herself to an important marker in the ageing process – that she is nearing the end of her fertility, and I wonder if there is something conscious or subconscious coming into play at this point about a woman’s value in society when she can no longer bear children.

As a consequence, when middle aged/menopausal women are represented, it is too often in an ageist and stereotypical way, with their symptoms such as hot flushes or mood changes, the butt of jokes or discussed in a sexist and derogatory way … it’s like the menopause version of Logan’s Run (for those that can remember the show!). A survey by UK by UM in 2018 found older women feel stereotyped in advertising with 61% of menopausal women agreeing society expects them to vanish from public life as they get older.  And a report by L’Oreal found despite 40% of women being over 50 (the fastest growing demographic), over 50s represent only 15% of the women we see in the media.  Is it any wonder that so many women are reluctant to discuss what they are going through, or ask for the help and support they need whether at home or at work?

While there has been some welcome new product innovation- in beauty in particular - historically much product development, including in health care, has been developed and designed with reference to the average male. Just think how much attention (and funding) has been poured into issues such as erectile dysfunction. There is a woeful lack of evidence in many areas of female health including the whole reproduction cycle from the onset of periods through to menopause.  In fact, DHSC (department for health and social care) has opened a call for evidence as part of its Women’s Health Strategy and I would urge every woman to complete their survey before the 14 June deadline https://consultations.dhsc.gov.uk/talkwomenshealth. 

So, there are green shoots pointing to change, but there is still a very long way to go.  Despite some much needed ‘marketing moments for menopause’ we need more than this – we need a movement to make the menopause mainstream, with the creative, communications, products and services that provide women with the support they need and deserve.

Changing the narrative

Let’s start by reframing the menopause and reframing what it means to be middle aged. Over the last century the average life expectancy for a woman has increased considerably – in 1921 life expectancy at birth for a woman was 59 years and she went through the menopause at 57.One hundred years later, the average woman in her 50s can expect to live to 87 years and she’ll go through the menopause at 51. What this means is that ever more of a woman’s life will be lived postmenopausal (36 years, or 40% of the life of today’s average 50-something woman). Who wants to be written off when the second half of life is still ahead?  Our research showed that women who were prepared for the menopause had better outcomes and were more likely to agree that menopause can be a positive change. 

A movement starts with engagement of men and women of all ages- the menopause is everyone’s business. Build on this with education – using evidence-based information and advice on what the menopause is, when it happens, the symptoms and the range of different ways to treat them (myth-busting on HRT in particular is needed).  We need to encourage women to proactively invest in their physical and mental wellbeing, and not to wait to take action because ‘their symptoms are not bad enough’ to do something about.

And we need to look at this holistically - as leaders looking at employment practices (e.g. developing and implementing a menopause policy) and as creatives in the creative work itself, including the representation, characterisation and language we use (could we please stop using the term ‘anti-ageing’ – ageing is a natural part of life!). 

Our industry can be a force for good in driving this movement to make the menopause mainstream – I’d love to see us harness our collective creativity, ingenuity and energy to look at how we increase the representation of middle-aged women in the industry itself, as well as how we show how women can thrive, and not just survive, through the menopause and beyond.