IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i20p10793-d656316.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Women’s Health in/and Work: Menopause as an Intersectional Experience

Author

Listed:
  • Kathleen Riach

    (Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK
    Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation (MCHRI), School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne 3800, Australia)

  • Gavin Jack

    (Monash Business School, Monash University, Melbourne 3145, Australia)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Kathleen Riach & Gavin Jack, 2021. "Women’s Health in/and Work: Menopause as an Intersectional Experience," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(20), pages 1-17, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:20:p:10793-:d:656316
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/20/10793/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/20/10793/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Victoria Opara & Ruth Sealy & Michelle K. Ryan, 2020. "The workplace experiences of BAME professional women: Understanding experiences at the intersection," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(6), pages 1192-1213, November.
    2. Eline Jammaers & Jannine Williams, 2021. "Care for the self, overcompensation and bodily crafting: The work–life balance of disabled people," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 119-137, January.
    3. Tessa Wright, 2013. "Uncovering sexuality and gender: an intersectional examination of women's experience in UK construction," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(8), pages 832-844, August.
    4. Clare Butler, 2020. "Managing the Menopause through ‘Abjection Work’: When Boobs Can Become Embarrassingly Useful, Again," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(4), pages 696-712, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Marianne Gjellestad & Kristin Haraldstad & Heidi Enehaug & Migle Helmersen, 2023. "Women’s Health and Working Life: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-19, January.
    2. Stefania D’Angelo & Gregorio Bevilacqua & Julia Hammond & Elena Zaballa & Elaine M. Dennison & Karen Walker-Bone, 2022. "Impact of Menopausal Symptoms on Work: Findings from Women in the Health and Employment after Fifty (HEAF) Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-12, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Juliet Elizabeth Kele & Catherine Cassell & Jacqueline Ford & Kathryn Watson, 2022. "Intersectional identities and career progression in retail: The experiences of minority‐ethnic women," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 1178-1198, July.
    2. Jenny Rodriguez & Evangelina Holvino & Joyce K. Fletcher & Stella M. Nkomo & Tessa Wright, 2016. "Women's Experience of Workplace Interactions in Male-Dominated Work: The Intersections of Gender, Sexuality and Occupational Group," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 348-362, May.
    3. Valerie Caven & Elena Navarro Astor & Vita Urbanavičienė, 2022. "Gender inequality in an “Equal” environment," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1658-1675, September.
    4. Donna Bridges & Larissa Bamberry & Elizabeth Wulff & Branka Krivokapic‐Skoko, 2022. "“A trade of one's own”: The role of social and cultural capital in the success of women in male‐dominated occupations," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 371-387, March.
    5. Loliya Akobo Kagher & Lilian Otaye‐Ebede & Beverly Metcalfe, 2021. "Black lives and bodywork matters: A postcolonial critique of gender and embodiment in Nigeria," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 1787-1804, September.
    6. Natalie Galea & Louise Chappell, 2022. "Male‐dominated workplaces and the power of masculine privilege: A comparison of the Australian political and construction sectors," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1692-1711, September.
    7. Amal Abdellatif, 2021. "Marginalized to double marginalized: My mutational intersectionality between the East and the West," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(S1), pages 58-65, January.
    8. Elizabeth Cotton & T Alexandra Beauregard & Janroj Yilmaz Keles, 2021. "Gender Equalities: What Lies Ahead," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 35(4), pages 615-620, August.
    9. Anica Zeyen & Oana Branzei, 2023. "Disabled at Work: Body-Centric Cycles of Meaning-Making," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 185(4), pages 767-810, July.
    10. Samma Faiz Rasool & Rashid Maqbool & Madeeha Samma & Yan Zhao & Amna Anjum, 2019. "Positioning Depression as a Critical Factor in Creating a Toxic Workplace Environment for Diminishing Worker Productivity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-18, May.
    11. Nkechinyelu Ann Edeh & Sarah Riley & Patrizia Kokot‐Blamey, 2022. "The production of difference and “becoming Black”: The experiences of female Nigerian doctors and nurses working in the National Health Service," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 520-535, March.
    12. Meraiah Foley & Sarah Oxenbridge & Rae Cooper & Marian Baird, 2022. "‘I’ll never be one of the boys’: Gender harassment of women working as pilots and automotive tradespeople," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1676-1691, September.
    13. Eline Jammaers, 2023. "Theorizing Discursive Resistance to Organizational Ethics of Care Through a Multi-stakeholder Perspective on Disability Inclusion Practices," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 183(2), pages 333-345, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:20:p:10793-:d:656316. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.