I have written repeatedly over the years about how differences between women and men impact the chronic issue of women and leadership. (“Chronic” in that the numbers of leaders who are women remains everywhere far below the number of leaders who are men.) Specifically, I have pointed out how women who are pregnant, and women who breastfeed, often change. They change physiologically and they change psychologically – which means they change in ways that affect them not only at home but at work.
Now there is evidence that these sorts of changes are not confined to women of childbearing age. They apply to women who are older – roughly between the ages of 45 and 60 – as well. A high percentatge suffer symptoms associated with menopause including but not limited to hot flashes, night sweats, and mood swings. As a recent study conducted by the world-class Mayo Clinic concluded, “Menopausal symptoms … occur in more than 75% of women during the transition though menopause. Such symptoms can be frequent, protracted, refractory to management, distressing and incapacitating.”*
As a subject of discussion menopause is generally thought taboo. Women as well as men remain reluctant to attribute any intrusion on their capacity to perform, especially at work, based on changes that could be related to age. Still, the Mayo Clinic study is the largest of its kind – more than 4,000 women participated – ever conducted in the United States. It further found 1) that menopause costs American women an estimated $1.8 billion in lost working time per year; 2) that roughly 15% or respondants reported “adverse work outcomes” related to the affects of menopause; and 3) that women who reported the most severe symptoms were 16 times more likely to report negative consequences than those who reported the least severe symptoms.**
The Mayo Clinic study did not link the impact of symptoms of menopause to women who either do lead or aspire to lead. But it seems reasonable to conclude that who we are and how we feel, physically and mentally, affects not only what we do and how we do it, but what we want to do. I have long maintained that one of the many reasons women lead less often than men is because they are different. Physiologically and psychologically different. The new findings on menopause seem further to support this claim.
*Karl A. Nath, In the Limelight: May 2023 – Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
**Also see this article: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/28/well/live/menopause-symptoms-work-women.html