Why Are So Many Women Quietly Stepping Back at the Height of Their Careers?
Something is not adding up.
At the very point where experience, confidence and leadership maturity should be accelerating careers, many women are doing the opposite. They are reducing hours, declining opportunities and stepping away altogether.
Not because they lack ambition or capability, but because an invisible shift is happening that the workplace is still not equipped to understand.
Menopause is not being managed as a workplace reality. It is being minimised as a personal inconvenience.
Across the UK, research shows thousands of women are leaving jobs or scaling back due to unmanaged symptoms, from brain fog and anxiety to disrupted sleep and loss of confidence. But for Black women and women of colour, the experience runs deeper.
Findings from the UCL EGA Institute for Women's Health highlight that many Black women feel dismissed, unheard or even fearful when seeking support. Some describe “medical condescension,” others speak of having to self-diagnose just to be taken seriously.
Now place that reality inside the workplace.
You are expected to lead, perform and deliver, while navigating a system that does not fully see you, medically or professionally. Cultural silence, bias and the pressure to appear “strong” leave little room for honesty. So many women do what they have always done.
“They carry on. Quietly. Until they cannot.”
So the question is not whether menopause is impacting performance. It is whether organisations can afford to keep ignoring it.
Join the conversation here.
#YouBelongHere #WomenInLeadership #MenopauseAtWork #menopause
