In January BU’s Menopause peer support network invited me to speak about Resilience, Advocacy and Wellbeing. The group is open to BU staff and is growing by the month: currently 95 women are sharing materials and experiences of the different stages of menopause, including peri menopause and surgical menopause. Monthly topical meetings are facilitated online and in person, offering a safe space to learn, reflect or just have a chat.
The network seeks to share the different experiences women have and how the psychosocial and biological changes are impacting on women in the BU workplace- from professional support staff to academics and leaders.
My research, based on my PhD studies and teaching on the Continues Professional Development (CPD) unit RAW- Resilience, Advocacy and Wellbeing resonated with the group:
The data collected from 18 female leaders in Health and Social Care in June 2022 showed great synergies between stress and menopause related symptoms. The participants shared their experiences of disrupted sleep patterns, physical pain and tensions, brain fog and hot flushes, which all impacted on their performance at work. Many of the women had significant caring responsibilities outside of their leadership roles, looking after young children as well as older relatives which added to their emotional and physical ‘workload’.
Sharing the findings with the network, offered a space to reflect and consider how we a presenting, are seen and heard as women in our personal and professional lives. We explored ‘recipes for performance’ and discussed how organisational cultures and professional safety nets can support women in menopause in the workplace.
Self-care and self-advocacy are strategies to claim and maintain resilience, however as women we often put others and their needs before our own wellbeing- be it in personal or professional roles.
Enabling flexible working patterns to allow a work/life balance, trusting staff to do their job well and kind and compassionate working cultures to increase performance and enhance resilience, where themes I identified in the data.
Being able to share my findings with the network has offered me the space to reflect on my own experiences as a woman and how excited I am to be able to make impact with my research. The national drive to make workplaces more inclusive and recognising that women may need support and reasonable adjustments to remain in the job, is relevant to academia and practice.
