While awareness of menopause is increasing, workplaces have a long way to go to properly support women during this stage of life, according to research by a Griffith University professor.

Griffith Department of Employment Relations and Human Resources Professor Ruth McPhail said the biggest barriers were lack of awareness, understanding, flexibility, policy, leadership and support.

Professor McPhail’s research includes analysing interviews of women who have been impacted by menopause in the workplace.

“I am exploring the role a person’s social capital plays in helping them through this phase of life at work. I am also supervising a PhD student Vanessa Giannos, who is exploring menopause in the boardroom and the impact of menopause on senior level careers,” Professor McPhail said.

She said the most significant, and confronting, finding is the sense of isolation felt by those women impacted.

“To know there are women in workplaces who are suffering silently, quietly leaving, or deliberately standing back due to a normal stage in a woman’s lifecycle is simply unjust,” she said.

“The role of leaders in the workplace here cannot be understated. Leaders should know what menopause is and how to help employees through this stage.

“Finally, some of my participants are now post-menopausal and they speak with great strength about how powerful and ‘in their place’ they feel now, and ready to do anything. That is the human capital we must protect through this transition.”

One of the more surprising findings has been that women do not always find support from other women.

“This could be due to some women not experiencing any symptoms of menopause, therefore being unable to empathise,” Professor McPhail said.

“In some cases, the women are much younger and so it is not relevant to them.”

In the case of one older woman, they felt the topic was ‘toilet business’ or should not be spoken about at all.

“Unsurprisingly, there was a lack of leadership talking about this policy, but most damaging was the intent to quietly disappear or become ‘invisible’ as they suffered because that’s still the culture in most workplaces,” she said.

Interest in the topic is increasing, and with recently released figures showing just how much economic value is being lost through women’s superannuation and social capital.

“All research on this topic is important. The UK could be said to have led the way in this field and indeed have moved to having a workplace standard on menopause in the workplace.

“Health in general has become more important to us as we understand the role of wellness in the workplace. Menopause is just one of the areas of health becoming more culturally visible, and others include men’s health topics too.”

Professor McPhail said she believed most workplaces want to help, but aren’t sure where to start.

“Hopefully more workplace support is on the way.”