Dr Louise Pendry of Exeter University talks to  Ceri Wheeldon of Fab after Fifty about positive and constructive ways to manage the menopause in the workplace, based on her experience of setting up a menopause cafe, and putting together a menopause guidance policy for her own workplace.

Full transcript is available on next page.

Dr Louise Pendry can be contacted via her university email address [email protected]

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Full transcript:

Interview with Dr Louise Pendry on Managing the Menopause in the Workplace and the Benefits of a Menopause Cafe

[00:01:08] Hello. And today, I'm so pleased to have with me my guest, Dr. Louis Pendry, who is a senior lecturer in psychology at  Exeter University, and who specializes in stereotyping and prejudice. Hello, Louise, and welcome to the podcast.

 

[00:01:23] Hello and thank you very much for having me.

 

[00:01:26] Can you expand a little bit on the sort of a study that you do and the lectures that you give,

 

[00:01:34] Well, over the years, I have been looking at a general topic of stereotyping and prejudice, and it was the subject of my p_h_d_ many years ago.  Now I'm looking at when people stereotype, why they stereotype and how to overcome stereotyping. And over the years, I've done that looking at lots of different stereotype groups. So things to do with gender, ethnicity, age to some extent. But I think it's only in the last few years as I've got older myself that I've started to focus in a little bit more specifically on the issues around ageism and age stereotyping. And I think because I've just recently hit 50 myself, it's just become a topic of interest to me at a personal level as well as at an academic level. So now I've refined my teaching somewhat and then I'm moving more towards teaching a little bit more on the issues around getting older and the positives, the negatives around getting older and what we can all do to age positively and well, I suppose. And just understanding that the issues that my students who are only age 18 are facing already with a negative view of an age that they've kind of grown up in internalized over many years. And that's the sort of dialogue that I want to have with them right now.

 

[00:02:40] And I guess in many respects, menopause fits into that, doesn't it? Especially with the menopause, women being the fastest growing demographic in the workplace and on menopause is something which we experience as we age.

 

[00:02:52] Definitely. So we find ourselves in a kind of double whammy where we are getting older, which we all do. And we are. Some of us, not all of us are experiencing some changes that go along with menopause. And sometimes that can affect the way that we feel about the way that we're doing our job and just wanting to do the best job that we can. Just wanting to understand ways that we can manage that transition to make it as positive as we can, both for ourselves and the organizations within which we work and our colleagues. Really.

 

[00:03:20] How did you specifically get involved in the menopause initiative at your university?

 

[00:03:25] Well, I think I was just doing a lot of reading, as I generally do, and I just started to think about how great my employer is in terms of its family friendly policies. When I had my kids, it was fantastic in terms of part time working and just making adjustments for having kids. And it's absolutely brilliant. And it just dawned on me that when it came to this phase of my life, I would have had a fairly positive experience myself. I haven't had too many issues. But nonetheless, just looking around at what support was available until very recently, we didn't seem to have very much in the way of a policy or guidance information to help women and also those who are working alongside women manage this transition in their lives. So what happened was I just wrote a letter to the provost at my university to that effect, just said how great we are at the younger and what can