Menopause Workplace Rights rejected by UK Parliament (in which lies a Significant Irony…)
Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash
WELL COLOUR ME SURPRISED
UK Parliament has just rejected a number of major proposals regarding the rights of menopausal people in the workplace.
These include:
The right to take menopause leave from work - denied
Menopause to be included in the Equality Act as a protected characteristic - denied
GPs to have mandatory training around menopause - denied
One of their reasons is that such measures might increase discrimination against men. 😶
For digested responses, go here: BBC news; Women & Equalities Committee report; Anna Colivicchi in Pulse; Guardian (report by Jamie Grierson); Zoe Williams column in the Guardian. (The full government response is here.)
AFTER ALL THAT WORK!
A lot of people (myself included - go here and put search for ‘Glyde’ or ‘MEW0087’) submitted evidence to the parliamentary committee on menopause in the workplace, in person and in writing. All that time given, all those stories, all the committee hours, all those experienced and well informed people giving their views and explaining things over and over.
It all got a great big LOL NOPE founded in ageism and misogyny.
LIKELY OUTCOMES
I am sure there will be appeals, but in the meantime we can only speculate on the potential outcomes from this. For a start, many managers will feel renewed entitlement to ride roughshod over menopausal people’s workplace needs, gaslighting them all the while, and reminding them that they have no rights under the Equality Act.
And those GPs who have a mind to (ie those in most need of updating their training) will continue in their outdated and harmful responses to desperate patients. (I was reading yet another horror story only this morning, where someone’s GP was dismissing them while being factually wrong.)
SO When will everyone who experiences menopause be treated equally?
Progress has been halted, at least temporarily, so what hope for an inclusive approach? You’ll note I’ve used the word ‘people’ in this post. After four years of working in this area I know that, while we have made some great progress which I’m proud of, getting some folks and organisations in the mainstream to be inclusive around menopause - and respect what I and others have been saying - is proving to be a challenge.
You will still see the word ‘women’ being used exclusively by some very visible people and organisations, as well as by people who are putting out informational material and offering menopause education. They may well be doing good work amplifying menopause as a topic, but they are still not listening to the rest of us.
Some folks out there are absolutely interested in change for sure, but they need to walk the walk - and that starts with shifting the language.
And HERE’S THE THING…
You will be aware of the increasing stranglehold that transphobia has on our media, politics and institutions. Every time you think it couldn’t get any worse, it does. It’s acutely painful, on a number of levels, to witness so many high profile, mostly white, cis women begging the world to rescue them from trans people, particularly trans women. They aren drawing a huge amount of attention to themselves while all around us fascism, racism and patriarchy continue to proliferate.
In the menopause world, some may genuinely believe they are protecting women by insisting that only cis women can have a menopause, and that using the word ‘people’ somehow erases women’s experience.
So here’s the kicker. You would think that they had learned by now that if you appeal to patriarchy to save you it will play you for a while and then smash you to the ground.
And here we are. Proposals denied. As a friend of mine often says, things are working exactly as they are intended to. (But we are offered a menopause ‘ambassador’? They are really spoiling us!)
The page turns to another chapter. Aren’t we stronger together?