Social politics of the menopause. How Dutch female managers experience their menopause on the work floor.

Abstract

For this thesis, three Dutch female managers were interviewed about how they experience the menopause on the work floor and which measures they would like to include into a potential menopausal policy. The interviews showed that none of the interviewees were particularly enthusiastic about the idea of a policy, which led to a closer analysis of the transcripts. I identified three power structures or "problems" that might prevent women to enhance a potential policy: the old age gap between women and men, the manner in which women’s bodies are associated with their credibility and the ignorance on women’s bodies in our current health care system. On the basis of the research I proposed three recommendations for a potential menopausal policy.