"After 50, too many women reduce their working hours, become trapped in lower-quality jobs, or exit the labor market altogether. Part-time employment becomes more prevalent as women age. The gender gap widens. For women, this means lower lifetime earnings and significantly smaller pensions. Many are calling this phenomenon the " menopause penalty "-a midlife equivalent of the motherhood penalty. And indeed, research suggests that women's earnings drop in the years following a menopause diagnosis."
"Midlife is often the most demanding phase of women's lives. Menopause tends to coincide with a series of other "life shocks" that disproportionately affect women. Caregiving responsibilities intensify: aging parents begin to need support, while many women are still helping children or even grandchildren. The " sandwich generation " is squeezed between upward and downward care. Meanwhile, serious health risks increase-including breast cancer and chronic illness."
Menopause contributes to reduced work hours, increased part-time employment, lower-quality jobs, labor-market exits, and widening gender gaps in earnings and pensions for women over 50. Multiple concurrent midlife pressures amplify economic setbacks, including intensified caregiving for aging parents and grandchildren, increased health risks such as breast cancer and chronic illness, divorce, and bereavement. Workplace ageism and organizational inflexibility compound these effects, producing lasting exhaustion, concentration difficulties, and financial harm. Attributing outcomes solely to biology risks medicalizing social and organizational failures. Effective responses require attention to caregiving supports, workplace policies, and structural inequalities, not only medical interventions.
Read at Fast Company
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