Menopause and the Workplace:
What should we know and what can we do?
Friday 18 October 2024
12 pm – 1 pm, online
On World Menopause Day, IPause, Women in IP and IP Ability came together to present a webinar focused on the intersection of these three communities in relation to employment law and human resources.
Menopause isn’t an individual protected characteristic under UK law, but menopause-related symptoms, even when controlled with medication and lifestyle, can last for many years and have a substantial impact on ability to work for some of those experiencing (peri)menopause.
A recent report found that amongst women aged 40-60 in the UK, 17% had considered leaving work and 6% had actually left work, because of a lack of support in relation to their menopause-related symptoms (CIPD, 2023*).
This webinar explained how UK law covers and protects those experiencing (peri)menopause, including a look at some recent case law defining whether peri(menopause) can be classified as a disability. After exploring how the law applies, we discussed its practical effects, in particular the types of adjustments we can make in workplaces to better support those experiencing symptoms.
During a Q&A portion of the webinar, there was an opportunity to ask questions of our expert speakers.
Meet the speakers
The event was chaired by Jane Wainwright, IPause committee lead, and Yelena Morozova from the Women in IP committee. Our guest speakers were Natalie Ward, Employment Law Partner at Thrings LLP and Debbie Cooke from the IPO.
Natalie Ward, Partner, Thrings
Natalie advises across a wide variety of sectors, covering all aspects of contentious and non-contentious employment law, with a view to offering clients’ senior management and HR teams pro-active advice and improved risk management for their businesses. Natalie advises extensively on management of capability and ill health issues, redundancy and collective consultations, disciplinary and grievance procedures, discrimination, employment tribunal litigation and outsourcing issues. She regularly provides corporate support work on acquisitions and disposals involving TUPE.
Who was it for?
This event was for all UK-based IP professionals. Everyone was welcome and everyone could benefit from the learnings, regardless of age, gender or professional role.
Follow-up resources
You can watch a recording of the panel part of the webinar here:
Cost
This event was free. So are all our resources. We think it’s important to keep IP Inclusive on the right side of the paywall. That said, we do need money to keep the show on the road, so if you enjoyed the event, please consider contributing to our 2024-25 fundraising campaign via our Just Giving page. For more information – including about corporate donations – visit our fundraising page.
Other resources
You may also be interested in our IPause playlist on YouTube, which features recording of all our menopause related webinars, and our series of podcasts featuring Menopause Stories: