Delta Dental in the news: Menopause in the workplace

Fast Company: Menopause is burning up senior-level women’s careers. 4 things companies can do to keep them from burning out

Sarah Chavarria, CEO and president of Delta Dental of California, made it a point to talk about menopause once she started going through symptoms. “I started noticing that if I mentioned ‘I’m having this headache that kind of mimics my cycle,’ that it would prompt someone else to say, ‘Oh, I get those.’ I saw as a leader that I could introduce a topic that was welcomed by the women around me, but also by the men around me who have women in their lives,” Chavarria says. “I started saying, ‘Yep, today’s that down day, I’m gonna take my Dramamine and soda and let’s see if we can push through.’ That gave other people the opportunity to say, ‘Yeah, I’m not feeling okay today.’”

“I started showing up on town halls, talking about my experience and why it mattered for us to think about the impact that menopause has on our female workforce and on our male workforce who support women,” Chavarria says. “People would just hug me or put little emojis on the Zoom call and say thank you so much for making it okay to talk about this.”

In fact, talking about menopause can be seen as a leadership quality. In one study, Alicia Grandey, a professor at Pennsylvania State University, asked 240 workers to imagine they were in a meeting with a colleague going through a hot flash, fanning herself and wiping off sweat. They studied participant reactions when the women said she was just warm, versus when she explained that she was warm because she was going through menopause.

“When the woman openly disclosed that her symptoms were caused by menopause, she was seen as more confident, stable, and leader-like than when she claimed to be ‘just warm,’” Grandey writes. Interestingly, Grandey found the woman was rated as less leader-like when a colleague explained she was going through menopause. “This suggests . . . self-disclosure is critical,” Grandey adds.

Read the full Fast Company article here.

USA Today: There's 'menopause legislation' in the works. What does that mean?

With 1 in 10 women leaving the workforce because of menopause, and an additional 1 in 5 considering retiring early, it can lead to fewer women leaders at a time when they make up fewer than one-third of top jobs.

There is no federal policy that protects women in menopause or perimenopause, the time leading up to menopause. Perimenopause can last up to 10 years and include a fluctuation in hormones, presenting symptoms ranging from frozen shoulder to hot flashes.

Companies need to keep women in the workforce to remain competitive, says Sarah Chavarria, CEO and president of Delta Dental Insurance Company.

Read the full USA Today article here.