How should employers be supporting women going through a period of middlescence?

Of course, the onus shouldn’t be on employees to get through the middlescence period. As Evans-Krimme notes, employers also have a duty to support women during this time.

“I would expect employers to recognise that there is a huge, huge group of people going through middlescence that tend to be a bit stagnant in their careers, and that that stagnancy can lead to a lot of demotivation,” she says. “So, it’s important to not only think about how to support employees to develop vertically, or even horizontally, but actually to find new growth opportunities in their existing roles.”

Employers should recognise that people going through middlescence may require extra support and may wish to change and morph their roles into something new.

“It’s something I don’t see happening that often within organisations,” she says. “Normally, we are looking at the next promotion or the next new role, and not what can we do within the existing role.”

Employers should also take time to consider how they are supporting parental returners, “especially those who were on track for certain positions.”

Finally, Evans-Krimme encourages organisations to have a firm policy in place “to know how and when to effectively support women during menopause, so that they don’t experience any discrimination and they get the support they need.”

Middlescence: why self-doubt and career readjustment so often set in during the mid-life period