IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/gender/v30y2023i3p897-916.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“A part of being a woman, really”: Menopause at work as “dirty” femininity

Author

Listed:
  • Lilith A. Whiley
  • Ashley Wright
  • Sarah E. Stutterheim
  • Gina Grandy

Abstract

This research extends understandings of women's lived experiences of menopause at work, as embodied complex gendered aging. Menopause as a type of “dirty” femininity and femme performance is theorized to elucidate both the stigmatizing effects of menopause at work and the opportunity to reclaim femininity in‐and‐for itself. This theory is illustrated through the accounts of women experiencing menopause at work. Menopause at work is problematized, pathologized, and “dirty” as an embodied experience that is physically, emotionally, morally, and socially tainted. As “dirty” femininity, menopause represents both material “dirt” (leaky bodies) and symbolic “dirt” (no longer leaky and no longer fertile), thereby eroding women's ability to perform patriarchal hegemonic femininity. Small pockets of resistance are also observed as some of these women engage in femme performances in defiance of hegemonic masculinity. The article offers avenues for future research in shame, taint management, women in leadership, and intersectionality to extend the conceptual and empirical contributions on menopause at work.

Suggested Citation

  • Lilith A. Whiley & Ashley Wright & Sarah E. Stutterheim & Gina Grandy, 2023. "“A part of being a woman, really”: Menopause at work as “dirty” femininity," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 897-916, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:30:y:2023:i:3:p:897-916
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12946
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12946
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/gwao.12946?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sadhvi Dar & Yasmin Ibrahim, 2019. "The Blackened body and White governmentality: Managing the UK academy and the production of shame," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(9), pages 1241-1254, September.
    2. Belinda Steffan, 2021. "Managing menopause at work: The contradictory nature of identity talk," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 195-214, January.
    3. Friedman, Sam, 2022. "(Not) bringing your whole self to work: the gendered experience of upward mobility in the UK Civil Service," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 113417, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Sharon Mavin & Gina Grandy, 2016. "Women Elite Leaders Doing Respectable Business Femininity: How Privilege is Conferred, Contested and Defended through the Body," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(4), pages 379-396, July.
    5. Laura K. Brunner & Maryanne Dever, 2014. "Work, Bodies and Boundaries: Talking Sexual Harassment in the New Economy," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(5), pages 459-471, September.
    6. Jette Sandager, 2021. "Mentoring as affective governmentality: Shame, (un)happiness, and the (re)production of masculine leadership," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(4), pages 1304-1322, July.
    7. Sam Friedman, 2022. "(Not) bringing your whole self to work: The gendered experience of upward mobility in the UK Civil Service," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 502-519, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ashley, Louise & Boussebaa, Mehdi & Friedman, Sam & Harrington, Brooke & Heusinkveld, Stefan & Gustafsson, Stefanie & Muzio, Daniel, 2023. "Professions and inequality: challenges, controversies, and opportunities," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119522, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Friedman, Sam, 2022. "Climbing the velvet drainpipe: class background and career progression within the UK Civil Service," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 117861, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Laura Good & Rae Cooper, 2016. "‘But It's Your Job To Be Friendly’: Employees Coping With and Contesting Sexual Harassment from Customers in the Service Sector," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(5), pages 447-469, September.
    4. Rhea Ashley Hoskin & Lilith A. Whiley, 2023. "Femme‐toring: Leveraging critical femininities and femme theory to cultivate alternative approaches to mentoring," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 1317-1333, July.
    5. Mwenza Blell & Shan‐Jan Sarah Liu & Audrey Verma, 2023. "Working in unprecedented times: Intersectionality and women of color in UK higher education in and beyond the pandemic," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 353-372, March.
    6. Marianne Gjellestad & Kristin Haraldstad & Heidi Enehaug & Migle Helmersen, 2023. "Women’s Health and Working Life: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-19, January.
    7. Julia Coffey & David Farrugia & Rosalind Gill & Steven Threadgold & Megan Sharp & Lisa Adkins, 2023. "Femininity work: The gendered politics of women managing violence in bar work," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(5), pages 1694-1708, September.
    8. Julia Coffey & David Farrugia & Lisa Adkins & Steven Threadgold, 2018. "Gender, Sexuality, and Risk in the Practice of Affective Labour for Young Women in Bar Work," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 23(4), pages 728-743, December.
    9. Sharon Mavin & Gina Grandy, 2016. "Women Elite Leaders Doing Respectable Business Femininity: How Privilege is Conferred, Contested and Defended through the Body," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(4), pages 379-396, July.
    10. Francesca Sobande & Jaleesa Renee Wells, 2023. "The poetic identity work and sisterhood of Black women becoming academics," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 469-484, March.
    11. Christy Glass & Alison Cook, 2020. "Performative contortions: How White women and people of colour navigate elite leadership roles," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(6), pages 1232-1252, November.
    12. Valerie Stead & Sharon Mavin & Carole Elliott, 2024. "Angela Rayner (Member of Parliament) and the “Basic Instinct Ploy”: Intersectional misrecognition of women leaders' legitimacy, productive resistance and flexing (patriarchal) discourse," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 152-170, January.
    13. Beatrice I. J. M. Van der Heijden & Karen Pak & Mónica Santana, 2021. "Menopause and Sustainable Career Outcomes: A Science Mapping Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-21, November.
    14. Thereza Raquel Sales de Aguiar & Shamima Haque & Keith A. Bender, 2022. "Athena SWAN gender equality plans and the gendered impact of COVID‐19," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 591-608, March.
    15. Jocelyn Elise Crowley, 2023. "Challenging gendered power: How sexual harassment perpetrators respond to victim confrontation," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 112-128, January.
    16. Krystal Wilkinson & Julia Rouse, 2023. "Solo‐living and childless professional women: Navigating the ‘balanced mother ideal’ over the fertile years," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 68-85, January.
    17. Sara Viotti & Gloria Guidetti & Ilaria Sottimano & Lucia Travierso & Mara Martini & Daniela Converso, 2021. "Do Menopausal Symptoms Affect the Relationship between Job Demands, Work Ability, and Exhaustion? Testing a Moderated Mediation Model in a Sample of Italian Administrative Employees," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-14, September.
    18. Camilla Quental & Pilar Rojas Gaviria & Céline del Bucchia, 2023. "The dialectic of (menopause) zest: Breaking the mold of organizational irrelevance," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(5), pages 1816-1838, September.
    19. Ali Khalaf Gatea & Haider Ali Jarad, 2021. "The Role of the Diversity of the Board of Directors in Promoting Integrated Disclosure and Social Responsibility," Technium Sustainability, Technium Science, vol. 1(1), pages 9-20, January.
    20. Yasmin Ibrahim, 2022. "The “diseased” activist's body as the site of trauma: Anti‐racist struggles and the postrace academy," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 28-43, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:30:y:2023:i:3:p:897-916. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0968-6673 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.