Introduction

It is a little-known fact that only humans and two species of whale go through menopause. We learned this during a 2016 BBC documentary – ‘The whale menopause’ – that described menopause as ‘one of human evolution's great mysteries’ (BBC Radio 4, 2016). Presenting the case of 100+ year-old killer whale (‘J2’), anthropomorphically dubbed ‘Granny’, the programme marvelled at the centrality of the non-reproductive female to the survival of the family group, or pod, concluding that older female killer whales are ‘not redundant. They actually have an important role to play’. Granny's physical capacity to ‘prolifically’ breach (that is, to rise out of the water) was also noted as marvellous, given her age. In 2017, when her death was announced, Granny was described as ‘the leader’ and ‘matriarch’ of the group in a BBC radio report (BBC Radio 4, 2017). The interviewed scientist stated that ‘post-reproductive females’ like Granny direct the pod to navigate safely through foraging grounds, ‘storing ecological knowledge for the group’. Dependent adult sons (age 30+ years) are, the scientist reported, eight times more likely to perish when post-reproductive females die: these sons are dependent on their mothers for food. Again, it was confirmed that the females of only two species of whale and humans live beyond their reproductive years.

Humans, the 2016 documentary explained, have much to learn from this fact in understanding the value of older women's lives. It suggested that the story of the killer whales has the empowering potential for appreciating ‘the importance of older females in society’ (BBC Radio 4, 2016). For us, this conclusion indicates the astonishing depth and strength of prevailing accounts of women's core value as reproductive beings and of menopause as a catastrophic ending to reproductive capacities. Although extensively studied within biology and medicine, menopause remains ‘a mystery’ because of the persistent social, cultural and scientific difficulties in conceptualizing female human and nonhuman animals’ value beyond species propagation.