Introduction

In this chapter, we reflect on the possibilities of male allyship for educating about, advocating for and supporting menopausal transition at work as a form of gender or menopausal equality. An ally ‘is any person that actively promotes and aspires to advance the culture of inclusion through intentional, positive and conscious efforts that benefit people as a whole’ (Atcheson, 2018, np).

A variety of practices seek to reduce discrimination and inequality surrounding menopausal transition at work including supervisor or management training, use of occupational health and safety risk assessments to provide suitable accommodations, or the inclusion of menopause in HR and employee health and well-being policies, programmes and activities inter alia (Jack et al, 2016; Hardy, Griffiths and Hunter, 2019; Atkinson et al, 2021a). Much of the scholarly work regarding the nature and benefits of such practices has been based on data generated from individual women and their reported experience of menopause inside and outside the workplace (for example Beck, Brewis and Davies, 2020; Atkinson et al, 2021b), or managers of different genders regarding their attitudes or experience of training to support menopause at work (for example Hardy, Griffiths and Hunter, 2019). A central insight that traverses this work to date is that menopause is a site of gendered ageism (see, for example, Riach, Loretto and Krekula, 2015). This mode of inequality is socially constituted, situated and marked in multiple ways by relations between people and crucially also by the gendered and gendering dynamics of organizational life (Jack, Riach and Bariola, 2019). Reflecting on this insight, our chapter presents the findings of a small study that seeks to understand how men may engage with menopause at work with two particular foci in mind. First, to shed light on menopause equality work as a relational phenomenon based on the perspectives of a sample of male respondents. And second, to consider the prospective possibilities and challenges for men to act as workplace allies for working women going through menopause and to promote inclusive workplace environments.