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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 December 2024
Introduction
This chapter focuses on cis women's experiences of problematic hot flushes at work and how their shared workspaces are often beset with tensions around temperature and ventilation as a result. I draw loosely on Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos’ (2010, 2015, 2017, 2020) reading of spatial justice, and Sophie Watson's (2020) use of this concept to understand the Muslim practice of Wudu1 in public spaces, to try to theorize shared organizational space as characterized by a series of injustices in this respect. These are generated, Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos (2017, p 24) explains, as follows:
‘[T] here is something inalienable in our connection to space: we are all bodies vying for the same space, excluding other bodies along the way. We generate space, we are space, and we are constantly on the move, generating more space but also more conflict with other bodies.’
The data I use are taken from two projects. The first is an online survey that we ran in the summer of 2018 in conjunction with TUC Education on people's knowledge about menopause per se but also and more significantly its impact on their workplaces and them as individual workers. This attracted 5,399 respondents. The second project involved interviews and two surveys at Northshire, a pseudonymous NHS hospital trust in the UK. This was longitudinal, tracking the impact of the Trust's introduction of menopause guidance and an accompanying programme of support on its staff. The arguments I make are also informed by the anecdotes that Vanessa and I hear when sharing our ongoing research on menopause at work which centre on shared organizational space and the challenges of regulating temperature to suit everyone within this kind of space.
Hot flushes at work
During a July 2021 episode of the prime time BBC1 magazine programme The One Show, journalist and presenter Louise Minchin talked about her menopausal hot flushes, and a solution she had been able to implement at work. This she described as ‘a few simple steps’, as follows:
‘It's been 20 years since I first presented BBC Breakfast and I have spent much of my time sitting on the famous red sofa. I love it but a few years ago it became a challenge when I began going through the menopause.
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