Members of the Women and Equalities Committee heard that many women who feel they have been discriminated against because they are going through the menopause have to find legal workarounds to argue their case, often having to rely on rules around disability discrimination.
Marian Bloodworth, partner in employment law at Deloitte Legal, told the MPs that many women face discrimination – ranging from inappropriate and offensive comments to missing out on pay or promotions – simply because they are perceived to be going through the menopause and regardless of whether they experiencing symptoms.
On top of this, many women going through the menopause do have physical or mental symptoms “which literally impact your ability to work,” Bloodworth explained. “So a protected characteristic of menopause… would make it unlawful to discriminate against somebody either because they are menopausal or perimenopausal… or because there’s a perception that they are going through it,” she said.
Such a change to the legislation would also have the advantage of protecting anyone who was experiencing menopausal symptoms, including people who are trans or non-binary, said Bloodworth.
She added that there was currently a “lack of clarity” for employees and employers around businesses’ obligations to women going through the menopause, adding: “While I think [employers] generally do provide safe spaces of work, I think they’re not necessarily alive to some of the health and safety issues that the...
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