Responding to Menopause at Work as an Identity Threat: Resilience as Resource for Cognitive and Emotional Identity Work

Abstract

Menopause can be an emotional transition and can affect resilience, confidence, quality of life and work identity. This transition is a catalyst for emotional identity work, which is done to achieve a plausible, coherent sense of self. Menopause symptoms can disrupt a sense of self with new-felt feelings of fear, shame and vulnerability. Fear can hinder cognitive flexibility, or being open to introspection, which impacts on how identity work is resourced. We contribute to menopause at work and identity work literatures by highlighting how life transitions without viable alternatives are experienced and responded to as hitherto unexplored internally driven identity threats. Drawing on a mixed-method study, we show how compromised resilience, due to menopause, disrupts identity work. We also show how restored and realistic resilience, developed through better awareness of menopause and a post-menopause reflection, enables both effective cognitive identity work and consequently enhanced engagement with emotional identity work.