Female Leaders: Leading Through the Load - Menopause and the Invisible Load at Work
Many female leaders carry an invisible load that menopause can amplify.
The load nobody puts on the org chart
Senior women are rarely short of competence. What many are short of is room to breathe. Leadership responsibilities, family and care duties, and the quiet effort of appearing unaffected add up to what we call the invisible load. For a growing number of women in their 40s and 50s, menopause lands on top of it: brain fog in the middle of a decision, broken nights before an important meeting, a sudden doubt in a role they have mastered for years.
I know this from the inside. I lived my own perimenopause while working in demanding, multicultural environments, and I saw how rarely anyone talked about it.
Key takeaways
72% of women have hidden menopause symptoms at work at least once (Catalyst, 2024).
20.5% of women surveyed in Switzerland reduced their working hours (MenoSupport Suisse, via EMAS).
Swiss employers have so far paid little attention to menopause (PwC Switzerland).
Silence is the real cost
Catalyst surveyed 2,892 full-time employees in 8 countries in 2024 and found that 72% had hidden their symptoms at work at least once. In Switzerland, the MenoSupport Suisse study, led by HWR Berlin, The Women Circle and the Menopause Centre at Inselspital Bern, surveyed over 2,200 women in employment: 20.5% had reduced their working hours. PwC Switzerland notes that postmenopausal women are the fastest growing group in the working population, while Swiss employers have paid little attention to the topic. Organisations feel it as lost experience, less energy, and sometimes departures at the very moment women reach senior roles.
Menopause is not a wellness extra. It is about keeping talent and sustaining leadership over the long run. When a leader can say "this is hard right now" without risk, the load becomes lighter and the conversation becomes strategic.
The Invisible Load: workshops for female leaders
This is why I am building, together with executive coach and counsellor Fleur Jaworski-Richards (25+ years of creative leadership in Geneva, most recently at Accenture), The Invisible Load: Workshops for Female Leaders.
The series brings Fleur's executive coaching together with my work on menopause, psychological safety and creative reflection. I come to it with a corporate background, as an #IAmRemarkable facilitator who has worked with more than 200 participants. Formats range from a half-day session to a monthly series. Together we help women name the load, share it, and find practical ways to carry it differently, while giving leadership teams the language to respond.
Where to begin
No need to launch a programme. Start with a lunch-and-learn or a 20-minute conversation. Give managers simple words, such as "I don't have all the answers, but I will listen". Look honestly at flexibility, so that no woman has to choose between her health and her career. And keep an eye on how long women aged 45 and over stay in leadership roles: it says a lot.
Let's talk
If you work in HR, DEI or wellbeing and would like to explore this for your leadership teams, I would be glad to start a conversation.
Sources
Sandrine Desmares, founder of The Second Bloom, in partnership with Fleur Jaworski-Richards.
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