Supporting Working Mothers: What Menopause Support Can Teach Employers
The idea of perimenopause and menopause is enough to turn me into an ostrich who puts their head in the sand. It’s one of those subjects that frankly freaks me out.
It’s scary to think about the changes I will experience as a woman, how they may affect my body and mind, and how much of that experience may feel outside of my control.
At a recent AXA Hong Kong and Macau event called “Thrive at Work”, women shared personal experiences of perimenopause and menopause and how these changes affected their ability to work, feel mentally stable, and feel seen and understood.
What I heard reinforced how far workplaces and society still have to come in supporting women through different stages of life. From menstruation, to becoming a mother and returning to work, to perimenopause and menopause, these transitions can affect a woman's identity, confidence, sense of capability and experience at work.
One statistic shared at the event stayed with me: 91% of women expect their employer to support them through menopause.
What menopause support can teach us about supporting women at work
I was impressed by the comprehensive approach Bloomberg has taken to menopause support. Their initiatives include educating leaders, giving managers discretionary time off to support their teams, working with internal communities, providing mental health support, and extending insurance coverage to cover menopause. What stood out wasn't any single initiative. It was that support was being considered from several angles.
It made me reflect on the women I work with and another significant transition that workplaces need to understand better: becoming a mother and returning to work after maternity leave.
If organizations can think this comprehensively about supporting employees through menopause, why can't we apply the same thinking to motherhood?
Returning to work after maternity leave is more than a logistical transition
When we talk about supporting working mothers returning from maternity leave, the conversation often focuses on practical support.
Is there somewhere private to breastfeed or pump?
Can she work from home?
Can she have a more flexible return?
These things definitely matter but they are only part of what someone may need when they return from parental leave. And what about the woman herself?
Becoming a mother can involve significant psychological, physical, social and identity changes. This transition is known as matrescence. Matrescence can last an entire lifetime as we change as mothers and our children grow and evolve in their own life stages.
A woman may return to exactly the same job, organization and colleagues while feeling very different from the person who left.
Her priorities may have changed. Her relationship with her career may have changed. She may be questioning what success means to her now and what her priorities have shifted to. She may be trying to reconcile wanting to be present with her child with continuing to care deeply about her work. She may feel exactly as ambitious as she did before becoming a mother, while worrying that other people will assume otherwise.
We often expect parents to come back to work as if having a baby were one moment in time and afterwards life simply goes back tonormal except it’s now + baby. That assumption misses the transition the person herself may still be experiencing.
Managers are part of the return-to-work experience
Supporting working mothers also requires looking at the people receiving them back into the workplace. How much do managers understand about matrescence and the changes that can accompany becoming a parent? How prepared are they to have conversations about flexibility, workload, career progression and changing needs without making assumptions about someone's ambition or commitment?
An organization can have a generous parental leave policy and still provide a poor return-to-work experience. While having policies in place that clearly outline what an employee is entitled to, the reintegration into corporate life can be drastically impacted by their managers influence in how that support is experienced in reality.
This is why supporting parents at work cannot sit solely within HR policies, benefits or physical facilities. Managers and leaders also need to understand the transition their employees may be experiencing.
Why this matters for retaining women at work
In Hong Kong, 48% of women do not work, excluding domestic helpers. Research published in 2025 cited motherhood and caregiving, contributions not being seen or recognized, and stigma surrounding female-specific health issues among the barriers women experience.
These figures raise a larger question. What happens when experienced women don't feel they have the support they need to return to work? What does that mean for retention? What does it mean for women already in leadership positions? And what does it mean for the pipeline of female talent?
The cost of onboarding a new employee is not insignificant. Not to mention the on-going investment into their development and growth with the organization. The transition to motherhood is a point at which some of that talent can become vulnerable to leaving, slowing progression or questioning whether their existing workplace can accommodate the reality of their lives.
The response cannot only be better maternity leave. It must also consider what happens before a woman leaves, how she is supported while away, what happens when she returns, and how her career develops afterwards.
More than flexibility and a pumping room
Hearing about Bloomberg's approach to menopause made me reconsider what comprehensive support for a major life transition can look like. There isn't one policy that addresses every aspect of menopause. Support can involve education, managers, workplace culture, healthcare and benefits.
The transition to motherhood deserves the same comprehensive thinking. Having a private space to pump is essential, flexible re-onboarding is important and parental leave is key. However, none of these parts can address the full experience of what it means to be a mother or a parent returning to work.
Managers need to understand what their employees may be experiencing and how to support them without making assumptions and organizations need to think beyond getting women back through the door after maternity leave to considering what happens after they return.
Supporting women through the transition to motherhood is a retention and leadership issue, not only a parental leave issue. If your organization is reviewing how it supports women and parents at work, explore how I work with organizations through coaching, workshops and talks.