104. STEMSkills: Menopause & Your Career - Heather Jackson

Ordinarily Extraordinary - Conversations with women in STEM

Heather Jackson, co-founder of GenM, shares how GenM works with brands to provide awareness and branding of products that support women in menopause. GenM also provides research, awareness and resources for women going through menopause. Heather is the former CEO of An Inspirational Journey, the company behind several programmes, events and online activities including The Balanced Business Forum (formerly known as The Women's Business Forum and now recognised as the world’s first gender balanced leadership conference).
What do we talk about in this episode?

Heather shares how she came to start GenM and the importance of normalizing the conversation around menopause and creating brand awareness, signage, etc. around products that support women during perimenopause and menopause.

1. Menopause does not have to be something we suffer through. Women are typically at the best part of their life when they go through menopause. We should be swinging from the chandeliers during this time - not suffering through it.
2. Menopause is the new vegan.
3. We need to normalize conversations about menopause in society as well as in the workplace.
4. Menopause affects everybody. Not just women. Almost everyone knows someone, works with someone, or lives with someone going through menopause. We are all affected.
5. The highest suicide rate and divorce rate for women is during the age of menopause.
6. Nutrition and exercise are critical in menopause care.
7. There are ways to treat menopause symptoms with Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) or naturally.

Music used in the podcast: Higher Up, Silverman Sound Studio

Resources

GenM's Mission - We exist to incite a first-of-its-kind movement to make the menopause a more positive experience for everyone, and introduce forward-thinking brands, organisations and employers to this new, commercially attractive market in a responsible, ethical way.

Why? Because there are 15.5 million menopausal consumers in the UK alone. It’s a market desperate for better understanding, support and representation. Now is the time to purposefully unite, so we can all cater for, better support and connect with this incredibly underserved audience.

Working closely with progressive organisations, we can all use GenM’s ongoing groundbreaking research, knowledge and experience to better understand the 48 symptoms, provide better support to all those in menopause and signpost them to products and services that already exist.

The Invisibility Report - The findings of this report are the foundations for everything that GemM as the Menopause Partner of Brands stands for. We are here to collectively unite responsible brands, organisations and employers, to improve the menopause experience, normalise the conversation, and stop those in menopause being overlooked at home, at work and across society. (https://gen-m.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/106847-Gen-M-Invisibility-Report-082.pdf)

Raising Awareness of the Menopause One Campaign At a Time Men: Misunderstanding Menopause is a national campaign helping to raise awareness of the menopause and its symptoms amongst men. (https://gen-m.com/shattered/)

Maryon Stewart BEM, with more than 29 years of experience of study and expertise, is known as the pioneer of the natural menopause movement. She has written 28 self-help books and was awarded the British Empire Medal in 2018.(https://maryonstewart.com)

Tera Greene - Kickstart Your Confidence (https://2kyw5krv.pages.infusionsoft.net/?affiliate=0)