Five - Geographies of Menopausing

Summary

Introduction

A menopause ‘revolution’ is happening. In the UK, people are marching in parks, signing petitions, demonstrating outside Parliament and demanding education, care and work policies for all who are experiencing menopause symptoms (Menopause Mandate nd). In the Nordic country of Finland, new books and films on the subject are frequently released and digital sites are booming with ‘sisterhood’ support (Edwards et al 2021). In Latvia, menopause appears in the media more often, though almost exclusively with expert knowledge provided by medical doctors. These activities point towards varied geographies of increased awareness on this crucial gendered process, which is spatially distinct. While the extant medicalized approach acknowledges large geographical differences in symptom experience, it typically does not consider the social process of this human condition. What we are witnessing in the 2020s is people demanding that experts recognize and value their lived experiences.

In this chapter, I argue that the diversity lens and geography are fundamental in seeking answers to social change around menopause awareness. Moreover, not only does menopause affect more than half the population, but it involves myriad human and more- than- human interconnections. Nor is it a one- off event; menopausing, an apt term used by McCall and Potter (2022), is a temporal, spatial and, of course, sharply gendered process that stretches over decades in midlife and beyond. Amini and McCormack (2019) refer to it as ‘menopausal time’, a process rather than a singular biological event. These ways of seeing serve as a departure point to decipher temporalities of menopause. And there is more. The long process of menopausing, which is one of the most divisive, stereotyped, scary yet potentially empowering and place- and culture- specific personal processes, operates within historical and contemporary power relations of ageism and patriarchy. It needs to be addressed as historical oppression, showing women's place in the world (Domosh and Seager 2001). But before making arguments for diversity, awareness of multiplicity and activism, I unpack the contexts that have led to patriarchal and ageist views of this important process. The chapter therefore builds on temporal, spatial and scalar takes on social change.