menopausal bitter pills
Delilah is 52 and suffering from both the menopause and workplace ageism. She calls them both bitter pills to swallow, one follows the others, and she’s beginning to question her own worth and attractiveness.
"Let's face it," says Delilah, "we've grown up identifying ourselves with our work and the experience of losing our power, glory and earning capacity to the new wave of whiz kids taking over the world is a bitter pill to swallow."
"To face covert if not overt sneers of being 'too old' from the young things at work – and then face the same treatment from the young things at employment agencies when we find ourselves jobless," says Delilah, "is not what we expected at 52."
"I have younger women friends who are experiencing gross discrimination from employment agencies," says Delilah. "The situation is deplorable and more so because it is happening to women, not so much men. And we all know why – it’s the menopause hype."
"At 45-55 we consider ourselves to be in the prime of life, still attractive and pretty cool," says Delilah, "and yet that is not how the dominant young whiz kids see us, and this hurts."
“That more and more Baby Boomers like me are being forced to swallow this bitter pill at an earlier age than expected in terms of their working lives is a shocking experience,” says Delilah. “It is perhaps what the menopause is really all about.”
"We expected to be productive and well esteemed members of the workforce until we were at least 65," says Delilah, "and I'm finding it really demoralizing to be treated like a geriatric at my age. 52 is young, right?"
“My husband is doing well at work, not facing any ageism, and even though I do have the option to quit work and stay home, I don’t want to,” says Delilah. “I have always worked, and now that the children have grown up and left home and we’re in an empty nest, I really need a career to keep me sane.”
“The house is paid off and we have no debt, so I don’t want a job for money,” explains Delilah. “I want a job for ME.”
“I just don’t have much to do at home now that the children have left home – and it is so cruel that at this time in my life, when I am so ready to give 100% attention to my career, that I am being sidelined by the young things and sneered at because I’m menopausal.”
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