It lands on top of everything else. Women in our community described brain fog and anxiety from perimenopause arriving at the same time as young children, ageing parents, senior roles and 12-hour days. Most companies don't acknowledge it, and because it feels shameful, women don't talk about it at work.
What did women tell us about perimenopause at work?
We asked our community about the squeeze on women from their mid-30s to their late 40s. These two answers set the tone.
Re the investigation for mid career women. I'm drowning. Struggling to get from one day to the next. Brain fog and then anxiety from peri menopause is destroying my confidence - all while being expected to do a 12 hour day with all the other life commitments at this age. I'm worried about the impact it is having on my health.
Yep, every 45-50+ woman I know is going through this, lots of bathroom tears and anxiety which is hormonal and real and needs to usually be managed with medication. It also sadly feels shameful so women don't openly talk about it. So many mid career women want to quit as it takes such a toll on your health, and the constant juggling act is relentless.
Why is mid-career so hard for women?
Everything comes crashing at the same time. Career progression, young children, ageing parents and perimenopause, which can start as early as 35, all land at once while workplaces still treat presence as productivity.
Companies have got better at parental leave for year 1. Nobody has built anything for years 2 through 18. Both parents work 8+ hours through the school years and there are 12 weeks of holidays with no coverage. Return-to-office mandates make the juggle worse.
The feeling of failing because you aren't anywhere you need to be enough of the time is gut wrenching.
There's another layer here for single mums working full-time with little to no support, financial or otherwise, from fathers. They're expected to perform at the same level professionally while carrying 100% of the load at home. The system simply isn't designed for this reality and it shows.
Does everyone see it as a workplace problem?
No. One reader saw it as part of life and suggested leaning on trusted friends.
Sounds like life. Everyone has choices. Parenting is the most difficult job in the world and the one you need the least qualifications for, toss in working full-time and you're basically chasing your tail and questioning yourself every single day. Have some trusting friends that you can unload on when you need to,.
Another pointed at how part-time work is set up.
Corporate careers shouldn't only be for FTE. Perhaps another discussion on 'part-time' work and how employers/management approach this fairly. In my experience over 3 different roles (0.8 FTE = 100% workload with 20% pay cut). It's a systemic problem. Corporates are loosing high potential women mid career - resulting in a loss of company IP. Big 4 Banks /Big 4 Prof Services / Investment Banks etc - what is Leadership doing apart displaying on their KPIs we need "Women in leadership target of ~30%" just to "tick a box". Have they done a deep-dive of why that metric even has to exist in the first place? What causes women to not be there in the first place? Where is the metric for "Men in Leadership positions: target 30%" ?
Do companies support women through perimenopause?
Most don't acknowledge it. Perimenopause is another spanner in the works, taking the form of brain fog, anxiety and hormonal shifts, and because it feels shameful, women don't raise it and nothing gets done. Add endometriosis, chronic illness, elder care and divorce, and the system struggles with anyone whose life doesn't fit neatly into a typical 9-to-5.
The government talks about getting women back in the workforce without any structural support to stop them burning out once they're there.
What would help?
Talking about it is where it starts. Part-time roles that are scoped as part-time would help too. If you move to fewer days, check that the workload drops with the pay. Our guide to calculating a pro rata salary shows how part-time pay is worked out.
If you are doing it tough, the support lines on our About page are a good place to start.
This article draws on our Big Conversation The mid-career squeeze nobody designed a policy for, which has the original slides.
Source: The Aussie Corporate community poll, data as at September 2026. Spotted an error? Correct something.
