Building a menopause-confident performing arts sector

Tonic launches a new range of work to raise awareness and confidence around menopause and perimenopause.

51% of the population experience menopause and 13 million women in the UK are currently going through it. Despite this, there is still inadequate awareness and support across all industries, including live and recorded performing arts. 

The research shows that, with women often at the peak of their careers during the menopause transition, this exacerbates gender inequality in senior roles and adds to the gender pay gap. Although data is not yet available, we know some trans men and non-binary people are also adversely affected and this compounds discriminations they already face at work. As a result, many people are struggling to perform as well as they could, are not being promoted as often as they should, and we are losing some of the most talented people from our performing arts industry.

Tonic wants to change this.

We are very excited to be launching a range of training, events and one-to-one support for organisations to enable them to establish more menopause-confident working environments. We presented our plans to colleagues from across the industry at an event at London’s Soho Theatre on Tuesday 18th July. We shared insights from the research we’ve been undertaking into the impact of menopause and outlined the work we are planning to do in response. We also heard from attendees about how they think Tonic can do this work most effectively and what change they themselves want to be part of in the performing arts.