“Menopausal, Depleted, and Nostalgic”: The Bittersweet Effects of Menopause for Women Leaders

Abstract

ABSTRACT Menopause is a natural but underexamined female experience in work settings, with significant implications for women in leadership positions. Drawing on self‐regulation perspectives, we develop a conceptual model examining how menopausal symptom severity shapes women leaders' experiences at work. We propose that severe menopausal symptoms act as a regulatory stressor that depletes leaders' psychological resources, triggering nostalgia for a premenopausal self. Nostalgia, in turn, can give rise to dual regulatory responses, enhancing empathy for subordinates on the one hand and fostering psychological withdrawal on the other. In Study 1 ( N = 341), using critical incidents, we found that menopausal symptom severity increased leader empathy and psychological withdrawal through a serial mediation of depletion and nostalgia. Study 2, employing a causal chain experiment with novel manipulations, supported the positive effects of (a) menopause severity on depletion (Study 2a, N = 203), (b) depletion on nostalgia (Study 2b, N = 132), and (c) nostalgia on empathy but not on psychological withdrawal (Study 2c, N = 115). We discuss implications for understanding women leaders' health and bodily experiences at work.