WHEN HAVING LESS IS MORE – HOW LOWER IDENTIFICATION AND SELF-COMPASSION CAN PROTECT MENOPAUSAL WOMEN FROM WORKPLACE DISCRIMINATION

Abstract

Menopause is a challenging transitional period whereby women experience a spectrum of physiological and psychological changes. Menopausal women risk facing discrimination at work, leading to detrimental outcomes. With older women remaining active in the workforce, the impacts of workplace menopausal discrimination on work attitudes like job insecurity and job satisfaction are examined in this study. Closer examination of this mechanism includes the mediating role of identification these women have with their menopausal group and the moderating role of self-compassion in this overall mediated moderation model. Data was collected via a two-part online survey from 207 working women in Singapore aged 45 to 60. Analyses with PROCESS revealed positive associations between workplace menopausal discrimination and job insecurity and negative associations with job satisfaction. Identification was found to mediate the effects of discrimination on job insecurity, but not for job satisfaction. Dual moderating effects of self-compassion were found for the effects of discrimination on identification, as well as for the effects of identification on job insecurity and job satisfaction respectively. Moderating effects were opposed of initial predictions, postulating the potential drawbacks of high self-compassion levels instead. Theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed further in this paper.