Coffee with MPowered Women Co-Founder Juliet Warkentin
Juilet Warkentin
Ceo MPowered Women
Age: 59
Zoom coffee
Introduction
In the last few years, it seems that menopause went from a subject rarely mentioned to a rallying cry for women sick of having their health marginalised or worse ignored. Celebrities like Meg Matthews and Davina McCall have made menopause front-page news and opened up the conversation about menopause symptoms and treatments making it easier for everyone to talk more freely.
And then there are organisations like MPowered Women. Founded by former deputy editor of Red Magazine Saskia Graville and communications strategist Juliet Warkentin, MPowered Women is working behind the scenes to provide women with a credible resource of reliable information on menopause and other midlife topics from careers to sex and beauty.
Corporations are also starting to change their ways introducing new programmes to demystify and destigmatise Menopause in the workplace, training managers on how to support their workers and adding Menopause treatment to their health care benefits.
Making it easier to talk about menopause and providing women with the resources they need is a huge huge step in the right direction — as is a new corporate awakening that women have been suffering in silence for too long. But… and there’s always a but… I am still uncomfortable with the idea that menopause is another problem to be managed. So I was intrigued to learn from the historian Susan Mattern that for most of human history, people had no word for menopause and did not view it as a medical condition. Instead, the early foraging and agrarian societies saw it as a transition to an important life stage.
It was only around 1700 that people began to see menopause as "a dangerous pathological disorder linked to upsetting symptoms that rendered women weak and vulnerable". The net result was another black mark against women, making them feel that their usefulness was done just when they felt they were coming into their own.
Avivah Witteneberg-Cox’s says it well in her MPowered Women interview. "Menopause is a symbol of the shift from birthing, supporting and caring for others, and dancing along a tightrope, to being able (if you’re lucky and healthy and financially sound) to step into yourself, your dreams, your purpose. It’s about reaping what you’ve sown".
We need to reframe menopause and stop thinking of it as an ending and instead see it as a new beginning. Mattern would agree. In her book, Slow Moon Climbs: The Science, History and Meaning of Menopause, she argues that our society has limited itself with a number of fundamentally wrong assumptions about human nature that restrict our sense of what we can do.
"For an animal like us, dependent as we are on skill and experience, midlife is the most productive time of life. Menopause is a transition to a natural, evolved stage of life that has been critical to the success of our species in the past and remains critical to our future, and it ought to be valued and respected.”
And that pretty much sums up how I feel about mid-life workers, particularly menopausal and post-menopausal women - we are not a problem to be managed - we are a solution with valuable experience and skills. Age should bring us more visibility not less. 50 is not the end of our productive life - it is the beginning of a new life.
Suddenly, I hear Helen Ready singing in my head ‘I am Woman’. I’ve always loved that song. Want to sing along? And then please read the interview.
And now my interview with Juliet…
Describe your career path in two or three sentences including any twist or turns ending with where you are now.
Ha! Headhunters considered my career path radical and a little mad 20 years ago. Now it is the very model of a portfolio career.
I began in magazines in Toronto in the 1980s and used the skills I learned in that world to become a communications strategist, brand marketer and creative leader. Over the years I have worked across a wide range of specialisms, industries, and roles from global and local brands in publishing to digital information and e-commerce businesses; and in brand strategy and content marketing agencies, mostly based in London, UK.
Today I am co-founder of MPowered Women whose mission is to help women thrive at midlife.
What decision or experience proved to be the most helpful to your career?
Making the move out of magazines and into retail and brand marketing in my late 30’s was my first big shift. I was editing Marie Claire, the best magazine in the UK from my (biased) point of view at the time. I had a wonderful job, but as I looked at my peers and role models in the sector, I observed that there wasn’t a lot of movement once they got to the top of the editing world and I didn’t want to spend the next twenty-five years moving from title to title doing the same thing (three editorships was enough).
The decision to move into brand marketing came with a big risk, but it made me realise that while I loved magazine editing, I was curious about so much more. I haven’t adored every role I have had since, but I have learnt from everyone, and applied that learning to the next.
What advice would you give your 20-year-old self knowing what you do what you know, now?
Don’t panic, life is (usually, hopefully) long and not everything has to be perfect all the time.
Don’t be afraid to think in new ways, even though you may be ahead of the curve.
Learn how to present your point of view in an inspiring, compelling and confident way.
As Avivah Wittenberg Cox would say on her substack Elderberries, plan for your ‘fourth quarter’ as early as you can… I’m mindful that that isn’t possible for everyone to do financially.
Has your definition of success changed?
When I was young and trying to make my way in the world I was focused on serious career success – I’m not saying that doesn’t interest me anymore, it does, but I would add to that a desire to be happy!
“Being happy and content with day to day life experience is for me a great definition of success these days.”
If you're feeling stuck or uninspired, other actions you take or questions that you ask yourself.
Mini stuckness: Breathe. Stand up and stretch. Slack my MPowered Women co-founder Saska. That always works! Read something new, just do something different for ten minutes.
Existential work stuckness: Set up a call with Saska, walk, meet with someone I haven’t seen in a while or someone new who will bring us new insights, information, perspective. A conversation that will pull me out of my current perspective and encourage me to look at the world from a new direction always gives me energy.
Emotional stuckness: Journalist Alice Smellie recently pointed out that conversations with girlfriends raise women’s oxytocin levels, and that truly resonates with me. Girlfriend calls, walks, dinners, weekends away – whatever the occasion is – these conversations which have no agenda, meander, involve laughter, maybe tears, are always healing.
In the last five years, what new belief, behaviour or habit has most improved your working life? Or your approach to creating your 50+ work life?
I never really thought about a post 50’s work-life because I still felt mid-career in my ‘50’s — possibly because of the wide range of businesses I worked in and roles I have held in my career. There was always something new happening, something new to learn.
Our experience talking with midlifers at MPowered Women is that women are no longer ready to settle for good enough — in any aspect of their lives — and when that comes to work, that can mean a re-think, often based on personal values. Recently, I’ve been in a position to put my wide range of experiences into roles that really make me feel that I am contributing something of greater worth, and that is a powerful driver for me.
I worry that as we get older, we (as well as the world around us) start to limit our idea of what is possible. Do you have any advice in terms of how to you keep your mind open to possibilities and think bigger about what is possible?
I am endlessly inspired by my parents, who at 88 and 93 as I write, are still active in their academic careers and have a deep curiosity for the new. While they continue to use their critical faculties for their work, they also seek to remain open-minded and hold back on quick judgement (not all the time, they aren’t saints!) My observation of ageing is that being open-minded and curious are both critical for a healthy midlife and beyond.
Last question. What book or podcast would you most recommend to someone thinking about designing their post 50 work life?
We have a lot of information on MPowered to help women navigate midlife - from health and wellbeing coverage to our Midlife Survival Kits (the five things that are getting our favourite women through midlife), to our series called Menopause & Me. On our Instagram, we run IG Live sessions called Midlife Reset in which we talk to women who have made big change in their lives. We’ve had some really moving conversations with women about divorce and finding new love, moving cities, starting new businesses. Women really are brave about making change at this time of their lives.
Otherwise, I would suggest continuing looking and thinking about new ideas, wherever you may find them. Personally, I dip in and out of The Ezra Klein Show, Pivot, How I Built This with Guy Raz, How to Fail with Elizabeth Day and Brene Brown’s podcasts.
