Right to Menopause: A cross-cultural analysis of judicial discourse on climacteric-related discrimination in English and Spanish Courts

Menopause often leads to a dual form of discrimination rooted in age and gender. Frequently overlooked, the side effects of menopause compel many women to leave their jobs due to discrimination or the psychological and physical challenges hindering their work. Recent British legal rulings in favour of women claiming workplace discrimination indicate a growing recognition of menopause as an “invisible” factor contributing to women’s labour market exclusion in the UK. In Spain, despite approximately four million menopausal women, a 2020-2022 search in the Spanish legal database CENDOJ found limited evidence of those claiming disability or impairment due to menopause-related issues as obstacles to their work. This paper conducts an emotion discourse analysis (Koschut, 2018 and 2020) of a representative set of legal decisions in English and Spanish concerning menopause as a workplace hindrance. We aim to examine how employment courts perceive and address this disabling condition that affects women’s well-being and self-esteem. By analysing the macrostructure of both language subcorpora, we unveil the legal narrative and identify lexical characteristics and emotional undertones as linguistic and cognitive tools that stigmatize or ignore this temporary female condition. The present analysis sheds light on the positions taken by judges and the evaluations made by all parties involved in these cases. La menopausa sovint desencadena una doble forma de discriminació basada en l'edat i el gènere. Freqüentment passats per alt, els efectes secundaris de la menopausa porten moltes dones a abandonar les seues ocupacions a causa de la discriminació o als desafiaments psicològics i físics que obstaculitzen la seua feina. Recents fallades judicials al Regne Unit a favor de dones que van al·legar discriminació a la feina indiquen un creixent reconeixement de la menopausa com una font "invisible" d'exclusió de les dones del mercat laboral a l'esmentat país. A Espanya, tot i que hi ha aproximadament quatre milions de dones en la menopausa, una recerca realitzada entre el 2020 i el 2022 a la base de dades legal oficial espanyola CENDOJ va trobar escassa evidència de dones que al·legassen discapacitat o impediment a causa de problemes relacionats amb la menopausa com a obstacles per a la seua feina. Aquest article duu a terme una anàlisi del discurs emocional (Koschut, 2018 i 2020) d'un conjunt representatiu de decisions judicials en anglès i espanyol relacionades amb la menopau