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Invisibility & the Menopause: How to Get Yourself Seen & Heard – The Happy Menopause Podcast
Season 5 • Episode 7
Dr Vanessa Collingridge, Broadcaster, Writer & Impact Coach
Do you ever feel invisible? Perhaps you struggle to get your voice heard. If so, you’re not alone, because this is something that most women have experienced at some point, especially as we move into midlife and menopause. But it’s not something we should put up with, because it’s not right and because, let’s face it, middle aged men don’t experience the same problem, do they?
I’ve invited Dr Vanessa Collingridge to join me for this episode. I first met her at the Menopause Festival in Edinburgh, where were both speaking and I was intrigued by the title of her workshop – The Revenge of the Invisible Woman. She struck me as just the woman we need to help us deal with this eternal problem!
Vanessa is a woman with a fascinating history and I really needed a lot longer to talk to her! She’s a broadcaster, author and impact coach, who has researched and presented award-winning history documentaries; is the author of several books and she’s a communications expert too. As an impact coach, she has a passion for developing female talent and helping women find their voice and shares loads of practical advice.
We discuss the reasons why women feel invisible and why it can be so hard to get your voice heard at any age, but especially during midlife and menopause. Vanessa is full of practical advice about how to get yourself noticed and make your mark in work or social situations, and how to help your loved ones remember that you’re there, so that you’re not taken for granted.
This episode is a mini masterclass in how to regain your confidence and get the recognition and appreciation you deserve!
Show Notes
Find out more about Vanessa and the work that she does by following her on Linked In.
These are the links to the research and the books that she mentioned in the podcast:
- Harvard Business Review – Why diverse teams are smarter
- Women less likely to ask questions than men:
- Where have all the women gone? Unequal economic, social and political gender landscapes:
https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/diversity/2019/how-women-find-jobs-gender-report
https://www.eu-startups.com/2020/04/discover-the-top-female-ceos-of-the-ftse-100-index-sponsored/
https://www.sra.org.uk/sra/equality-diversity/key-findings/diverse-legal-profession/
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/women-and-leadership-news-media-2020-evidence-ten-markets
- Difference it makes re: participation rates to have more women in meetings:
- Menopause and the workplace: (UK Parliament Report 2022)
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5803/cmselect/cmwomeq/91/report.html
Manterruptions!
- Original 1970s research on Gender of Interrupting/Overlapping
http://web.stanford.edu/~eckert/PDF/zimmermanwest1975.pdf
- Kennedy & Camden (1983) https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00986997
Books worth reading on the impact of sexism and misogyny on women:
Helen Lewis: Difficult Women – A history of Feminism in 11 fights
Laura Bates: Fix the System, not the Women
Laura Bates: Men Who Hate Women: from incels to pickup artists, the truth about extreme misogyny and how is affects us all
Laura Bates: Everyday Sexism
Sheryl Sandberg: Lean In – Women, Work and the Will to Lead
Caroline Criado-Perez: Invisible Women: exposing the gender bias women face every day
Biography
Dr Vanessa Collingridge is an award-winning broadcaster, best-selling author, prize-winning academic and leadership coach.
Her international career has taken her to all seven continents on earth, making TV & radio series for national and international broadcasters. Her documentary series on Captain Cook won 5 international awards, including a Canadian “Oscar”. A columnist, feature-writer and author, her publications include biographies on Captain Cook (2002), Boudica (2005) and The Story of Australia (2008), plus multiple chapters for Seventy Greatest Journeys in History (2006) and The Greatest Explorers in History (2010), along with a range of scholarly books and papers.
Vanessa gained her PhD in the history of science, ideas & public engagement, focusing on Cook’s search for the Great Southern Continent (Antarctica) and how the eighteenth century press turned ‘expert knowledge’ into ‘news’. She is a Royal Literary Fellow at the University of Glasgow, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Vice President of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, and cofounder & co-host of Glasgow and Hong Kong’s Cafés Scientifiques that offer free, public, monthly debates on topical issues.
With over 30 years’ experience in communications coaching, public engagement, and executive and impact coaching in the UK, USA, Europe and Asia, she specialises in small group/one-to-one executive and fast track training, from preparing and delivering presentations to full leadership, media and crisis coaching. She has a particular interest in developing female talent.
Vanessa is also a qualified mediator in conflict resolution, working with public and commercial organisations, private clients and young people. She has also completed cosmonaut training(!) with the Space Tourism Programme at Russia’s Star City. After a varied international career including three years living and working in Hong Kong and across Asia, she lives back home in Scotland with her partner, their four sons, two cats, a dog, an African pygmy hedgehog and an axolotl…
