In a 2020 podcast interview, aspiring vice president JD Vance appeared to agree with host Eric Weinstein’s assertion that “the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female” is helping to raise children. He certainly didn't dispute it.
A spokesperson told NBC News that Vance was not in fact agreeing with the host's "postmenopausal" comment, and accused "the media" of "dishonestly putting words in JD’s mouth." You can listen to the clip for yourself. But as two women lawyers well into in this life stage ourselves (minus the grandchildren), we have thoughts.
And so do the many, many women — those menopausal supposed-to-be-grannies — who are similarly appalled by a Republican Party more broadly that has repeatedly made statements suggesting a deep disdain for women’s bodily autonomy, to say nothing of their ability to make their own choices about their lifestyle and purpose.
In a viral thread on X, a remarkable collection of women demonstrated precisely why they are entitled to a respected place in society. The respondents included an operating room nurse, a city council member, a CEO of a landscape supply company, a CPA, and a legal assistant. Food pantry volunteers, political campaign volunteers, and yes, pet owners and caregivers all chimed in too. Elsewhere on the platform, “The Handmaid’s Tale” author Margaret Atwood did not mince words: “So, um, speaking as a very postmenopausal woman, if I didn’t have grandkids should I be taken out and shot? Lacking a sole purpose?”
The 2024 Democratic ticket is currently led by a postmenopausal woman and a running mate who earned the nickname “Tampon Tim” after signing a Minnesota bill that provided free period products in school restrooms. The 2024 Republican ticket, in contrast, is led by two men who have consistently mocked, denigrated and undermined female autonomy.
And so we write today to drive home an important message: Women who have been affected by menopause deserve better than mockery or minimizing labels. Instead of being lumped together as a group of faceless caregivers, they deserve and demand society’s attention and respect. And that starts by making their health a policy priority.
We write today to drive home an important message: Women who have been affected by menopause deserve better than mockery or minimizing labels.
Let’s start with equity in medical research. In 2020, the National Institutes of Health allocated only 10.8% of its $45 billion budget to women’s health, despite women making up more than half of the U.S. population. Of that, only a tiny fraction went to menopause research. Menopause-specific research is part of a “subcategory of a subcategory,” according to Dr. Lisa Mosconi, a neuroscientist and the author of the bestseller “The Menopause Brain.”
Older women make up around two-thirds of all Alzheimer’s cases, yet nonprofit Women’s Health Access Matter estimates a mere 12% of NIH funding for Alzheimer’s and related dementia research is focused on women. Cardiovascular disease is the No. 1 cause of death for women over 65 — a rate that accelerates and ultimately outpaces that of men in the decade after menopause.
Fortunately, a growing coalition of doctors, journalists and activists have demanded better — and that change is already starting to happen. In March 2024, President Joe Biden signed an executive order launching a national task force, the White House Women’s Health Research Initiative, with a call for a $12 billion commitment. Members of Congress introduced legislation this session — the Advancing Menopause and Mid-Life Women’s Health Act in the Senate and three more bills in the House — calling for a combination of increased research and education about menopause symptoms and treatments. And just this month, Louisiana passed a historic law (in effect as of Aug. 1) that mandates insurance coverage of menopause treatments and care.
We need to keep this drumbeat going. Menopausal women — and voters who have menopausal family members or may be on the brink of perimenopause themselves — should add this issue to the list of demands they bring to the ballot box. Perimenopause typically impacts women in their 30s and 40s, making this an issue that can touch multiple generations simultaneously.
Anthropologist Margaret Mead famously stated, “There is no greater power in the world than the zest of a postmenopausal woman.” That sentiment was echoed in a 1992 New York Times opinion piece, “Mighty Menopause,” which posited that the then-unprecedented rise of Baby Boomer women in politics was a direct result of hormonal shifts and the “biological changes wrought by menopause.” Ultimately, the piece concluded, menopause bolsters women’s “interest in power and increase their ability to use it.”
Let’s take all that power to the polls. Menopause should not define us. But neither should it be ignored as inconvenient or awkward. And there’s only one party that seems to understand why.