Borders College Gets Globally Engaged about the ‘M’ Word

@BordersCollege welcomes New Zealand-based Jeanette Kehoe-Perkinson, a long-time advocate for women in leadership, to talk about menopause.

As part of our Women’s History Month celebrations, Borders College recently held the ‘Let’s Talk About the ‘M’ Word’ event, which aimed to raise awareness of menopause.

The College welcomed Global Executive, Executive Coach and social entrepreneur Jeanette Kehoe-Perkinson, live from New Zealand, to speak with Borders College colleagues, guests and partners about menopause at work.

The event was introduced by Borders College Principal Angela Cox, who welcomed guests and spoke a bit about her personal journey with menopause.

Through in-person and online sessions, which attracted over 90 guests from across 11 UK college’s and universities and a host of national organisations, Jeanette provided information and insight on how to help talented women stay employed, stay positive and stay the course.

Jeanette delivered a presentation and also talked about her own time going through menopause, which spurred her on to help others. Her experiences led her to set up a website designated to providing information and helping people going through this temporary life phase.

The popular sessions encouraged participants to talk, in-depth, about menopause and how this affects their day-to-day duties at work. Guests were invited to ask questions and valuable discussion was had on what is still considered a taboo subject by many businesses.

Jeanette thanked the guests for taking part and finished by saying:

“Menopause is a temporary phase of women’s lives. Go and seek help if you are unsure about the way you are feeling. If we can normalise this in the workplace, it would make such a big difference to women’s lives and raise awareness amongst both male and female staff. Remember that even if you are going through a difficult time, life will return to normal. This too shall pass.”

Borders College Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Officer Amy Brydon, who organised the event, commented:

“We were absolutely thrilled to be joined by Jeanette at our menopause event, and are incredibly grateful to her for sharing her inspiring and insightful words. It was heartening to see so many people from across Scotland and beyond engaging in important conversation about how to create more inclusive and menopause-friendly organisations.”

Jeanette Kehoe-Perkinson is an executive board member of Ph.Creative and is their Global Chief People Officer and their Managing Director in Asia Pacific.

She is also an Executive Coach to C-suite level executives and an Advisory Board Member of Global Angels, the University of Liverpool Management School and the University of Auckland Business School, and she is a She-EO Activator, a member of Global Women, a Fellow of the RSA and a member of the IoD in both the UK & New Zealand.

As a long-time advocate for developing women into leadership roles, Jeanette created the social enterprise, Power Pause to support and retain working women through menopause. Passionate about economic & community development and regeneration, she has served as a Non-Executive Director on the Boards of Liverpool Vision; the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership; and the Eldonian Group (a UN-awarded sustainable residential community).