Normalizing Menopause Can Help Employers Retain Senior Women

Tracy Gardner was in her late 40s when she began to feel unwell. Gardner, who at the time was president of J.Crew International Inc., recalls enduring intense hot flashes while she chaired packed meetings at the apparel maker. “I felt like I was living that scene in Broadcast News, where Albert Brooks’s character is sweating uncontrollably, soaking through his clothes on air during a news segment,” says Gardner, now 59, who works as a board director and executive adviser. “It was as if overnight, everything changed.” The shift was physical, mental and emotional, she says.

Gardner didn’t realize ...