Women Who Quit: Media and Policy Discourse about Gender and Work

The article examines dominant media and policy discourse about women who leave paid employment in the context of motherhood and menopause. It shows that this discourse frames women’s decision to leave the workforce as a personal choice, minimising the role of workplace and societal structures; centres on women in professional jobs and leadership roles, overlooking women in low-paid, informal or insecure jobs; links women’s employment patterns and experiences to their reproductive bodies, thus ignoring women’s unequal load of caring responsibilities; and prioritises keeping women in the workforce over the state’s and employers’ responsibility for supporting workers’ health, wellbeing and job satisfaction.