Menopause - a naturally occurring stage of life for all women - has been misunderstood, hushed up, and often poorly treated for generations. Yet in recent years, a sea change has taken place. Women know more, speak up more, and their doctors - often female - are able to respond with more options. Where are we today? Join us for a conversation with Dr Kelly-Ann Shedd-Hartman about this topic every woman should know more about.

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Electricians, construction workers, plumbers, power plant technicians, heavy equipment operators: all these and more make up the 'skilled trades.' Such jobs typically offer some of the best pay for workers without a college degree. These skilled trades make up almost 30% of our economy - and have historically been all male. Today, women hold only 4% of these jobs. (Take that, Rosie the Riveter.) Why? Sue Hoffman is our guest to plumb (!) this topic. Sue has spent a lifetime working to expand workforces for women. She brings a wealth of experience, including as a consultant, the head of Women in Nontraditional Careers Initiative in Philadelphia, and as a tradeswoman herself. Listen in to learn about some of the biggest impediments to getting more women into more skilled trades. And, spoiler alert, it's not hiring discrimination.

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It can be hard to step back and 'see' our gendered world - all the different behaviors, work and family roles, clothes, speaking styles, body language, hair styles that to us mean 'male' or 'female.' This gendered world is all we've ever known, after all.

All those seemingly small gendered manifestations yield big consequences however: men are 4 times more likely to commit suicide, women accumulate about half as many assets over a lifetime, men experience more physical violence and a dearth of satisfying social relationships, women provide the vast bulk of unpaid care for children, other adults, and the home - the list could go on.

Yet these differences are not innate. They are not just a function of our hormones or our different reproductive functions. In fact, they reflect thousands of years of socializing norms and the creation of systems and institutions that govern our lives.

We think it's time for a fresh look at how we got here - gendered world and all.

Resources: A Gendered World makes a Gendered Brain | Gina Rippon | TEDxCardiff, Anglea Saini: The Patriarchs, How to talk to kids about gender equality and stereotypes | UN Women – Headquarters, National Women's History Museum, Invisible Women | Caroline Criado Perez, Gender stereotypes begin at age 10 | Hub, Gender and media - GSDRC, Geena Davis Institute, "Historical Perspectives on Violence Against Women" by Vivian C. Fox