Welcome to this alumni blog series celebrating International Women’s Day (Saturday 8 March 2025). This year’s theme, “Accelerate Action,” emphasises the urgency of achieving gender equality by addressing systemic barriers and biases women face.
We are excited to feature Department of Management alum, Diana Skeete (MSc Industrial Relations and Personnel Management, 1990), Founder and CEO of MenoAssess.
Diana’s work focuses on supporting women with underlying health conditions and racially minoritised women through menopause. With over 30 years of experience in HR and organisational development, Diana collaborates with institutions to promote inclusive workplace practices.
Read about Diana’s impactful career and how MenoAssess is driving positive change for women’s advancement.
Please tell us about yourselves and career journey to date
My name is Diana Skeete. I am the Founder and CEO of MenoAssess which aims to help healthcare providers and employers support women with underlying health conditions and/or racially minoritised women struggling with transitioning through menopause.
I am currently working with the University of Oxford and Imperial College London to conduct research into inclusive intersectional approaches to managing the menopause in the workplace.
As a results-oriented HR and OD consultant, I have successfully delivered people-management and change programmes across the private, public and non-profit sectors. With over 30 years’ experience in the field, I have supported a range of organisations, from start-up to maturity, to achieve their goals.
I am passionate about equipping individuals and organisations with the tools to build competitive advantage. I work with clients to create, evaluate and transform flagship programmes in the people-management, workforce development, DEI, and health and wellbeing space.
I am also a Non-Executive Director of an NHS Trust, a Salzburg Global Fellow on the Women As They Age programme, and a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. I am a former Reader for the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Further and Higher Education (specialising in reviewing equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives), and a former trustee of the non-profit Action for Race Equality (ARE), formerly the Black Training & Enterprise Group (BTEG).
With over 30 years’ experience in the field, I have supported a range of organisations, from start-up to maturity, to achieve their goals.
How is your company positively impacting women’s advancement?
There is growing awareness of the menopause and its impact however, most businesses are still unprepared to manage the consequences effectively. The lack of robust data on how menopause affects different demographics has led to workplace policies and programmes that are often generic, reactive or non-existent.
Finding solutions
Finding solutions to enable women to have a healthy transition through the menopause is crucial – by 2030, the world population of menopausal and postmenopausal women is projected to increase to 1.2 billion, with 47 million new entrants each year.
Despite this large number, three out of five women say they are negatively affected at work by the menopause, and 43% are more likely to quit their jobs by the age of 55 because of it.
Worryingly, women with underlying health conditions often experience more debilitating menopause symptoms, while minoritised women are more likely to enter menopause earlier, and suffer symptoms for longer.
Finding solutions to enable women to have a healthy transition through the menopause is crucial – by 2030, the world population of menopausal and postmenopausal women is projected to increase to 1.2 billion, with 47 million new entrants each year.
Introducing MenoAssess
At MenoAssess, we provide the research, expertise and strategic support companies need to close these workplace gaps and drive long-term business success. MenoAssess offers cross-cutting solutions that are inclusive, intersectional and can tailor support to the needs of our clients:
- For GPs: we are developing a digital screening tool to help them better understand and support all menopausal patients.
- For employers: we are building a digital assessment tool and software platform to ensure they can offer high-quality support to employees.
- For organisations with an existing menopause programme: we will offer a digital inclusivity evaluation tool and a service to expand support to underserved groups.
Positively impacting women’s advancement
We believe we are positively impacting women’s advancement by:
- Working with their employers and healthcare providers to deliver improvements in strategic policy and programme development. This in turn will help women to feel secure in the knowledge that they are working in environments that are dedicated to improving employee retention and productivity.
- Providing leadership and managerial support by equipping individuals, line managers and teams with the knowledge and confidence to support women effectively.
- Conducting workforce impact assessments using data-driven analysis to identify key challenges and opportunities within organisations to help improve women’s experiences at work.
- Initiating ongoing research, monitoring and evaluating to ensure women receive menopause support that delivers measurable results.
- Lobbying and advocating for change from key decision-makers in business and healthcare, as well as government policy-makers.
If you’re an LSE student or alumni with a business idea or interest in entrepreneurship, check out LSE Generate.
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Find out more about International Women’s Day.
