Family Law Menopause Project
The Family Law Menopause Project was launched out of concern that many divorcing women are currently left financially disadvantaged as they approach retirement if the impact of menopause and their ability to work is not properly taken into account when financial settlements are drawn up.
Launched in 2022 by our clients at the award-winning law firm Family Law Partners, we have worked with one of the Directors, Farhana Shahzady, on the formation of The Family Law Menopause Project campaign since the beginning – from research to launch, branding, PR, media relations and continued stakeholder management. The campaign is still ongoing and continues to be a high-profile issue that has struck a chord within the legal industry, as well as with various leading figures in the menopause space nationwide, including internationally.
Our approach
Following a period of research and discovery to fully understand the key aspects and issues at the heart of the campaign, we began by determining how we could translate these (some of which includes fairly complex legal terminology and processes) into messaging that would resonate with the campaign’s target audiences.
Prior to launch we recommended that in order to get the campaign in front of leading experts in the menopause space and to elevate the campaign for nationwide press attention the project had to have its own ‘brand’ and online footprint.
We first established a survey, the first of its kind to uncover trends and insight into the prevalence of menopause and perimenopause in family law cases. The data supports one of the key aims of the Family Law Menopause Project which is to raise awareness amongst the family law community of the impact of menopause so that family lawyers can ensure that their advice leads to the fairest financial outcome for female clients as they approach retirement. One of the key findings revealed that 81% of family lawyers are failing to understand or recognise the impact of menopause and perimenopause during divorce and separation of their female clients to work full-time or even part-time.
Extending the project further we then partnered with Newson Health Research and Education, led by Dr Louise Newson – the leading doctor in the Menopause space – to survey more than 1000 women who have either gone through or are currently going through a divorce, and who have gone through or going through the menopause.
This ground-breaking research was released on the eve of World Menopause Day 2022 and cemented what has been long assumed, but never proven, that the menopause has a clear and negative impact on divorce, separation, and relationships. 7 in 10 women (73%) who took part in the survey blame the menopause for the breakdown of their marriage with a further 67% of the 1000 women taking part worryingly claiming it increased domestic abuse and arguments. Sadly, only a fifth of those women had sought support to talk about the perimenopause/menopause because they didn’t, at the time, think it was a contributing factor to the breakdown of the relationship.
Our work on The Family Law Menopause Project includes:
Impact
Legal sector coverage
The campaign has been extensively covered in all the legal sector press and journals, including The Law Society Gazette, ePrivate Client, The Review, Legal Futures, Resolution and Financial Remedies Journal. With Baroness Deech commenting on the campaign through the Family Law Journal.
National media coverage
In October 2022, the results of our survey with Newson Health was covered across the national press including: The Times, The I, Daily Mail, Telegraph and radio including Capital FM, Smooth FM and Radio X.
It was also covered in lifestyle media including Women and Home and Balance.
The project has many high-profile supporters including Dr Louise Newson, Kate Muir (producer on the Davina McCall menopause docu series) and Dr Shahzadi Harper.
Impact for Family Law Partners
Whilst the campaign was branded Family Law Menopause Project (in order to support its neutral, sector-wide aims), the indirect benefit to Family Law Partners has been the association with this thought-leadership piece. Farhana is positioned as the trail blazer and founder of the Project, alongside her role as Director at Family Law Partners. The Family Law Partners website has received many authoritative backlinks resulting in the domain authority of the brand increasing, supporting the firm’s online presence and brand.
