Let's talk about menopause

Five years ago, Wacango Muguro Kimani went to renew her passport at Nyayo House. A male supervisor attending to her was shocked to learn about her age when going through her personal information. Not hiding his astonishment, he asked her, “You mean you are that old!” She calmly responded to him, “but you are older than me,” to which the supervisor shot back; “men don’t grow old.”

“It was not a compliment because he was deriding older women. It made me wake up to the way society treats older women. Men are considered as leaders and elders when they grow older, while women are brushed aside as grannies with little to offer. As if growing up didn’t have its hurdles for women! Growing older can be challenging because people consider them less productive as they age,” says Wacango.