Menopause as a Protected Class: Growing Trend or a Hot Flash?

The State of Rhode Island – the smallest state in the nation – is not often thought of as a trendsetter for legal issues.

But in July 2025, the Ocean State set off the latest trend in employment protections by becoming the first state to enact employment-related legislation meant to support women who experience menopause.

Since then, a number of jurisdictions have considered adopting laws that address menopause, perimenopause, and/or women’s health issues more generally. While many of these legislative proposals focus on healthcare plan coverage mandates and benefits programs, several suggest broader implications for employers by requiring reasonable accommodations, mandating leaves, and/or categorizing the status of experiencing menopause or related conditions as a protected class under anti-discrimination laws.

• Rhode Island’s legislation expanded existing law requiring reasonable accommodations for pregnancy-related conditions to also encompass menopause-related conditions, adding “the need to manage the effects of vasomotor symptoms” to an existing definition of related conditions that also includes lactation and the need to express breast milk.

Employers covered by the Fair Employment Practices law (generally, those with four or more employees) should be sure to post a required notice published by the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training.

• Illinois has enacted a slate of menopause-related measures. Of most significance for employers is the Illinois Menopause Equity and Care Act, which, among other things, amends the Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA) to expressly recognize menopause-related conditions as a protected status under Illinois’ anti-discrimination laws. As in Rhode Island, the amendments to the IHRA extend its pregnancy-related protections, including the prohibition on discrimination and a reasonable accommodation mandate, to employees and applicants experiencing perimenopause, menopause, and/or associated medical or symptomatic conditions.

Illinois employers will need to update required workplace postings and should review handbook discussions regarding reasonable accommodations by the new provisions’ effective date of January 1, 2027.

• Philadelphia passed an Ordinance that expands the city’s Fair Practices Ordinance to prohibit discrimination on the basis of menstruation, perimenopause and menopause, effective January 1, 2027. The new law also amends the existing requirement that Philadelphia employers make reasonable accommodations for employees with needs related to reproductive health autonomy, pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition by adding menstruation, perimenopause or menopause as specifically named conditions.

A menopause-related bill (H.R. 9671 – the Menopausal Workers’ Fairness Act) was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in July 2026, and similar measures have been under consideration in a number of states this year. For example, a set of bills similar to those just enacted in Illinois have been proposed in New York, including A5436B, which would amend the New York State Human Rights Law to require reasonable accommodations for conditions related to menopause, perimenopause, and menstruation. That measure would also add a new section to the New York Labor Law, mandating new notice and posting obligations. The bill has not progressed out of committee since its reintroduction in January.

New York’s reluctance on this topic is not unique. Even where lawmakers in other states have approved measures extending civil rights protections to employees experiencing menopause or related conditions, bills have failed to cross the finish line.

For example, on May 19, 2026, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger vetoed legislation that, similar to the Illinois Menopause Equity and Care Act, would have amended the Virginia Human Rights Act to expand its defined protected classes to include menopause or perimenopause. Her veto message asserted that women experiencing menopause or perimenopause are already protected from workplace discrimination based on existing protections for age and gender.

Similarly, a few weeks ago, on September 30, 2026, California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed AB 1940, which sought to add perimenopause, menopause, post-menopause or other related medical conditions to the California Fair Employment and Housing Act’s definition of sex, making those conditions protected categories. His veto message recognized that these conditions were already covered under the state’s protections on the basis of medical condition and disability and further cautioned against a potential unintended consequence of encouraging lawsuits by “a very large segment of the working population . . . without meaningfully addressing the needs of the people the bill is intended to protect.”

Advocacy and awareness regarding menopause and related conditions continues to grow, so we anticipate more debates on the merits of such laws at statehouses on both coasts and in between. We will monitor and advise of any significant developments affecting employers.

Elizabeth A. Ledkovsky contributed to this article