I’m a woman of 48 – and as replaceable in the office as the swivel chair at my desk | Nilanjana Bhowmick

In India, as elsewhere, menopenalisation' means women in middle age are failed by their employers and wider society

If I take another pay cut, I might as well start working pro bono," I joked with a friend recently, during another brutal round of job hunting in my home-city, Delhi. She, in her early 40s, laughed and said: I feel the same."

A few weeks later, I had deja vu on a call with another writer friend in her early 40s. I'm tired of trying to find a job that pays what I'm worth. No one will hire me unless I drop my expectations to entry level," she lamented.