Chancellor's Fellow
Roles and Responsibilities
Research Champion for Organisation Studies Group (2025 to 2028)
Executive Committee Member, Women's Health at Work Network (2025 to 2030)
Background
Belinda has a PhD in Management from University of Edinburgh (2020) and is a Chartered Management Accountant (qualified 2003). She earned an MSc in Strategic Management Accounting (2002), a Graduate Diploma in Psychology (2016), and an MSc in Psychology of Individual Differences (2017).
Research Interests
Belinda researches how women work. She is interested in how experiences of gendered ageing and ageism influence continued workforce participation and Extending Working Lives in mid to later life, focusing on workplace retention. She focuses on the individual within their organisational context of work. At the centre of Belinda's research is women’s health in the workplace, specifically menopause.
Current projects include:
- ERA App - development of digital health technologies to support healthy ageing at work
- Healthy Ageing at Work (HAWK) - A study of menopause in Switzerland (with University of Lausanne)
- Women's Health at Work - intersectional experiences of women's health in mid to later life (socio-economic status, race, neurodiversity)
Previous projects include:
- a 3-year investigation into hidden health factors affecting how workers over 50 engage with work (SHAW Project), https://www.shaw.business-school.ed.ac.uk/
- a longitudinal study on menopause and flexible work
- an exploration in to the intersectionality of menopause and neurodivergence at work
Recent publications include:
Steffan, B. (2025). Identity regulation: The fine line of balancing menopause awareness and stigma. Journal of Management & Organization, 1-24.
Steffan, B., Vickerstaff, S. & Loretto, W. (2025). Women in mid-later life, health and work: a narrative of uncertainty. In Research Handbook on Older Workers and Occupational Health and Safety. (Editors: de Lange, A and Furunes, T)
Steffan, B., Jandric, J., Loretto, W., & Airey, L. (2025). The long shadow of divorce: life-course, gender and later-life work and retirement. Ageing & Society, 1-21.
Potočnik, K., Steffan, B., & Zheng, S. (2025). Managing menopause transition in the workplace: The double‐edged sword of flexible work. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 98(2), e70032.
Steffan, B., & Potočnik, K. (2025). Responding to menopause at work as an identity threat: Resilience as resource for cognitive and emotional identity work. British Journal of Management, 36(3), 1290-1302.
Steffan, B., & Loretto, W. (2025). Menopause, work and mid‐life: Challenging the ideal worker stereotype. Gender, Work & Organization, 32(1), 116-131.
Manner, J., Steffan, B., Jepson, R., & Baker, G. (2025). Optimising workplace health programmes using organisational culture: Post-COVID perspectives from managers and workplace health experts from the UK contact centre industry. Journal of Industrial Relations, 67(2), 249-276.
Gottardello, D., & Steffan, B. (2024). Fundamental intersectionality of menopause and neurodivergence experiences at work. Maturitas, 189, 108107.
Steffan, B. (2024). Women in Work in Mid-Life: Value, Identity and Perceptions. Routledge.
Hay, K., Pschetz, L., Dixon, B., Steffan, B., Jandric, J., Tsanas, T., ... & Loretto, W. (2024). “Working it Out”: Exploring How Digital Technologies Could Support Healthy Ageing at Work. In Proceedings of the 13th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 1-16).
Steffan, B., & Potočnik, K. (2023). Thinking outside Pandora’s box: Revealing differential effects of coping with physical and psychological menopause symptoms at work. Human Relations, 76(8), 1191-1225.
Steffan, B., & Potočnik, K. (2023) Teaching through the menopause: A flexible work paradox. In Marsh-Davies, K. & Burnett, C. (Eds.) Teachers and Teaching Post-COVID: Seizing Opportunities for Change, London, Routledge
Steffan, B. (2021). Managing menopause at work: The contradictory nature of identity talk. Gender, Work & Organization, 28(1), 195-214.
Research Video
Belinda discusses the Supporting Healthy Ageing at Work (SHAW) team’s research on labour force participation among adults in mid-to-later life which reveals the pivotal role of line managers in fostering positive workplace experiences.