Lactation at Work

Expressed Milk, Expressing Beliefs, and the Expressive Value of Law

Elizabeth A. Hoffmann

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781108488549
• eBook ISBN:
  9781108802727
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Law Theory & Practice
• Index: Law

In recent decades, as women entered the US workforce in increasing numbers, they faced the conundrum of how to maintain breastfeeding and hold down full-time jobs. In 2010, the Lactation at Work Law (an amendment to the US Fair Labor Standards Act) mandated accommodations for lactating women. This book examines the federal law and its state-level equivalent in Indiana, drawing on two waves of interviews with human resource personnel, supervising managers, and lactating workers. In many ways, this simple law - requiring break time and privacy for pumping - is a success story. Through advocacy by allies, education of managers, and employee initiative, many organizations created compliant accommodations. This book shows legal scholars how a successful civil rights law creates effective change; helps labor activists and management personnel understand how to approach new accommodations; and enables workers to understand the possibilities for amelioration of workplace problems through internal negotiations and legal reforms.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Series Information
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter One Introduction
• Chapter Two Lactation Law as Public Policy
• Chapter Three Expressed Frustration: Noncompliant, Insufficient, and Inconsistent Accommodations
• Chapter Four Milk and Management: Substantive Compliance through Managerialization
• Chapter Five Allies Already: Supportive Human Resource Specialists and Supervising Managers
• Chapter Six Moralizing the Law: Listening in the Shadow of the Law and the Transformation of Supervising Managers
• Chapter Seven Conclusion
• Appendix A - Federal and State Lactation at Work Laws
• Appendix B - Methodology and Research Strategy
• References
• Index