Lactation at Work: Expressing Milk, Expressed Concern, and the Expressive Value of Law

Dr. Elizabeth Hoffman, a sociologist from Purdue University, will present findings from her research on employed mothers. She notes that, 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. Professor Hoffmann’s talk will examine 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.  However, Professor Hoffmann will also challenge the perceived success of the law as truly family-friendly or pro-woman.