What To Do To Get A Safe Place To Express Breast Milk At Work

Gender discrimination comes in many forms. It can include things like not being hired because you are a woman or present as one, being sexually harassed at work, and even being denied a safe and private place for new mothers to pump their breast milk. If you are a new and nursing mother and you need to have a place so that you can pump your breast milk, there are steps that you can take in order to get what you need. 

Talk to Supervisor/Human Resources

The first thing that you are going to need to do is to talk to your supervisor and/or human resources department. You need to find out if there is already a space that you can use, and if so, where it is located. If your place of business doesn't already have a place set up, then you need to negotiate with them to find an appropriate spot. They may try to offer you the bathroom, but that isn't necessarily a good solution. You can talk to them about using an empty office space or conference room. You may also need to talk to them about taking longer breaks, since pumping can take a little bit longer than nursing does. 

Document

When you are talking to the people in charge about a space or when you are filing any complaints with them, make sure that you are doing it in writing. That can mean sending them an email and CCing or BCCing someone else in charge. It can also mean that you send it to them with a delivery notification so that you can see that they got the email and that they read it and opened it. 

Visit an Attorney

If you have tried everything you can in order to get a safe, quiet, and private place in order to pump so that you can save your breast milk and you still aren't getting what you need, then you may need to talk to a gender discrimination law attorney to see what your rights are. Your rights can vary from state to state, but your attorney can help you with that and help you get the space that you need in order to do what you need in order to feed your child. 

If you think that you have been the victim of any kind of gender discrimination, you should see an attorney so that you can see what you can do about your case. 


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