Abstract
The Lactation at Work Law amended the Fair Labor Standards Act to mandate employer
accommodation of employees’ breast milk expression. Interviews with employees, human resource specialists, and supervising managers in nine industries found that some organizations’ supervising managers, who initially perceived accommodations only as a legal mandate furthering managerial goals, over time changed to understanding lactation accommodations through a children’s-health lens that created morality-driven motivations for legal compliance–a “moralization of the law.” Educational discussions with lactating employees not only provided these supervising managers with insights into lactation at work, but also sensitized them to ethical issues surrounding lactation accommodations.
Date of this Version
10-18-2021
DOI
10.1111/lasr.12588
Recommended Citation
Elizabeth A. Hoffmann (2022) “Moralizing the Law: Lactating Workers and the Transformation of Supervising Managers.” Law & Society Review, 56(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12588
Comments
This is the accepted version of Elizabeth A. Hoffmann (2022) “Moralizing the Law: Lactating Workers and the Transformation of Supervising Managers.” Law & Society Review, 56(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12588