I’ve been a stay-at-home mother. I’ve been a work-out-of-the home mother. I’ve been a work-in-the-home mother. I’ve worked full time and part-time, after becoming a mother. I was lucky enough to work at a women’s health center after the birth of my second child – my daughter – and was able to pump in my own office or hop home to breastfeed her on my lunch break. Though, I’ll note for the record, even pumping at a women’s health center can get uncomfortable (Uh, I’ll be out in a sec, I’m just staring at a photo of my baby and trying to squeeze milk out of my breast with this machine!). But, as is the case with so many new moms around this country, I needed to return to work when she was four months old so having the time and space to pump, at work, was a true gift. It isn’t an option many mothers who work out of the home have.

I realize that to some out-of-touch pundits like Time magazine’s Joe Klein, who took issue on this Sunday’s “Meet the Press” with health care reform measure’s Reasonable Break Time for Nursing Mothers, the idea that women should be “allowed” to both work and be a mother (at the same time!) is still novel.

However, the numbers tell a very different story, of course. Women account for almost half of the labor force and over 70 percent of women with children work.  The number of working women with children under three years of age is particularly high – 60 percent of these mothers are in the labor force. In 20 to 25 percent of families with two wage earners, women make up the sole breadwinner. Still, we know that single-mother-headed households (which are on the rise in this country) make up the poorest sectors of our society.

It’s why implementing policies which address the changing face of our workforce is necessary  – not only to ensure fair and flexible workplaces for working mothers but to facilitate economic security for families. This is not rocket science. If we pay women fairly, if we guarantee paid sick days and family leave, and allow for more flexible schedules we create an environment ripe for greater employee retention and loyalty and a thriving economy. Now, these things are not happening quickly enough or in enough of a widespread manner for us to see the equity and justice so many Americans deserve. But, they are happening.

So, when I read that Klein expressed annoyance with the fact that our government should be in the business of ensuring that businesses with over fifty employees maintain a clean, private room in which new, working mothers can pump, I wasn’t shocked. Just disgusted.

Peter Hart, writing on Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting’s (FAIR) blog, notes that when Klein was asked about how Americans are feeling in these weeks leading up to election day, Klein used – of all things – these pumping rooms as an example of the disgust Americans feel with Washington.

Calling the health care reform measure which mandates the pumping space one example of “big, slovenly pieces of legislation” passed by the federal government, Klein expressed astonishment over allowing female employees clean spaces to pump in private. Well, not exactly.

Klein might say he was simply addressing the fact that businesses are being forced to do this. His father’s small business, noted Klein, didn’t need to be told to do this – his dad would have just told his female employees to, “Use my office.”

Right.

Let’s unpack this. First off, as I mentioned, this measure mandates that businesses with over fifty employees must set aside this space. Working mothers who are employees of smaller businesses are out of luck if their employer doesn’t wish to provide them with such a space (or time, by the way. The measure also states that employers shall provide employees with a “reasonable” amount of break time for pumping).

Second? This law applies only to wage – or hourly – workers. If you’re a non-exempt worker, you’re covered by this law. If you’re a salaried employee, you are not covered by this law because, according to the fact sheet, you’d likely be covered by a workplace policy. This may or may not be true but because this federal mandate is simply an extension of the minimum wage and overtime laws, this applies only to non-exempt workers.

Third? I understand that Klein cannot be bothered to educate himself on issues that only affect mothers and children before he speaks about them on national television but when you measure both the positive health impacts on women and children, and the financial impacts on businesses’ bottom lines from the implementation of breastfeeding-friendly workplace policies, you can’t deny the benefits. In addition to the innumberable and well-documented medical reasons for breastfeeding babies until they are at least one-year old, there is a strong “Business Case for Breastfeeding” as well. Published by the Department of Health and Human Services, the 2008 report (PDF) documents the high return-on-investment on instituting breastfeeding friendly workplace policies. Employees miss less work, employee retention is greater and health care costs are lower.

Finally, organizations have the ability to plead their case if they think the law applies “undue hardship” on the business.

This is an attack on lower-income, hourly wage workers and it is not anyone’s fault that Klein has no idea what he’s talking about but his own. But it’s more than that. It’s Klein’s pedantic condescension which really grates on me. Klein seems to think that Americans don’t want the government to oversee policies such as this when, in fact, its way past time these sorts of measures are put in place to address the already-changed demographics of the workplace.

I am a working mother. I was once a working mother with an infant who needed to be breastfed. I did not have the option (even if I had wanted it) of not working. I do not believe that women should be forced to choose between feeding their newborns or supporting their family. For that matter, I do not believe that Joe Klein, if he is a father, should be forced to choose between staying home with a sick child or keeping his job. I do not believe that anyone should be forced to choose between caring for a sick, elderly parent or keeping their job. The breastfeeding measure, paid sick or family leave, fair pay for women, flexible workplace policies – these are this adult generation’s version of the fight for child labor laws, overtime pay legislation, eight hour workdays with mandatory breaks or Civil Rights Act measures which address racial and ethnic pay disparities.

Klein’s thoughtless comment about the breastfeeding measure signals a deeper misunderstanding of why this measure was passed, how it helps working mothers, their babies and families, and why we can’t let workplace equity be thought of as” big government breastfeeding” but justice plain and simple.