The Equality Act, breastfeeding, etc

[MacaroonMama]

Hi All,
Can someone clever please tell me how the EA interacts with breastfeeding women, specifically with the possible self ID future? Will BF women no longer be protected because legal men (ie transmen) can breastfeed? So will breaks, right to a space to express etc be all gone? Meeting a group of women tonight, mostly mums who have BF and wanted to have my facts straight. Many thanks 😘

As it stands;
only women can breastfeed, and
only people who are currently breastfeeding benefit from any adjustments made for women who are breastfeeding.

People who do not share a protected characteristic are not entitled to an adjustment, and they cannot;

• Use an adjustment for a protected group
• Demand an equivalent adjustment
• Claim they are being discriminated against when they are denied the first 2.

I seem to remember Lass posting on this issue in the past. It has been used exactly as you describe in the US, to remove women's legal protections, but Lass reckons that the British act is much more carefully worded: for something to count as sex discrimination (e.g. an equal pay claim) it doesn't have to affect all and only women, it just has to be shown that women as a group are disproportionately affected. So Lass thought the odd lactating transman would not undermine women's protections for BF. (Hopefully Lass will be along at some point to go through the law on this one).

Ok that second post sounds reassuring. Thank you!

@LassWiADelicateAir apologies for the bat signal, but I just wanted to check I wasn't misrepresenting what you'd said.

There was of course that case in America that ruled that 'men' could breastfeed and so discrimination against lactating women wasn't against the law because both 'men' and women were affected.

Tbd, the law on this will probably remain unchanged because it's the state of breastfeeding that is protected I believe rather than anything else.

I couldn't claim bf protection currently because I'm not doing it.

I would hope anyway...

It makes no sense to remove bf protection because 'men' can do it too.

That was the kind of thing I was worried about Barracker. But it seems as though the ‘disproportionate’ clause would protect British women? (Not as in so US women aren’t our problem, just thinking about the UK for a minute).

Would it take a test case of a transman wanting breaks/a room etc to change anything? Or would that probably not happen? Maybe I am overthinking this!

Oh, do you have any more info on that case?

Flowerpot ok, yes I know what you mean - do you think it would just be a right for all then? Would it actually be better for women because technically anyone could BF so it won’t be the ‘risk’ of employing a woman?

There are 2 separate issues here. It is the state of being pregnant and breastfeeding which is protected regardless of what that person says they are.

Re sex discrimination, an employer might, for example, dragoon his employees to socialise with clients at evening or weekend rugby events. Some women might enjoy that and be able to arrange family commitments. Some men might hate it and/or be unable to arrange childcare but there is likely to be more women and men who can't/won't attend such events. It does not matter that some women would love to attend and some men(eg my husband) would avoid this like the plague. It is discriminatory.

Or an employer, for no valid reason connected to the work, says all employees must be at least 5'6" tall. More women than men will fail to meet the requirement. I would. Unless the job has genuine physical requirements which a short person simply can't do, it is discrimination despite the fact some women are taller than 5'6"and some men are shorter.

Tbd, the law on this will probably remain unchanged because it's the state of breastfeeding that is protected I believe rather than anything else

Yes that is correct and Fermat sums up what I said previously.

The US case does not represent UK law either in relation to breastfeeding or discrimination

Thank you Lass, reassuring reading xx