"Rosa Parks of breastfeeding"

I wrote last about feeling lucky that my new job is supportive of female employees pumping at work.  When the woman who told me how to reserve the designated room for pumping popped by my desk on Friday to see how things were going, the guy who sits next to me announced that she's the "Rosa Parks of breastfeeding." 

When my co-worker returned from maternity leave three years ago, she tried using the nursing room, but found it often occupied with people wanting to use the phone or taking power naps or what not and then she ended up wasting time looking for a private place to pump.  After pumping in a storage room, her frustration sent her to Human Resources where she very nicely asked for a dedicated room where nursing mothers have priority.  She matter-of-factly explained the dedication pumping entails, because a woman needs to commit to pumping multiple times a day in and day out or else her milk supply drops and/or she encounters health complications.  The room where a woman could pump in private already existed in our office, but without the simple assurance that she would have access to it when she needed it, her chance at success with long-term pumping was jeopardized.   When she was denied, she drafted a petition and went from desk to desk to talk to her co-workers about the issue and build support.  Who knows why it took a petition, but Human Resources changed course and relabeled the room the "Nursing Room," updated its employee manual to say that nursing mothers have priority for the use of the room, and the world went on turning. 

Although my co-worker experienced some backlash for her effort, (in the form of negative comments from fellow co-workers, such as the one who said that's not something that should get priority) by the time I arrived three years later, the culture had changed.  So I thanked her for paving the way for the rest of us, because I'm not sure if I would have had the guts to stick myself out there like she did.