Design Historian Michelle Millar Fisher Views This 1950s Innovation as a Turning Point for Parenting

Design Historian Michelle Millar Fisher Views This 1950s Innovation as a Turning Point for Parenting

The historic breast pump she bought on eBay is now featured in an exhibit called “Designing Motherhood” at Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum and Center for Architecture and Design.
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I’ve always been really interested in the ways in which women experience the workplace. In the U.S., the workplace is a hostile place to be a parent, especially a mother. As a design historian, I look at how objects shape us, and breast pumps are part of that. They assist lactating people while allowing them to do other things—both a positive and a negative in terms of literally squeezing every last drop of productivity out of them.

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