Australian Senator Breast-Feeds in Parliament, and the World Notices
"What it really says is that we need more young women in Parliament so
that when we breast-feed our babies it’s not considered news." The response, not unlike what occurred after a lawmaker in Iceland was photographed breast-feeding while defending a bill in the country’s Parliament, reflects the degree to which maternal functions are still considered bold and political acts in institutions dominated by men.
By Thursday, her mundane bout of hunger had attracted praise for her mother from all over the world, including from Sheryl Sandberg,
the chief operating officer of Facebook, who declared (on Facebook, of course), "Go Larissa Waters — leading by example!" Ms.
In Australia — where 73 women serve in Parliament, representing 32 percent of all federal lawmakers, compared
with 19 percent in the United States Congress — the issue of child-rearing and lawmaking has come up before.
In 2009, a similar rule was used in the federal Parliament when Senator Sarah Hanson-Young tried to say a quick goodbye to her 2-year-old daughter in the chamber only to have the Senate president insist
that the child be removed, leading to screams from the toddler that were heard through the thick Senate doors.
Waters — an Australian Greens party member, like Ms. Hanson-Young — said she figured
that at some point she might end up taking advantage of the new rule.
Waters afterward, though one conservative lawmaker made a comment about the Greens party
wanting to take home wounded possums and "suckle them back to health," which struck Ms.
