Dear all:

Women are routinely trained into being the "good girl".  This is appropriate in certain 
circumstances and not others.  

I could continue with a lot of sayings like "the squeaky wheel gets the grease", but 
trading old sayings that may apply to some circumstances and not others is not the point.  

Being "good" and "cooperative" doesn't always create change.  Nor does it always 
succeed in business or any other endeavor in life.  No slave was ever freed by being 
"good and cooperative".  Women were not "allowed" to vote by being "good and 
cooperative".  One needs to think strategically when to use "good and cooperative" which 
has its place and when to speak up.  I would not vote for a President merely on the basis 
that they could "attract more flies with honey" and I can think of more than a few political 
examples of the "honey-tongued" doing more harm than good.  You can be a "part of the 
problem" if you are co-opted into maintaining the status quo rather than challenging it.

And I have to say Morgan and Karleen, brilliantly challenged the status quo.  I bet no one 
on Lactnet is going to forget Karleen's talk thanks to Morgan and her introduction.

So, to give one great example of a leader that I'd like to follow, one of the senators for 
the New York State legislature, Liz Krueger really had a lot of strategies when she was 
trying to solve the problem that cropped up when a pediatrician was upset about women 
not knowing they were allowed to breastfeed in public.  She really challenged us to come 
up with the most we could ever ask for and wanted to use it for "log rolling".  Push hard 
for something that you know other policy makers are not yet ready for, and then they will 
feel like they compromised when they give you the thing you really wanted in the first 
place.  Next time you go back to the bargaining table, you push beyond what you said the 
first time, so you get the thing you asked for last time (that you initially thought was 
beyond reach).

If we want others to take us seriously, we need to both be respectful AND at the same 
time demand that we receive the SAME respect.  

In this interest, we have now passed the deadline for revisions and I can tell you that the 
New York Lactation Consultant Association developed TWIN bills of rights.  One for the 
clients.  What they should expect from an International Board Certified Lactation 
Consultant.  At the same time a bill of rights for the lactation consultants.  How we should 
be treated by the client.  Each has 10 points including basic ethical and professional 
guidelines. It has no teeth. BUT, if enough parents are given a copy they might start to 
think about how they hire not just lactation consultants but other health care 
practitioners.  

Best, Susan Burger

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