I went to the website of the Independent Women's Forum.  They have a clear
politically conservative agenda, where something they call 'radical
feminism' is high on the list of things to combat.  They claim to speak for
all women who are not represented by radical feminism.  It didn't look like
the club for me, but I have no doubt there are LN subscribers who are able
to relate to them, and perhaps such a person would be more successful than I
would in making contact to try to correct the fallacies in their argument
that breastfeeding is a hindrance to the improvement of women's status.
The most recent event they hosted was a a lecture last week in Washington DC
by Warren Farrell, who was going to tell all in attendance 'the real reason'
why men earn more.  Apparently it is the radical feminists who perpetrate
the idea that gender discrimination has something to do with it.  
I didn't recognize any names on the board of directors.  One director
emeritus is called Lynne V. Cheney.  She is quoted in an eye-catching spot
on their website as saying 'At last, thanks to the Independent Women's
Forum, common sense has found an advocate.'  Some would say so; others of us
don't mind letting the radical feminists represent us, and for the record I
would probably place myself in the latter category, not having a phobia for
the word feminism nor even the word radical.  To each her own.
More worrisome is that this 'news' item looked a lot like a marketing firm
had been involved in writing it.  Certainly no one with solid factual
information about the economic and health effects on women and children of
not breastfeeding was involved.  When I was editing the midwifery journal
here I would regularly receive things that looked like news items but were
actually marketing ploys by companies in the health sector.  They were sent
out by news services that on closer inspection turned out to be for the sole
purpose of generating press reports about new drugs or products.  We had a
discussion on this list a number of weeks ago about a man who wrote stories
to order, for pay, on behalf of companies needing political sympathy, and
called it journalism.  This 'news' story from IWF reminds me disquietingly
of that.  
Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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