>>I am curious, though. Why do women not support each other on this issue?

Some women are not very sophisticated or have not "had their consciousness
raised" very far, as we used to say.  Think of it this way:

The status quo for many years was: "The things men do are the only important
things, and women aren't capable of doing the things men do."

"Naive feminism" keeps the first part -- "The things men do are the only
important things" and challenges the second part, saying "Yes, of course,
women ARE capable of doing the things men do -- like being doctors, lawyers,
heavy equipment operators, magazine publishers, business owners, etc."

In order to convince people that women ARE capable, they think they have to
pretend that there are no differences between the two.  Only bottle-feeding
can be done by males and females equally (though research shows that men
don't do it very often).  Breastfeeding is a quintessential difference
between males and females, so must be viewed as unimportant.

In the second stage of a more informed and sophisticated feminism, women
realize that it is the *first* part of the status quo -- "The things men do
are the only important things" that is a major part of the problem.  And
they realize that it is as inaccurate as the second part.  That the things
women do ARE important -- especially the things that ONLY women can do --
gestate and lactate.  Anyone can scrub a toilet or cook a meal . . . .


Why is breastfeeding not a national feminism issue(and maybe it is?).

It is in certain circles.  And not just a national one, but an international
one.  Penny Van Esterik spoke about breastfeeding as a feminist issue at the
big international women's rights meeting in China several years ago, to
great acclaim.  Part of her speech was even quoted in my little local paper.
Granted, it isn't as high profile as some things -- I think because some
women feel it is too big a leap (read impossible) to change the culture to
make it truly mother and baby-friendly.

>>Why
are women who choose to stay at home still made to feel like they are doing
"inferior" work/service?

I'm not sure how to answer this one, as I'm not sure whether these feelings
truly come from others or are self-imposed.  The women I know who have
chosen to stay home with their children just brush off any attempts to make
them feel like what they are doing isn't important.  Then again, most of the
women I know have combined full-time work with attachment parenting in very
creative ways, myself included.

Kathy Dettwyler