Story highlights Australian senator made history by breastfeeding on Parliament floor

Filipovic: If we want women in halls of power, we must change norms about what it means to work while female

Jill Filipovic is a journalist based in New York and Nairobi, Kenya, and the author of the new book "The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness." Follow her on Twitter. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) Australian Senator Larissa Waters is making headlines by breastfeeding her infant daughter in Australia's Parliament. This is thanks to a change in Senate rules that Waters pushed for last year, allowing politicians who are also new parents to care for their children, briefly, from the floor.

Jill Filipovic

It's an important move -- and it is a shame that it rises to the level of news. The reality is that women have babies, and those babies need to eat. Women who choose to breastfeed, too, need to be able to empty their milk supply regularly, either by pumping or feeding their child -- the biological reality of breastfeeding is that if you wait too long, your breasts can become painfully engorged and may also leak.

If a woman is elected to public office and gives birth, she shouldn't have to choose between serving her constituents and her own physical health -- and that of her baby.

Around the world, women have long continued to work even after the birth of a child -- tending to their fields, harvesting crops, pounding seed into flour, running small businesses, selling their wares, preparing food. Surely a parliamentarian can sit in a chair, feed a baby with her breast, and still listen, debate, and cast her vote. And surely the men (and women) around her can observe this fundamentally human moment as a simple part of life.

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Yes, for many people, breasts are sexually alluring or arousing -- but so too are lips and hands, and having those out in Parliament doesn't bring on sexual chaos. We use our bodies for many different things, including having and feeding children. If men are so sensitive and easily distracted that they can't do their jobs while a woman is nursing, well, perhaps they aren't fit to hold public office.

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