Nursing Mother Arrested and Held Until She Dumped Milk Into The Sink, Marines Send Nude Photos And Wall Street Ponders Lowest Birth Rate Since Great Depression

“Make America Mate Again” was the title of an article published by Bloomberg, a well-known financial news service, and it caught my eye as news came up about one mother who was arrested during a civil protest in New York yesterday in the Day Without Women protest and held in jail so long that she was pumping and dumping her breastmilk in a jail cell sink. Economists have released reports about the US birthrate being the lowest since 1936, and mothers are being held from nursing their babies for blocking traffic.

Sarsour, the last of the three leaders to be freed, said the mood inside the jail cell was “empowering” and “inspiring.” Mallory, who was released about an hour earlier, said a dozen or so women were singing freedom songs to pass the time.

Sarsour was upset that authorities were still holding fellow Women’s March co-chair Bob Bland, who gave birth just a few months ago and needed to nurse her baby.

“She’s expressing her milk in the sink, but they won’t let her out,” Sarsour said.

Mallory, Perez and Sarsour said they would wait outside of the precinct until the last woman is released. Members of the group tweeted earlier that they were arrested after blocking traffic.

“I got arrested with some of the strongest women that represent the best that New York City has to offer,” Sarsour said. “I feel empowered, I feel proud of what I did today and I’ve done this many times before. … I hope it sends a message to people that you’ve got to risk it, you’ve got to be bold in this moment.” 

In fact, the nursing mother who was so full of milk that she had to express it in a jail sink was the very last woman to be released. It’s not a coincidence that this story broke as another news story broke about male Marine Corp members creating a site of 30,000 users dedicated to sending out pictures of women naked to embarrass them or retaliate for a break-up.

Demonstrating that men still have a lot to learn, and that women are grossly underrepresented in Wall Street, one quoted factor in the decline in birth rate cited “more opportunities for women,” as if gender violence, economic insecurity and sexual aggression just have no bearing on bearing conversations.

In all likelihood, this decline [1936]was owed to the growing secularization of society at this time, and in particular, the growing opportunities for women outside of traditional gender roles-– not to the collective trauma of World War I. These new mores went hand in hand with sharp declines in the formation of new households, as younger people put off marriage and childbearing. This trend, or what Barber described as a “rapid and very large decline in the rate of growth of non-farm households,” led to a dramatic decline in residential construction starting around 1926.

Apparently we live to breed, unless something better comes along, of course…

On March 6, 2017, just this week, an editorial on economics demonstrates that women are choosing to have fewer children in the U.S. Of course, no mention is made of holding nursing mothers in jail cells until they are the last released and are leaking milk into the sinks.

To put the fertility rate in perspective, it is now at about 1.85 births per woman. To maintain a stable population requires at least 2.1 births per woman. The US has been at or below the replacement fertility rate since 1972, as the chart below shows.

Perhaps economists should consider that while women in leadership and working for a company lead to 34% higher profits, a large enough profit margin to warrant its own ticker [SHE], it seems society is slow to recognize that the gender disparity, sexual violence and discrimination have a direct cost for women and fertility. Realistically, it’s about value. If society values women having children, it had better put its money where its mouth is, literally.