Mothers’ Day is a fraught occasion for many. Those who want(ed) children but are unable to have them, might suffer. Those who don’t want to have children but were forced to carry them, might feel rage once again. Those who are mothers estranged from their children, might re-experience the pain. Those who lost their children to illness and death will freshly mourn. And those who lost beloved mothers will be raw with longing, at times. Loss through natural death is one thing, loss through forced family separation or violence another. Think of the tens of thousands of orphans currently surviving in Gaza and Ukraine, who will face a life without their mother.

Those who rejoice in being remembered by their loving kids, like I did this Sunday, have that nagging feeling that they are privileged, compared to those who feel particularly alone that day. Come to think of it, the only one who currently completely capitalizes from the occasion, is the flower- and greeting-card industry.

“Silent sentinel” Alison Turnbull Hopkins at the White House on New Jersey Day.

Imagine my surprise when I learned from historian Heather Cox Richardson this Saturday, a day before Mothers’ Day, that the origin of this celebration had nothing to do with familial relationships, but was instead a political movement started in the 1870s by Julia Ward Howe. The reformer had enough of the carnage produced by wars, the Civil War and Franco-Prussian War among them, and felt women needed to gain power to affect some change.

Mary Winsor (Penn.) ’17 [holding Suffrage Prisoners banner]

When the 14th Amendment was added to the Constitution without allowing women to participate fully in the political (or for that matter, economic) arena in 1869, Howe and like-minded women soon founded the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association, respectively, to promote women’s right to participate in American government.

It was first about the desire to counterbalance what they perceived to be male lust for war, power and aggression, with a female focus on peace. Howe called for a “festival which should be observed as mothers’ day, and which should be devoted to the advocacy of peace doctrines.”

It soon became clear that that could only be achieved if there was a movement towards equal rights for all. This included a change in how women were treated, among others, when they desired to leave abusive relationships, which at the time resulted in them losing all access to their children. And, at the core of it, it included the right to vote. The Suffragette movement was born.

Women marching in national suffrage demonstration in Washington, D.C., May 9, 1914.

As Richardson relates:

Howe had a new vision, she said, of “the august dignity of motherhood and its terrible responsibilities.” She sat down immediately and wrote an “Appeal to Womanhood Throughout the World.” Men always had and always would decide questions by resorting to “mutual murder,” she wrote, but women did not have to accept “proceedings which fill the globe with grief and horror.” Mothers could command their sons, “who owe their life to her suffering,” to stop the madness.

“Arise, women!” Howe commanded. “Say firmly: ‘We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country, to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.’”

I was looking at the historical photographs of women protesters I found at the Library of Congress archives and wondered what they would be thinking if they could see how the spirit of their path blazing efforts is systematically undermined today.

There are increasing demands that women should not be allowed to vote, or that it would be better to go back to a time where women lacked that right, as per Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson  after earning the Republican nomination for North Carolina governor, for example. John Gibbs, a Michigan candidate for the US House backed by former President Donald Trump railed against giving women the right to vote, arguing that America has “suffered” since women’s suffrage. He praised an organization trying to repeal the 19th Amendment which also argued that women’s suffrage had made the United States into a “totalitarian state.”

Party watchfires burn outside White House, Jan. 1919.

Rights to bodily self-determination that we had finally gained, have been taken away. It is not just about abortion per se, mind you. Birth control in all forms is the next target. There are also new Republican proposals on the table for a federal bill that establishes a registry for pregnancy. There are state law requirements that ask people about the dates and other statistics around their periods (often in the context of admission to a sports team.) There are serious concerns around period tracking apps which can be used by third parties to detect pregnancy and abortion, hence putting women at risk of being prosecuted. There are worries by Senators like Ron Wyden (OR) and Ed Markey (MA) that computerized car location data are freely shared by car makers with law enforcement (requiring only a subpoena, not a warrant signed by a judge.) If you are traveling in your car across state lines for medical treatment, you can be stopped or legally pursued. Privacy principles completely shattered.

No-fault divorce, a huge step towards women’s independence and ability to get out of a relationship that no longer work for them, is under threat as well, just look at legislative proposals in Texas, Nebraska, Louisiana and South Dakota. Details here, but the most extreme danger is for women in abusive relationships. If victims of domestic violence need to go through the lengthy and expensive process of court proceedings proving that they are being harmed, they will be exposed to prolonged and even aggravated abuse during the time it takes to get a verdict, or face prohibitive costs that will silence them. This affects not just the spousal victims, but also the children.

Of course the backlash against women’s rights is not restricted to the Western world. Women in Afghanistan or Iran have seen what few rights they had gained virulently taken away, with widespread discrimination and violent human rights abuses the order of the day. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres bemoaned just 2 months ago about the ruling Taliban having barred girls from education beyond sixth grade, from employment outside the home, and from most public spaces.

Women Ask President for Equal Rights Legislation. Fifty prominent members of the New National Woman’s Party called at the White House today to ask the president’s aid in passing an “Equal Rights Bill” in the next Congress. The bill would give women full equality in the government

Over 30 years ago, Pulitzer prize-winning author Susan Faludi wrote a book about Backlash. Much of what was discussed then is still an issue, or has become even worse, including the fracturing of a feminist movement that limits how much we could act and vote as a strong, united block.

At the time she observed: “In the past, women have proven that they can resist in a meaningful way, when they have had a clear agenda that is unsanitized and unapologetic, a mobilized mass that is forceful and public, and a conviction that is uncompromising and relentless.”

We will see how the absence of an organized mass movement will shape the November election. I hope we will nonetheless make our historic protesting sisters, the ones that initiated Mothers’ Day, deeply proud.

Help us to win the vote. George Grantham Bain Collection, 1914. 

Music about the Suffrage movement and the 19th Amendment.