From ancient goddesses to modern peace activists − Mother’s Day celebrates women’s political power |
On Mother’s Day, Americans go all out with gift-buying and dining out to honor the women in their lives. In fact, according to some estimates, consumer spending in the United States on this day is around US$34 billion.
This consumerist emphasis has long been criticized – including by the holiday’s founder, Anna Jarvis. She started the celebration in 1908 to honor her own mother, Civil War-era activist Ann Jarvis, who founded Mothers’ Day Work Clubs in her native West Virginia.
These clubs were associations of local mothers who came together for collective workdays during which they provided education and assistance to families. When the Civil War broke out, the clubs pivoted to promoting peace and reconciliation and offered food and medical assistance to both Union and Confederate soldiers. These mothers viewed peace as the only way to preserve their communities and to ensure the health and well-being of all.
As a scholar of Greek and Roman antiquity, I’m aware that honoring motherhood goes far beyond women’s work in the domestic sphere. In fact, for millennia the role of mothers has included not only childbearing and education but also protection over the community as a whole, especially through advocacy for peace.
Texts dating as far back as the fifth century B.C.E. show mothers promoting peace. In Aristophanes’ comedy “Lysistrata,” the women of Athens........