Mother’s Day Study with Reb Madsen

Part 3 of my series of videos explaining how Mother’s Day started and how it came to Australia from the USA.

This video explores the history of ‘non consensus’ around Mother’s Day. In 1908, when Anna Jarvis was campaigning hard to get it onto the USA calendar, it was initially voted down ‘in a hail of mockery’.

In 1927, 48 women wrote to Parents Magazine in the USA, decrying the days ‘exaggerated veneration of mothers’.

In 1929, folks seeking to recognise fathers’ contribution to family life campaigned to change Mother’s Day to Parents Day. This idea has popped up again more recently in Australian media, and was criticised as being an indication of woke culture gone too far.

But the debate has been around since 1929.

Mother’s Day has always struggled to ascertain a concrete identity as cultural ideals of motherhood and family are diverse, slippery and ever evolving.

📚 Sources (contact me for full references)
- Antolini, K. L. (2014). Memorializing motherhood: Anna Jarvis and the struggle for control of Mother’s Day
- Kauffman, B. (2002). They voted against Mother’s Day. The American Enterprise, 13, 50.
- Martin, A. M. (2021). Against Mother’s Day and employee appreciation day and other representations of oppressive expectations as opportunities for excellence and beneficence. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 102(1), 126-146.
- Prescott, C. C. (2016). Review of Antolini’s book listed above in The Public Historian, 38(3), 200-202.

My own copy of The Constitution of Society by Anthony Giddens has finally arrived in the mail! So I can take the library copy back to today … I’ve had it for two years and they’re asking for it 🫣🤓

How did Mother’s Day evolve from a day of feminist uprising to become the celebration of cultural ideals of motherhood that it is today?

The answer doesn’t lie with the founder, Mrs Ann Reeves-Jarvis, at all. It lies with her daughter, Anna Jarvis.

After Ann passed away, Anna took it upon herself to continue her mother’s legacy. In tribute to her beloved mother, Anna imposed a sentimental agenda upon what would go on to become the Mother’s Day we know today. She did this in tribute to her mother Ann, but this was never in Ann’s vision at all. Ann saw her movement as feminist uprising that advocated for women’s and children’s matters such as maternal health care and children’s education.

Follow for more on Mother’s Day ☺️

📚Sources (contact me for full details of references)
- Antolini, K. L. (2014). Memorializing motherhood: Anna Jarvis and the struggle for control of Mother’s Day
- Prescott, C. C. (2016). Book review of Antolini’s book listed above in ‘The Public Historian’ 38(3) 200-202

How did Mother’s Day start?

On Sunday 10 May 2026 it will be Mother’s Day in Australia and the USA. Australians will spend one billion dollars on flowers and alcohol to mark the occasion.

But Mother’s Day wasn’t always a day to celebrate femininity and cultural ideals of motherhood.

It started as a movement of maternal-led uprising by Mrs Anne Reeves Jarvis in West Virginia (USA) in the late 1800s.

Federal funds were being directed into the civil war effort in priority over women’s health, infant health and education.

Pregnant with her sixth child, Anne motivated women to stand together in protest and advocacy for women and children across the USA.

Future videos will explore how Mother’s Day came to Australia and how it devolved from a movement of maternal-led uprising to the perpetuation of gendered domesticity it is today.

📚Sources (ask me if you need the full reference)
- Antolini, K. L. (2014) Memorializing motherhood: Anna Jarvis and the struggle for control of Mother’s Day
- Australian Retailers Association (2024, April 17) Saying it with flowers tops the $1b cash splash for Mum
- Prescott, C. C. (2016) Review of the book Memorializing motherhood: Anna Jarvis and the control for Mother’s Day

Waiting for coffee with music