Abolish Motherhood

Blue text on a blue background

This button is most likely related to the campaign to abolish the national holiday of Mother’s Day. In 1908, Anna Jarvis spearheaded the first Mother’s Day events to honor her own mother who was a Sunday school teacher and took care of wounded soldiers during the Civil War. She then campaigned for the holiday to become official and in 1914, Congress made it so. The floral and greeting card industries quickly took advantage of the commercial possibilities of the holiday and by 1920, Jarvis was disgusted by all manufacturers profiting from the holiday. She spent the rest of her life going door-to-door getting people to sign petitions to try and abolish the holiday she founded.