Mother's Day Articles, Events and Trivia

Mother’s Day is May 13, and we’re already hearing about publications and events worth noting. But first, a quiz:

When did Mother’s Day begin?
1. In 1858, when Anna Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker, organized “Mother’s Work Days” to improve the sanitation and avert deaths from disease-bearing insects and seepage of polluted water.
2. In 1872, when Boston poet, pacifist and women’s suffragist Julia Ward Howe established a special day for mothers — and for peace — not long after the bloody Franco-Prussian War.
3. In 1905, when Anna Jarvis died. Her daughter, also named Anna, decided to memorialize her mother’s lifelong activism, and began a campaign that culminated in 1914 when Congress passed a Mother’s Day resolution.

Fem-MOM-ism: RH Reality Check is running a Fem-MOM-ism series that celebrates motherhood from political, personal and global perspectives. New articles include “Feminist Reflections on Motherhood,” by Amy Richards; “Global Commitment to Safe Motherhood,” by Jill Sheffield, founder and president of Family Care International; and an interview with China Martens on punk parenthood.

For What It’s Worth: If stay-at-home mothers were paid, their salary would be $138,095, according to the latest research by Salary.com (reported by Reuters). Mothers with full-time jobs outside the home would pick up an additional $85,939.

“Women, Work and Family Across the Life Cycle”: Eastern Massachusetts OWL is hosting a Mother’s Day Celebration Tuesday, May 8, on the UMass campus in Boston. Guest speaker is Suzanne Bump, Massachusetts secretary of labor and workforce development, who will address work-related issues of midlife and older women in Massachusetts and the new administration’s agenda for women.

Our Bodies Ourselves is one of the sponsoring organizations. The event begins at 1:30 p.m. at the Healy Library (11th floor). For more information, call 617-287-7305.