Last updated 5/4/03

Return Mother's Day to its original intention as a day to promote peace in the world

Bryn Mawr Alumnae Bulletin
by Alicia Bessette

Mothers of the world

Renaissance woman Marcia Hoffman Hutchinson '63, writer, psychologist and artist, recently helped found the grassroots group EveryMother's Day. EveryMother's Day seeks to draw attention to the real meaning of the holiday-working for the ideal of world peace-by encouraging observers to donate money usually spent on gifts to humanitarian organizations aiding victims of violence.

"We are really trying to celebrate the values of womanhood, motherhood," Hutchinson says. "Nurturing and compassion and caring goes into the socialization of a woman. A little 'subagenda' is that mothers can teach children the value of philanthropy and the importance of giving to others less fortunate."

EveryMother's Day started when a group of women of different ages, religions and political backgrounds met in April 2003 at a mutual friend's home in Sherborn MA. The women discussed the state of the world, violence in the Middle East and Afghanistan, and terrorism. "Some of the mothers in the group," Hutchinson says, "were exquisitely aware of the disconnect between how they teach their children to work out disagreements, and the way our government models something quite different." Putting politics aside, they agreed that they all were appalled at the loss of life in the world due to war. They also agreed that Mother's Day was a great vehicle for addressing the issue.

Mother's Day was originally Mother's Peace Day, conceived by Julia Ward Howe, the reformer and poet who wrote the lyrics to "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Ward worked with widows and orphans of soldiers in the Civil War, helping them to overcome grief and economic devastation. Convinced that peace was the most important cause of the world, she called for women to rise up and oppose war in all its forms. In her proclamation delivered in Boston in 1872, she said, "As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, and each bearing after her own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God."

Ward celebrated Mother's Peace Day for eight years with a group of women in Boston, but failed to get formal recognition for it. In 1907 a woman in Philadelphia, Anna Jarvis, started her own crusade for a memorial day when children should honor their mothers. The custom caught on throughout many states, and the holiday was declared nationally official in 1914 by Woodrow Wilson. Before she died, however, Jarvis reportedly stated that she regretted starting Mother's Day, because of its deterioration into commercialism.

"We wanted to do something for a holiday that has deeper meaning than what it has come to be in a very commercialized world," Hutchinson says. "That was our very clear intention. All of us are intelligent enough to know the complexity of the world situation. Nothing is black and white. We wanted to focus on one small piece." After reviewing about 10 organizations, the women of EveryMother's Day chose four which they deemed light on administrative costs, ensuring that most of the donated funds would serve their intended purpose. These beneficiaries are Doctors without Borders USA, which provides immediate medical assistance to populations in crises; Halo USA, which clears land mines for the safe return of refugees; the International Rescue Committee, providing sanctuary and services to refugees uprooted by war; and the American Friends Service Committee-EMAP (Emergency & Material Assistance Program), providing reconstruction, food and medical supplies to war-torn areas.

"We didn't want to focus on any one place," Hutchinson says. "These organizations go where there is war and violence in the world, and where damage has been done from that."

For Mother's Day 2003, Hutchinson says EveryMother's Day wants to involve more organizations and get the word out more efficiently and effectively.

The web site that Hutchinson designed for the group, www.everymothersday.org, won the Golden Web Award for 2002-2003 from the International Association of Webmasters and Designers. Hutchinson runs GoodWorx Web Design, specializing in creating web sites for individuals and groups who perform valuable service to their communities. Concerned about how much bad news there is in the world, Hutchinson wants to make some balance by giving online voice to people doing good works. GoodWorx allows Hutchinson to manifest her philanthropic drive and concentrate her different aptitudes and interests. "I'm a compulsive integrator," she says.

Hutchinson studied anthropology at Bryn Mawr and Berkeley but fell just short of a doctorate, instead deciding to pursue art full time. She became a sculptor and eventually was attracted to the prospect of "using art in a more contactful way with people." She studied art therapy, which led her to a doctorate in counseling psychology from Boston University. Hutchinson authored two books on body image in women, Transforming Body Image and 200 Ways to Love the Body You Have.

Recently, a technical writing course exposed her to designing web sites and writing for online media. "Web design, interestingly, is a container that holds or makes room for my skills. It's important that I know how to write, it's important that I know how to conceptualize and organize information, it's important that I be an artist and designer, and it's important that I be able to really listen with a third ear to the people I am trying to serve so that I can capture what it is that they want to put online. I capture subtlety, as many things require. If you just make 'widgets,' it's pretty easy to put that up on the web with your prices. But if you do something subtle, like work with people, or if you do something that's new or unique or that requires some explanation, my listening skills and maturity are a real plus in that."

Hutchinson still has a small, private holistic psychotherapy practice. And she continues to make art in the form of custom-designed floorcloths-extremely durable, hand-painted canvas area rugs.

Bryn Mawr gave Hutchinson a hunger for learning and a confidence in her ability to do so. "Many times, I've been struck along the way by just how good an education it gave me," she says. "The broad liberal arts background gave me an appreciation of great books, great philosophy, and the range of sciences. I still find a lot of things to be interesting. There are just so many things to find out about."

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