Big Ocean Woman for Faith, Family, and motherhood. Maternal Feminism Big Ocean Woman for Faith, Family, and motherhood.

What is "Maternal Feminism?" In the late 19th century women in Europe and the United States began mobilizing to help reform society and to secure women the right to vote. The term “maternal feminism” was first coined to describe the feminism that many of our great great grandmothers believed in.

Women like Hannah More in England, Frances Willard, in the United States, and Nellie McClung of Canada rallied women to become involved in improving their communities and seeking the right to vote. Hanna More Frances Willard Nellie McClung

“Too long have the gentle ladies sat in their boudoirs looking at life in a mirror like the Lady of Shallot, while down below, in the street, the fight rages, and other women, and defenseless children, are getting the worst of it. But the cry is going up to the boudoir ladies to come down to help us, for the battle goes sorely; and many there are who are throwing aside the mirror and coming out to where the real things are. The world needs the work and help of the women, and the women must work, if the race will survive.” Nellie McClung, a Canadian women’s rights leader

 These maternal feminists differed from some of the other women’s groups of their time because they believed that women were innately different from men, and believed women possessed a divine feminine nature that had great potential to shape and mold the world. They saw women’s work and involvement in society, as a natural and important extension of a woman’s innate capacity for nurturing and motherhood. Maternal feminism was hugely popular in both Europe and the United States and it was these women who were the main force behind the suffrage and social reform movements of their day. For many of these women they saw political and social involvement as part of their God given responsibilities as women and mothers.

 ”The feminism of women like Hannah More and Francis Willard was philosophically different from the feminism of women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony who believed in a more egalitarian type of feminism. Egalitarian feminism has its roots in early feminist writers, like Mary Wollstonecraft, who believed that men and women were essentially the same and rejected any form of patriarchy in private or public circles. This type of feminism was, from the start, considered to be more “hard core” and historically appealed to a smaller group of women than maternal feminism.” *Devereux, Cecily (2006-02-06). Growing a Race: Nellie L. McClung and the Fiction of Eugenic Feminism. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. ISBN 978-0-7735-7304-8. https://books.google.com/books?id=FhyNzXSmiAQC&pg=PA19&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false

In addition to the women’s rights movement in North America and Europe there have been, historically, many other women’s groups who have organized and gathered with a maternal purpose. Many of the successful grassroots women movements have been organized by women who desired to protect and improve their communities, their homes and their values.

It is this same love for children, humanity and the future of our world that drives what Big Ocean Women is doing today.

We see ourselves as a resurgence of the maternal feminism of our foremothers, a feminism that honors our unique female strengths and works together with men to improve and protect humanity. United We Stand

Big Ocean Women is not just another “wave” of feminism but it is a resurgence of the historic and truly powerful female voice-- a voice of calm, a voice of peace, a voice of clarity, and a voice of love—it is a voice that we believe has the possibility to change the world.

come add your voice to our cause and be part of history in the making!