founding mother

English

WOTD – 8 March 2022

Etymology

From founding (“who or that founds (establishes, starts) or founded”) +‎ mother, modelled after founding father.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌfaʊndɪŋ ˈmʌðə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌfaʊndɪŋ ˈmʌðɚ/

  • Audio (General American):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌðə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: found‧ing moth‧er

Noun

founding mother (plural founding mothers)

1. A woman who founded (established or started) something.
   • 1984 December 29, Michael Bronski, “Hot Off The Presses”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 25, page 10:

     Finally there is a comprehensive, well-documented life of founding mother Elizabeth Cady Stanton: In Her Own Right, by Elisabeth Griffith. Griffith focuses upon both the life and the social atmosphere which led to the beginnings of the first wave of American feminism.

   • 1986, Johnnetta B. Cole, All American Women: Lines that Divide, Ties that Bind, →ISBN:

     She (Audrey Lorde) is a member of the founding collective of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press and a founding mother of SISA, Sisterhood in Support of Sisters in South Africa.

   • 2003 April 21, Sara Delamont, Feminist Sociology, SAGE, →ISBN:

     There could even be a case made for treating Jane Harrison as a founding mother of social science (Beard, 2000).

   • 2020 October 21, Kathleen Gallagher Elkins, Mary, Mother of Martyrs: How Motherhood Became Self-Sacrifice in Early Christianity, Wipf and Stock Publishers, →ISBN:

     The initial founding mother, Eve, becomes a paradigmatic figure in later Jewish and Christian exegesis […]

Related terms

• founding father
• founding member

Translations

woman who founded something

• Finnish: perustaja (fi)
• French: mère fondatrice (fr) f
• Galician: nai fundadora f
• Mon: ယာဲညးပ္တန်ပဒှ် (yāyñaḥptanpadh)
• Polish: założycielka (pl) f