Mothers' Union - History

History

The organisation was founded by Mary Sumner in 1876 in the Church of England parish of Old Alresford, near Winchester, where her husband was rector. She was inspired to start the movement after the birth of her first grandchild. Remembering her own difficulties when she was first a mother, Sumner wanted to bring mothers of all social classes together to provide support for one another and to be trained in motherhood, something which she saw as a vocation.

In 1885, Ernest Roland Wilberforce, the first Bishop of Newcastle, was preparing to address churchgoing women in the Portsmouth Church Congress. Finding he had nothing relevant to say to churchwomen, he contacted Mary Sumner and asked her to speak to the conference in his stead. Although she was reluctant and beset by nervousness, she addressed the women passionately about the power of mothers to change the nation for the better. A number of the women present were encouraged to return to their parishes to set up similar women's meetings, and the Bishop of Winchester, who presided over the congress, declared that the Mothers' Union become a diocesan organisation. The growth of the movement beyond the boundary of the Diocese of Winchester was due to the emphasis in Victorian British society on morality and contending with social ills as well as the growth in Anglican mission throughout the British Empire.

Rapidly, the Mothers' Union spread to the dioceses of Ely, Exeter, Hereford, Lichfield and Newcastle, and then throughout the United Kingdom. By 1892, there were 60,000 members in 28 dioceses, which grew to 169,000 members by the turn of the century. In 1893, annual general meetings were organised, and, in 1896, the Mothers' Union Central Council was formed. Mary Sumner was unanimously elected president, a post she held into her nineties. In 1897, during her Diamond Jubilee, Queen Victoria became patron of the Mothers' Union, giving it an unprecedented stamp of approval. Mary Sumner's Mothers' Union set up branches throughout the British Empire, beginning in New Zealand, then Canada and India. She lived to lead the Mothers' Union to act in rebuilding the heart of Britain after the First World War, and saw the first Mothers' Union Conference of Overseas Workers in 1920.

The Union has a very functionalist ideology, and for many years divorced and separated mothers were banned from membership. The self-contained, caring, internalising nuclear family, with women accepting community-imposed social duties, remains an ideal.