Father's Day Started With a Woman Who Campaigned for the Celebration for 62 Years

The history of Father's Day in the U.S. actually started with a woman who campaigned for this special holiday for 62 years before it became a nationally-recognized celebration.

Sonora Louise Smart Dodd, then 16 years old, wanted to honor her father, who single-handedly raised five boys and one daughter as a widower, per ABC News. Dodd has heard of Mother's Day in 1909 and felt that dads need the same commemoration as well.

In June of that same year, Dodd submitted a petition with the local government to hold a Father's Day celebration. She chose June because this was her father's birth month.

Unfortunately, Dodd's petition earned just two signatures, However, she would soon dedicate much of her time campaigning for Father's Day as a national holiday for most of her adult years. This meant Dodd had to travel to different parts of the U.S. to get her message across.

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Presidents Supported Dodd's Father's Day Ideas

For the next four or five decades, some states would hold Father's Day celebrations but never as a federal event. Historian Lawrence R. Samuel said that because America was a patriarchal society, having a day to honor fathers was deemed unnecessary compared to Mother's Day, which was recognized as a federal holiday in 1914. Samuel told Teen Vogue that men during this period thought Father's Day was created to boost commercialism thus the ideas were shot down.

However, Father's Day started to become appealing when Mother's Day became "highly commercialized" in the 1930s. Retailers also wanted to have the same success with the holiday, especially at a time of economic depression.

Eventually, many presidents also supported Father's Day as it helped boost their appeal to voters. Yet Congress refused to sign on proposals to make this into a national event until President Richard Nixon in the 1970s.

Who Was Sonora Louise Smart Dodd?

Dodd was quite well-known as a poet, writer and sculptor. She published a popular book, "Children's of the Sun," which was about the Native Americans living in Spokane.

She was a well-learned student who studied at the Chicago Art Institute, where she also taught sculpture and ceramics. She was a mom to John Bruce Dodd, Jr. Her husband was part-owner of a funeral home in Spokane, where she also served as the vice president.

There is a plaque to honor Dodd at the Spokane YMCA. The city also recognizes her as the Founder of Father's Day and the house where she lived is part of the historic and heritage listing of Spokane. She passed away in 1978.

Meanwhile, Father's Day has become a billion-dollar industry in America. In 2022, the National Retail Federation expects families will be spending a total of over $20 billion just for this holiday.

It comes as fatherhood has also shifted in recent years to reflect dads who are more involved in their children's lives not just as providers but also as nurturers just like moms. Some fathers today even take care of childcare duties while supporting their spouse's career.

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