Why We Need to Re-write Constitution

The definitive book on the Constitution, We the People, by Harvard historian and mother, Jill Lepore, lays out dozens of reasons explaining why our current Constitution, however sacred and well-intended, is broken and beyond repair.

In 1787, the US Constitution was drafted by a small group known as “the Founding Fathers”. They all shared the same identity and lived experience: white, male, and aristocratic, representing less than a tenth of the inhabitants of Turtle Island.

As a result, our aristocratic Constitution still protects only this class of people through our Electoral College, the Senate, and the life tenure of Supreme Court Justices. It legalized enslavement (Africans) and genocide (First Nations) and still allows regressive tax policies and interest rates that keep 75% of us in a constant state of struggle.

What might be possible if mothers gathered together to consciously and compassionately rewrite this “supreme law of the land” by weaving in more diverse stories of Americans then and now?

How would our Constitution sound if it included the experiences and voices of mothers and grandmothers?

To this end, a circle of Mothers will gather in Philadelphia in July 2026 to share our stories and re-imagine our foundational truths and craft a new future.

Why Mothers?

Mothers are the creators and sustainers of life. In every culture, across all of human history, it is mothers — in the broadest, most inclusive sense of the word — who tend to life, who transmit values, who grieve loss, and who imagine new possibilities for their children and their communities.

The National Pilgrimage and Mother's Constitutional Convention centers mothers because this moment demands exactly the kind of tending, grieving, healing, and visioning that mothers know how to do.

Because mothers were left out of the conversation when we started this experiment, we have executed all kinds of horrors upon ourselves and the rest of the world.

This is not exclusionary — men, nonbinary people, and all who are called to tend to democracy's soul are welcome to support the convention, watch it live or online, and of course join us for the pilgrimage. But the convention will be entirely composed of mothers who feel called to birth a new nation.

The Convention

The pilgrimage culminates in Philadelphia with a 3-day Mother's Constitutional Convention — a gathering to dream a new vision for the nation together.

Drawing on everything from the pilgrimage — the stories, the grief, the beauty, the wisdom — and mothers' innate sense of care, the Convention will be a space for mothers from across the country to articulate what a truly just, healed, and whole America could look like. Not a legal document. A living covenant. A moral vision. The foundation for our next chapter.

​It will be one of the most extraordinary civic events of our time.

 Are you a Mother whose heart has been broken?  

Do you feel an urge to write the next chapter of our nation?

Do you want to make history?

If you'd like to be part of the Mother's Constitutional Convention and dream a new future, please complete this application, by answering these questions in the form below.

1. Can you commit to spending all day (8am - 5pm ET) on July 19, 20, and 21st?
2. Will you need a place to stay or help with covering your travel expenses?
3. Do you have any special dietary or physical needs?
4. Why do you want to be a part of the Mother's Constitutional Convention?
5. What kind of country do you want to leave your children?
6. What kind of personal healing and growth work have you done?
7. What healing, growth, and spiritual practices sustain you?
8. ​What is your experience with grief? Have you lost anyone close to you? If so, how did/do you grieve?

Please include your answers in the Application section below.