Elnora Mae Phillips is a student of motherhood. She has researched and unpacked the centuries-old restrictions Western civilization has placed on mothers, including as a student at the California Institute of Integral Studies. “When I began my research there, I just wanted to know how mothering had become such a difficult endeavor in our culture,” Ms. Phillips, a Bolinas resident since 1975, said. “What I discovered is that all other cultures had mothered collaboratively, even our own before the patriarchal takeover of our culture. That’s when I set out to learn how to re-create those collaborative behavior patterns among mothers, within our current culture.” The result? The Grand Fraternal Order of Mothers. “Western culture was built on this philosophical split of genders, and one gender was said to literally own and rule the other. We lost our places to gather together and share our caring. We lost our sense of common needs and common goals. We lost our sisterhood,” she said. In theory, Ms. Phillips said, the Grand Fraternal Order of Mothers would establish a place for members to gather in and work on common needs and goals. A $26 a year membership fee, renewed each year just before Mother’s Day, would help provide mothers in need with “anything a mother needs for their child: housing, food, education, medical care, transportation and financial security.” So far, Ms. Phillips is the only member, but earlier this month she held her first public event—a screening of a documentary detailing the unsuccessful effort to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, which would have guaranteed equal rights to women. She said her first project will be a food buy-in program through which members can access healthy and affordable food. Ms. Phillips, a mother of three who formerly worked as a bookkeeper and office manager for winemaker Sean Thackrey, said the order’s tax status as a fraternal order—which allows it to fund in-house charitable projects—inspired the group’s slogan. She said that while inquiring into the process of organizing an order over a decade ago, her proposal baffled the I.R.S. agent on the phone, who then uttered, in an epiphany, “You’re a brotherhood of mothers!” Anyone interested in joining the Grand Fraternal Order of Mothers may write to Ms. Phillips at P.O. Box 651, Bolinas CA 94924.