Women's religious organizations can provide insights into the experiences of women usually hidden from historical view within marriage and motherhood. The Mothers' Union in Sydney, the centrally organized association of Anglican women, was an unusual women's organization because its chief function was not fundraising but the "spiritual elevation" of mothers. Examination of its history over the first half of the 20th century reveals how "ordinary" mothers gained identity through membership - indirectly at the expense of other women - and reflects the ambivalent status of mothers in one 20th-century city.