Father's Day is celebrated in over than thirty countries around the world, including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Japan, Netherlands and UK – on the third Sunday of June as we do it in the States. Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, on the other hand, make their fathers happy in November. In Brazil and Taiwan sons and daughters buy presents for the beloved dads in August. While men’s accessories and electronic gadgets sellers are busy counting happy profits, let’s find out whose idea it was to start celebrating male’s contribution to all-American family values.

French saying “Cherchez la femme” ( Look for the woman) works fine in this case, cause Father’s Day has an official Mother - Sonora Louise Smart Dodd. It was only through her relentless struggle and firm determination that American Daddies are officially given their due respect today.
When Sonora was 16 years old her mother died while giving birth to her sixth child. Eldest of all children, Sonora realized the enormity of hardships that were to be faced by her father - a Civil War veteran in raising the family. She watched him take care of children with devotion and making endless sacrifices so that his children live better.

It happened on Mother’s Day of 1909 when Sonora came out with the idea of the National Father’s Day and soon began her campaign for the official recognition of the new holiday. First, with the support of the local religious organizations, she managed to get success on the city level. Sonora wished that Father's Day be celebrated on June 5, her own father's birthday, but it happened that there was not enough time for preparation so the celebrations were deferred to the third Sunday of June. And Spokane, WA where Sonora’s family got settled at the end of 19th century, celebrated its first Father's Day on June 19, 1910.

American society got the news with hesitation, some journalists even ridiculed it but pretty soon the Father’s Day of Spokane has got positive public attention. Soon the day came to be celebrated in several cities across US. And by the time Sonora's father, William Smart died in 1919, Father's Day was a popular occasion in US.

But it was only after the struggle of four decades of Sonora and her supporters that the day officially came to be recognized. President Lyndon Johnson signed a Presidential Proclamation declaring the Third Sunday of June as Father's Day in 1966. But in 1972, President Richard Nixon established a permanent national observance of Father's Day to be held on the third Sunday of June.

Sonora Louise Smart Dodd died in 1978 at the age of 96. Besides being officially recognized as the Mother of the Father’s Day, Mrs. Dodd also gained appreciation as an artist and the children’s book writer. To mark her significant contribution towards US society, a monument was constructed at YMCA, Spokane.