Dear PSH:

You wrote:
> Secretary’s Week, Secretaries Week, or Secretaries’ Week?
>
Secretaries’ Week. Plural [more than one secretary] possessive [their week].

You then asked:

Would you, then, also use “Mothers’ Day”? I had a junior high teacher who insisted this was the only way to write it.

That is one you could see both ways. I checked our Mother’s Day authority–Hallmark cards. They all say “Mother’s Day.” You could argue like the junior high teacher that there are millions of mothers in America, but Mother’s Day is normally written with an apostrophe plus “s” because we have just one mother each. The same is true with Father’s Day.

In contrast, Hallmark spells Grandparents’ Day with s plus the apostrophe. This makes “grandparent” plural possessive because we have more than one grandparent.

There is another factor–history. Mother’s Day was first promoted in the 1870s and was enacted in the United States around 1905. Mother was the term most Americans at this time called their mother. Mommy, Ma, and others were used, of course, but whenever respect was intended, one said “Mother.” In that sense, “Mother’s” day is “a day for Mother.” I seem to recall reading that the lady who effectively lobbied for a national holiday was actually looking to memorialize her own mother who had recently passed away. With all respect to the junior high teacher (and I do understand the teacher’s point), in historical context, Mother’s Day is more analogous to Washington’s Birthday. Instead of paying respect to Washington, we pay respect to Mother.

I hope this helps. I will stick with Hallmark in this case. That poor junior high teacher is fighting a losing battle with this one.