It was constructed in the 1970s to serve as a replacement for the Relief Society monument and designed to promote the woman's values which the LDS Church believed were threatened by the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).
Dennis Smith and Florence Hansen sculpted the bronze statues and church president Spencer W. Kimball dedicated the monument on June 30, 1978.
[2]: 191 Smith had the sculptor Florence Hansen make a clay model of a woman in pioneer clothing with a child.
Smith was not fully satisfied with this sculpture, so on November 19, 1975, several artists presented their works and ideas to a selection committee composed of leaders in the Priesthood and Relief Society.
[2]: 191 The sculptor Dennis Smith proposed that the replacement monument could be a two-acre sculpture garden, spotlighting phases of womenhood in twelve statues.
Dennis Smith and Hansen signed contracts with the Relief Society and were given priesthood blessings for their upcoming sculpture work on February 4, 1976.
The sculptors envisioned where they wanted to place the statues and chose scriptural verses which they believed fit best with their works.
[3] When Kimball embarked on a tour of Latin America and the Middle East, he encouraged women to contribute to the monument.
[2]: 200 The Champaign Stake President Joseph R. Larsen was the assistant producer, and Moana Bennett wrote the play's script.
President of the Quorum of the Twelve ApostlesEzra Taft Benson encouraged "the elect women of the kingdom of God" to be "wives and mothers of Zion".
The Relief Society monument from 1933 is near the entrance and the Joseph and Emma Smith statue is placed just inside the garden.
The statue Courtship for Eternity is placed at the entrance, along with Joyful Moment, In the Family Circle, In Her Mother's Footsteps, Preparing Her Son, and Teaching with Love.
She described the monument in 2015, writing "the brick circles are cracked, and the landscape is so overgrown that the statues cannot be seen from the parking lot of the Nauvoo Visitors' Center.