foremother

plural foremothers

1. A female ancestor.

   “My strain has remained clearer than the rest because for countless ages my foremothers were high priestesses—the sacred office descends from mother to daughter.”

   1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 172

2. figurativelyA female predecessor, especially one of an earlier generation.

   This compelling narrative [The Other Sappho by Ellen Fry] is a historical romance, a colorful tapestry of a time gone by in which the author has endeavored to share her version of the lives of women-identified women who were our foremothers.

   1990 April 28, Patricia Roth Schwartz, “The Odd Couple”, in Gay Community News, page 7