someone's female relative who lived a long time ago

If one of our forefathers and foremothers wasn't a successful reproducer we wouldn't here. 假如我们的哪位祖爷爷祖奶奶不能生育的话，现在就不会有我们了。

She followed her foremothers as an attendant at a Connecticut correctional institution for women. 她继承了几位先辈祖母的职业，在康乃狄克州的一家女子监狱任狱卒。

a woman who started something or played an important part in the way it developed

She was a foremother of feminist theology. 她是女权主义神学的先驱。

All these women count Hurston as a literary foremother. 所有这些妇女都把赫斯顿视为文学上的前辈。