Status Updates From Sister Saints: Mormon Women...

It will be women who determine whether the next generation remains committed to their faith, and precisely what shape that faith will take.

Women from wealthy nations, where they work alongside of and in front of men, will be the most sensitive to the places where their church limits their activities. They also will be the most reluctant to contribute their energies to a community that contravenes deeply held values, the very values cultivated in the LDS family and Ward.

Recently church leaders have addressed places where women can be brought more fully into leader ship, but at a cautious pace. It remains to be seen whether this rate will be sufficient to keep women finally committed to their faith or what further changes will be brought about. LDSs take pride and prophetic insight that permits adjustments to their religion.

In 2016 BYU came under international scrutiny when female students have reported sexual assaults were brought up for honor code violations. How does a religion instill the value of chastity while still recognizing the positive nature of female sexuality and the all-too-real presence of male aggression?

Doctrinally, men and women are held to the same high standards of premarital chastity. However, LDSs, like other conservative religious communities, direct their worries about modesty and virginity towards girls and women.

In a world in which of images and objects are central to religion Mormon women have tremendous influence over how their religion has lived. LDS women are masters of the Internet. Through social media, women decide which elements in a religion to pin or post in which to ignore. They decide which church leaders comments to be made into a decorative plaque in which should be forgotten

Whether LDS women will lean into executive roles in the church as they become available it’s not clear. Many women already struggle to manage two shifts-as mothers and workers. If official discourse also encourages them to be “aspiring women”-achievers in school, career, in community than women will have much on their plates, and a third shift as “minister might simply be too much.

Clearly men have no experience being under the authority of women at church. Church apostles assert the importance of mutual consultation, but unless someone teaches men how to successfully run Meetings and listen to women, members will struggle to form affective councils. Likewise, women will need to learn to communicate more forcefully. It has been 50 years since LDS women had control over their ward’s RS money.

Women are not permitted on all councils, and they typically are in the minority, often watching rather than directing. Priesthood ordination gives men the authority to “preside,” but when and how they must preside is not well defined.

Constructing a ward life that uplifts all women must include placing women in leadership positions. Recently church leaders have sought to encourage mutual decision-making by insisting that women be included in councils. Men have been told to be partners with their wives, not autocrats. Whether or not men will listen to women as they speak at home and in councils is another question altogether.

Education, wage labor, and civic volunteering are all more attainable when women have some control over when and how often they give birth. Certainly parenting becomes more manageable. The importance of the autonomous individual, which feminists and other thinkers take is indicative of a modern society, is moderated by reproductive policies.

Motherhood itself has increasingly become a choice and not a mandate for Mormon women. Beginning in the 80s the church handbooks soften the long-standing understanding that bringing numerous Spirit children into the world marked a woman as righteous. It was a decision should be made “between the couple and the Lord”

The 1995 proclamation on the family pulled away from past descriptions about how women should nurture and encouraged more Gender equality within families. Using the imprecise word “nurture” meant that conservative women could point out that females are still divinely ordained to be caregivers while liberals could stress that nurturing did not exclude professional or civic pursuits.

McBain did not advocate for women’s ordination, but she did argue for women having more confidence in asserting power throughout the church (not just in the ward) and for the church hierarchy to cultivate women’s unique contributions.

Still other women undermine those who are trying to be creative or innovative. Rather than engage in a direct way, women assert their influence behind the scenes, sometimes in manipulative ways. To improve exchanges between men and women, both sexes would have to learn new ways of communicating.

McBaine acknowledged that men can be condescending and patronizing to women, but she also pointed out that women fail to speak up. Generational, education, and cultural differences limit how women express themselves. Some are timid and afraid of overstepping boundaries. Others will offer opinions in formally but are unwilling to do the hard work to alter ward or stake life.

The alteration of the church‘s attitude through and question other principles by which women had lived their lives. The more the church opened up its history as evidence of the diverse and expanded world of women, the more some women wondered why they had been so obedient in the past.

For women who had followed president as or Taft Benson‘s advice to concentrate exclusively on the home and who remembered how earlier historical controversies ended, the new gospel topic essays were not simply an effort to finally present accurate history.

The new historical honesty unsettled many LDS women and some even felt deceived. The past defensiveness of church leaders is wrong. Often the online essay cited with the history told by dissenters. In a religious community in which history merges with theology, altering history has serious ramifications.

Long-standing racial policies did not date to the earliest church. Women had trust at the church, but now it was posting seemingly different messages. What else, some wondered, would be “reinterpreted”?