Heidi’s Reviews > Sister Saints: Mormon Women since the End of Polygamy > Status Update

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.