Tag Archives: gender equality

1975 General Conference advice for women: ‘Lose weight or be lonely’

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Next month is the semi-annual LDS General Conference, and I was reminded by this fact that I haven’t done a conference-related post for some time. Well, I found another great moment in conference history.

I want to a briefly discuss a talk given in the April 1975 General Conference by Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone. In it, he condemned so-called “self-inflicted” sins like masturbation, homosexuality, drinking soda and studying controversial teachings like “Adam-God.” His talk was a pretty typical laundry list of LDS concerns circa 1975, but one comment got my attention:
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Sisters in Zion

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I’m a feminist. Not a bra-burning, perpetually angry feminist, just the garden-variety “equal pay for equal work, nobody grope anybody else in the workplace” kind of feminist. You know, the lazy kind.

Still, a feminist, is a feminist, is a feminist, which is why even I’m not sure how it took me so long to get flustered at the LDS church over its doctrines concerning women. I suppose I was fairly placated and passive until I started learning more about Brigham Young, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

I remember sitting in a primary class and asking why women didn’t have the priesthood. I received the very enthusiastic response “Because they don’t need it!” This idea was based around the belief of a woman’s divine status being obtained through bearing and rearing children. Here is the idea most of us were raised with (in one form or another) in the LDS Church:

By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners. – “The Family: A Proclamation to the World”

This is a warm fuzzy replacement for a doctrine from Brigham Young that isn’t quoted in the 2010 lesson manuals:

“True there is a curse upon the woman that is not upon the man, namely, that ‘her whole affections shall be towards her husband,’ and what is the next? ‘He shall rule over you.” – Journal of Discourses, Vol. 4, Sept 21, 1856

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Where are the women in the Book of Mormon?

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Here is the list of women named in the Bible:

Abi, Abiah, Abigail (Nahash’s wife), Abigail (David’s sister), Abihail (Abishur’s wife), Abihail (Rehoboam’s wife), Abijah, Abishag, Abital, Achsah, Adah (Lamech’s wife), Adah (Esau’s wife), Agar, Ahinoam (Saul’s wife), Ahinoam (David’s wife), Ahlai, Aholah, Aholibah, Aholibama, Anna, Apphia, Asenath, Atarah, Athaliah, Azubah (Caleb’s wife), Azubah (Shilhi’s daughter), Baara, Bashemath (Esau’s wife), Bashemath (Solomon’s daughter; ), Basmath, Bathsheba, Bathshua, Bernice, Bilhah, Bithiah, Candace, Chloe, Claudia, Cozbi, Damaris, Deborah the nurse, Deborah the prophetess, Delilah, Dinah, Dorcas, Drusilla, Eglah, Elisheba, Elizabeth, Esther, Ephah, Ephrath, Ephrata, Euodias, Eunice, Eve, Gomer, Hadassah, Hagar, Haggith, Hammolecheth, Hamatal, Hannah, Hazelelponi, Helah, Heph-zibah, Herodias, Hodesh, Hodiah, Hoglah, Huldah, Hushim, Iscah, Jael, Jecholaih, Jedidah, Jehoaddan, Jehosheba, Jemima, Jerioth, Jerushah, Jezebel (Ahab’s wife), Jezebel (the prophetess), Joanna, Jochebed, Judith, Julia, Keren-happuch, Keturah, Keziah, Leah, Lois, Lo-Ruhammah, Lydia, Maacah, Maachah (Asa’s mother), Maachah (Caleb’s concubine), Maachah (Mahor’s daughter), Maachah (Machir’s wife), Maachah (Jehiel’s wife), Maachah (Absalom’s daughter), Maachah (Talmai’s daughter), Mahalah, Mahalath (Esau’s wife), Mahalath (Rehaboam’s wife), Mahlah, Mara, Martha, Mary (Jesus’ mother), Mary (Cleophas’ wife), Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, Mary (Mark’s mother), Mary (John’s mother), Mary (Lazarus’s sister), Mehetabel, Merab, Meshullemeth, Micaiah, Michal (Saul’s daughter), Michal (Zelophehad’s daughter), Milcah (Haran’s daughter), Miriam (Moses’ sister), Miriam (Ezra’s daughter), Naamah (Tubalcain’s sister), Naamah (the Ammonite), Naarah, Naomi, Nehushta, Noadiah, Noah (Zelophehad’s daughter), Oholibamah, Orpah, Peninnah, Persis, Phanuel, Phoebe, Priscilla, Puah, Queen of Sheba, Queen Tahpenes, Rachel, Rahab (the harlot), Rahab (Boaz’s mother), Rebekah, Reumah, Rhoda, Rizpah, Ruth, Salome (Herodias’s daughter), Salome (Zebedee’s wife), Sapphira, Sarah (Abraham’s wife), Sarah (Asher’s daughter), Shelomith (Dibri’s daughter), Shelomith (Zerubbabel’s daughter), Shelomith (Rehoboam’s daughter), Sherah, Shimeath, Shimrith, Shiphrah, Shomer, Shua, Susanna, Syntyche, Tabitha, Tahpenes, Tamar (Absalom’s daughter), Tamar (David’s daughter), Tamar (Pharez’s mother), Taphath, Thamar, Timna, Tirzah, Tryphena, Tryphosa, Vashti, Zebudah, Zeresh, Zeruah, Zeruiah, Zibiah, Zillah, Zilpah, Zipporah.

And here is the list of women named in the Book of Mormon:

Abish, Isabel, Sariah (Eve, Mary, and Sarah are also named, but these are Biblical women).

The following books in the Book of Mormon, which supposedly span over a thousand years of ancient American history, neglect to name even one woman:

Jacob, Enos, Jarom, Omni, Words of Mormon, Mosiah, Helaman, 3 Nephi, 4 Nephi, Mormon, Ether, Moroni.

Most Book of Mormon authors don’t even name their own wives and daughters!

So what best explains this dearth of women in the Book of Mormon?

How to beat your wife

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Further evidence that extremism is a problem in the Muslim world.

I doubt the views expressed in the video are a perfect reflection of Islamic law, but there are several verses in both the Qur’an and the hadiths that seem to condone wife beating. Here is one such verse:

Men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient. They guard their unseen parts because God has guarded them. As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat them. Then if they obey you, take no further action against them. Surely God is high, supreme. (Qur’an 4:34)

The appropriate translation of the above verse, however, is hotly contested. I side with those who think Islamic writings at least justify light beatings for recalcitrant women. But by no means did Islam introduce patriarchal and misogynistic attitudes to the Middle East. At worst, it merely codified them.

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Something for the ladies: advancing the role of women in Mormonism

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I have come to realize just how male-centric this blog is. Women are often most victimized by religion, and yet I very rarely write about women’s issues here. Even the name of the site and the group—SHAFT—is evidence of male bias! (Yes, the phallic innuendo was intentional; men cannot pass up the opportunity to make a penis joke.) It isn’t surprising, then, that only 21% of our readership is female*.

So I figure I ought to do a little something for the ladies in this post.

Molly Muses recently offered a list of small changes the LDS Church could make to advance the role of women in Mormonism. Below are her suggestions:

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