Bushman on Mormon Women

Claudia Bushman presented on "Lives of Mormon Women" a couple of years ago at the FAIR Conference, which posted the talk online. It's a good piece for my online essay of the week, a remarkably even-handed summary of the the female half of the LDS Church circa 2006. One thing she notes is the rise of the single LDS woman:

In the congregations in New York City, there are many beautiful, charming, intelligent, amazingly talented single women doing good things, taking their lives seriously. But at church every Sunday they hear lessons that talk of the glories of marriage. We have to recognize that these exceptions are becoming the mainstream. The world is changing and so is the Church.

There's an interesting section on feminism toward the end of the essay.

Feminism has not been stamped out, but it has certainly gone underground. Groups of sisters continue to meet outside of Church networks, providing some strength to a female LDS world. They gather for discussion and activity. Some have retreats or revivals. But this movement is of no danger to the Church. It's not going anywhere. It is mostly mutual comfort for those who feel excluded in some way.

Bushman offers her own definition of feminism ("that the talents of women should be developed for the benefit of their communities, their church, their families and themselves"), then suggests that "so defined, our sprawling Relief Society organization, with a chapter in each congregation, is a feminist organization." Now there's a thought you don't hear every day.

Comments

[Jessica D]

Hey there -

I really liked this post. May I link to it in my LiveJournal?

[Dave]

Of course, Jessica -- links are free and always appreciated.

FWIW, there's a LiveJournal feed for this site if that makes it any easier to link.

[AHLDuke]

Your first quote from Sis. Bushman reminds me of something my wife and I were talking about the other night. If we are honest with ourselves, we have to recognize that it would be statistically impossible for every worthy sister in the Church to marry a worthy man in the temple, and especially not if she dare look for one who is actually compatible with her. I wonder if by focusing exclusively on marriage and child-rearing as goals for young women, we implicitly ignore that fact. Absent the return of polygamy, this will be so far into the future. We are doing a disservice to the women of the Church by measuring their worth only by the husband they can attract and the resulting children.

The typical retort I hear to such a suggestion is that we have to teach the rule, not the exception. But Jesus left the 99 sheep and went after the "lost" 1, did he not?