Mormon feminism
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Mormon feminism is a
The modern form of the movement has roots that go back to the founding of Mormonism, including the largely independent operation of the female Relief Society, blessings by women in early church history, and the women's suffrage movement in the western United States.
History
First wave
The first wave of Mormon feminism embraced many of the ideas of
Second wave
Esther Peterson, a Mormon woman who was the director of the United States Women's Bureau, proposed the idea of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women in 1960, later signed into law in 1961.[7][failed verification]
After the consolidation of the
In 1993,
Third wave
This project supports feminist views within an orthodox and believing framework.In December 2012, a group led by Stephanie Lauritzen organized the first Wear Pants to Church Day, where women broke with cultural conventions and wore dress pants to church.[27] This event initiated a wave of public activism by Mormon feminists. It was followed by Let Women Pray, which asked LDS Church leaders to consider letting a woman pray in General Conference.[28] The following April, Jean A. Stevens became the first woman to pray in an LDS Church general conference session.[29][30][31] In 2013, Kate Kelly, Lorie Winder Stromberg, and Hannah Wheelwright founded the Ordain Women organization and website to host profiles of individuals calling for the ordination of Mormon women.[32] On June 23, 2014, Kelly's bishop informed her that she had been excommunicated in absentia.[33] The letter states that Kelly's excommunication was due not to her personal beliefs, but her "aggressive effort to persuade other Church members to [her] point of view and that [her] course of action has threatened to erode the faith of others", including "Six Discussions" aimed at other church members.[34][35]
Feminist Mormon
In 2015, an official essay was published on the church's website which surveyed 171 years of statements about a Mother in Heaven and confirmed that it was part of church doctrine.[37] An accompanying essay stated that while neither Joseph Smith nor any other church leader ordained women to the priesthood, women do exercise priesthood authority without ordination.[37]
In 2017, the church announced that its female employees could wear "professional pantsuits and dress slacks" while at work; dresses and skirts had previously been required.[38] It also announced at the same time that women who gave birth while working for the church would receive six weeks of paid maternity leave, and that all new parents regardless of sex would also be given a week of paid leave "to bond with their new child(ren) from birth or adoption."[38]
In 2018, the church declared that their female missionaries could wear dress slacks if they wanted, except when attending the temple and during Sunday worship services, baptismal services, and mission leadership and zone conferences.[39]
In the temple endowment, women were previously urged to be a priestess "unto her husband," while men were promised they will be priests to God.[40] In January 2019, that was removed from the endowment process, in accordance with other changes that included more lines for Eve in their ritual performance of the Book of Genesis.[41][42] Also in 2019, a letter from the church's First Presidency stated that "Veiling an endowed woman's face prior to burial is optional." It had previously been required. The letter went on to say that such veiling, "may be done if the sister expressed such a desire while she was living. In cases where the wishes of the deceased sister on this matter are not known, her family should be consulted." That same year veiling of women during part of the temple endowment ceremony was discontinued.[43]
Notable Mormon feminists
- Janice Merrill Allred
- Lavina Fielding Anderson
- Elna Baker
- Algie Eggertsen Ballif
- Mehrsa Baradaran
- Liberty Barnes
- Maureen Ursenbach Beecher
- Sue Booth-Forbes
- Mary Lythgoe Bradford
- Fawn M. Brodie
- Joanna Brooks
- Juanita Brooks
- Claudia Bushman
- Marie Cornwall
- Lucinda Lee Dalton
- Jill Mulvay Derr
- Judy Dushku
- Kathleen Flake
- Maxine Hanks
- Mette Ivie Harrison
- Valerie M. Hudson
- Sonia Johnson
- Kate Kelly
- C. Jane Kendrick
- Deborah Laake
- Cynthia B. Lee
- Melissa Leilani Larson
- Carol Cornwall Madsen
- Neylan McBaine
- Marianne Monson
- Linda King Newell
- Chieko Okazaki
- Lindsay Hansen Park
- Carol Lynn Pearson
- Esther Peterson
- Alice Louise Reynolds
- Emily Sophia Tanner Richards
- Linda Sillitoe
- Eliza R. Snow
- Peggy Fletcher Stack
- Rachel Hunt Steenblik
- Margaret Toscano
- Edward Tullidge
- Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
- Emmeline B. Wells
- Lynne Kanavel Whitesides
- Maurine Whipple
- Terry Tempest Williams
See also
References
Footnotes
- ^ Hanks 1992.
- ^ Wilcox 1992, pp. 4–5.
- ^ Quinn 1979, pp. 84, 105.
- ^ Bennion 1976, p. 226.
- ^ Bradley 2005.
- ^ Vance 2002.
- ^ Ulrich 2010.
- ^ Barlow, Rich (June 17, 2006). "A Feminist Look at the Mormon Faith". The Boston Globe. Retrieved March 27, 2008.
- ^ Young 2007.
- ^ Huefner 1978.
- ^ Young 2007, pp. 636–637.
- ^ Young 2007, p. 637.
- ^ Young, Neil J. (June 13, 2012). "Equal Rights, Gay Rights and the Mormon Church". The New York Times. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
- ^ Sillitoe, Linda (1980). "Church Politics and Sonia Johnson: The Central Conundrum" (PDF). Sunstone. Vol. 5, no. 1. Salt Lake City, Utah: Sunstone Foundation. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
- ^ Bentley 1990, p. 52.
- ^ Stromberg 2015, p. 6.
- ^ Stack, Peggy Fletcher (16 May 2013). "A Mormon Mystery Returns: Who Is Heavenly Mother?". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved September 15, 2015.
- ^ Toscano, Margaret (2007). "Interview: Margaret Toscano". PBS. WGBH Educational Foundation. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
- ^ Stack, Peggy Fletcher. "Where Have All the Mormon Feminists Gone?". Beliefnet. Retrieved October 25, 2016.
- ^ Stromberg, Lorie Winder; Poulsen, Lee; Burton, Stacy; Brooks, Joanna Brooks (1996). "The Sacred and the Mundane: Mormon Electronic Discussion Groups". Sunstone. Salt Lake City, Utah: Sunstone Education Foundation. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
- ^ Riley, Duncan (March 28, 2005). "Feminist Mormon Uses Blog to Spread Message". The Blog Herald. Retrieved April 28, 2009.
- ^ Stack, Peggy Fletcher (October 6, 2007). "LDS Web Site Offers 'A Safe Place to Be Feminist and Faithful'". The Salt Lake Tribune. Archived from the original on August 26, 2010. Retrieved April 27, 2009 – via University of Southern California.
- ^ Kline, Caroline (January 4, 2014). "A Conversation with the Exponent II Blog". Rational Faiths. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
- ^ Oyler, Lauren (November 3, 2015). "This Is What a Mormon Feminist Looks Like". Vice. Retrieved October 13, 2016.
- ^ Stack, Peggy Fletcher (August 29, 2014). "Forget Priesthood – Some Mormon Feminists Seek a Middle Way". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
- ^ Stack, Peggy Fletcher (September 28, 2010). "Mormon Feminism: It's Back". The Salt Lake Tribune. Archived from the original on August 14, 2010. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
- ^ Pratt, Timothy (December 19, 2012). "Mormon Women Set Out to Take a Stand, in Pants". The New York Times. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
- ^ Green-Miner, Brittany (January 17, 2013). "Campaign Calls for LDS Church to 'Let Women Pray'". KSTU-Fox 13. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
- ^ Fletcher Stack, Peggy (April 12, 2013). "First Prayer by Woman Offered at Mormon Conference". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
- ^ Kelly, David (April 6, 2013). "In Rare Event, Woman Leads Prayer at Major Mormon Conference". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
- ^ Barry, Doug (April 7, 2013). "Woman Leads Mormons in Prayer for the First Time in Forever". Jezebel. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
- ^ Welker, Holly (March 16, 2014). "Ordain Women Transforms Mormon Feminism". Religion Dispatches. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
- ^ Walsh, Tad (June 23, 2014). "Ordain Women Founder's Recruitment Efforts Result in Excommunication from LDS Church". Deseret News. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
- ^ Harrison, Mark M. (June 23, 2014). "Letter to Kate Kelly". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
- ^ Stack, Peggy Fletcher (May 27, 2014). "Ordain Women Launches New Push for Mormon Priesthood". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
- ^ Colvin, Gina; Roberts, Bryndis; Gonzalez, Jennifer; Smith, Natasha; Tonga, Kalani (January 2015). "Femwoc Women Of Color Crash The Bloggernacle Party". Sunstone. Sunstone Education Foundation. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
- ^ a b Walch, Tad (October 23, 2015). "LDS Church Releases New Essays about Women and the Priesthood and Heavenly Mother". Deseret News. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
- ^ a b Dalrymple, Jim II (June 30, 2017). "The Mormon Church Just Allowed Female Employees to Wear Pants. Here's Why That's a Big Deal". Buzzfeed. Retrieved July 4, 2017.
- ^ "Female Mormon missionaries given option to wear dress slacks | Atlanta: News, Weather and Traffic". www.wsbradio.com. Archived from the original on 2018-12-24.
- ISBN 978-0-19-024803-1.
- ^ Riess, Jana (3 January 2019). "Major changes to Mormon temple ceremony, especially for women". religionnews.com. Religious News Service. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ Fletcher Stack, Peggy; Noyce, David (2 January 2019). "LDS Church changes temple ceremony; faithful feminists will see revisions and additions as a 'leap forward'". www.sltrib.com. Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ "On heels of temple changes, faithful Latter-day Saint women no longer need to be veiled before burial".
Bibliography
- Bennion, Sherilyn Cox (1976). "The Woman's Exponent: Forty-two Years of Speaking for Women". Utah Historical Quarterly. 44 (3): 222–239. S2CID 254448048.
- S2CID 254337747. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
- ISBN 978-1-56085-189-9.
- Hanks, Maxine, ed. (1992). "Introduction". Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism. Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books. pp. xi–xxx. ISBN 978-1-56085-014-4. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
- Huefner, Dixie Snow (1978). "Church and Politics at the IWY Conference" (PDF). Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. 11 (1): 58–75. S2CID 254390792. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
- ISSN 2167-8472. Retrieved May 3, 2011.
- Stromberg, Lorie Winder (2015). "The Birth of Ordain Women". In Shepherd, Gordon; ISBN 978-1-58958-758-8.
- S2CID 169963616. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
- Vance, Laura (2002). "Evolution of Ideals for Women in Mormon Periodicals, 1897–1999". Sociology of Religion. 63 (1): 91–112. JSTOR 3712541.
- Wilcox, Linda (1992). "The Mormon Concept of a Mother in Heaven". In Hanks, Maxine (ed.). Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism. Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books. pp. 3–17. ISBN 978-1-56085-014-4. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
- Young, Neil J. (2007). "'The ERA Is a Moral Issue': The Mormon Church, LDS Women, and the Defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment". American Quarterly. 59 (3): 623–644. S2CID 145676379.
Further reading
- ISBN 978-0-19-024804-8.
- Finnegan, Jessica; Ross, Nancy (2013). "'I'm a Mormon Feminist': How Social Media Revitalized and Enlarged a Movement". Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion. 9. ISSN 1556-3723. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
- Hanks, Sara K.S.; Ross, Nancy, eds. (2018). Where We Must Stand: Ten Years of Feminist Mormon Housewives. Amazon CreateSpace. ISBN 978-1-7174-3352-7.
- Ross, Nancy; Finnegan, Jessica (2014). "Mormon Feminist Perspectives on the Mormon Digital Awakening: A Study of Identity and Personal Narratives" (PDF). Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. 47 (4): 47–75. S2CID 171739909. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
- Shepherd, Gordon; ISBN 978-1-58958-758-8.