Main Page: A Brief History of Women in the LDS Church
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The LDS Church and Women in the Twentieth Century
April 6, 1904 - Under pressure during the Reed Smoot hearings over continued plural marriages within the Church, President Joseph F. Smith announces the Second Manifesto in General Conference, stating that "I... hereby affirm and declare that no such marriages have been solemnized with the sanction, consent, or knowledge of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"And I hereby announce that all such marriages are prohibited, and if any officer or member of the Church shall assume to solemnize or enter into any such marriage, he will be deemed in transgression against the Church, and will be liable to be dealt with according to the rules and regulations thereof and excommunicated therefrom."
April 16, 1908 - Jane Manning James dies. The Deseret News carries her obituary on the front page, a treatment usually reserved for General Authorities and prominent Utah politicians. President Joseph F. Smith speaks at her funeral.
July 1916 - In a section on Birth Control, Elder Rudger Clawson writes in the Relief Society magazine, "Woman is so constituted that, ordinarily, she is capable of bearing, during the years of her greatest strength and physical vigor, from eight to ten children, and in exceptional cases a larger number than that."
Elder George F. Richards writes, "My wife has borne to me fifteen children. Anything short of this would have been less than her duty and privilege."
March 26, 1926 - President Heber J. Grant tells Zina Young Card in a letter that the First Presidency "do not encourage calling in the sisters to administer to the sick, as the scriptures tell us to call in the Elders, who hold the priesthood of God and have the power and authority to administer to the sick in the name of Jesus Christ."
1938 - The Church implements a policy that Latter-day Saint women married to non-members or unendowed members may not be endowed.
October 1949 - President J. Reuben Clark, Jr. says in General Conference, "Remember the prime purpose of sex desires is to beget children. Sex gratifications must be had at that hazard. You husbands, be kind and considerate of your wives. They are not your property; they are not mere conveniences; they are your partners for time and eternity."
August 25, 1952 - An editorial in the Church News calls mothers working outside the home "one of the greatest threats we have to stable home life in America".
1960 - In LDS Reference Encyclopedia, seminary teacher Melvin R. Brooks writes, "Considering the way man has profaned the name of God, the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ, is it any wonder that the name of our Mother in Heaven has been withheld, not to mention the fact that the mention of Her is practically nil in scripture?" No General Authority will ever repeat this hypothesis, but it will nonetheless become the standard explanation among lay church members for the paucity of detail about Heavenly Mother.
1965 - Latter-day Saint Helen Andelin self-publishes Fascinating Womanhood, a guide patterned after classes she runs that teach women to be totally submissive to their husbands and pretend to be stupid and helpless. She believes this is the secret to happy and lasting marriages that she has been called by God to share with the world. Her book is carried by Deseret Book and the BYU campus bookstore, and sells so well that BYU's Continuing Education System starts hosting classes for it. Eventually it will sell over three million copies and her program will influence more famous books like Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus and The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands.
April 1965 - Elder Spencer W. Kimball says in General Conference, "A woman would have no fears of being imposed upon nor of any dictatorial measures nor of any improper demands if the husband is self-sacrificing and worthy. Certainly no sane woman would hesitate to give submission to her own really righteous husband in everything. We are sometimes shocked to see the wife take over the leadership, naming the one to pray, the place to be, the things to do."
1966 - BYU professor Reed Bradford publishes a scathing review of Fascinating Womanhood in the student newspaper and urges the campus bookstore to stop selling it. The university's Family Relations Department lists the book as "not recommended".
January 1967 - Helen Andelin and her husband Aubrey attempt to meet with President David O. McKay to secure the Church's endorsement of her Fascinating Womanhood program as a solution to the alarming divorce rate of members. They meet instead with his counselor Alvin R. Dyer, who encourages them to persevere in their effort.
March 1967 - Helen Andelin calls Elder Ezra Taft Benson to arrange a private meeting about Fascinating Womanhood, but he curtly tells her he's too busy.
July 1967 - According to the Priesthood Bulletin, "The First Presidency recommends that only those who bear the Melchizedek Priesthood or Aaronic Priesthood be invited to offer the opening and closing prayers in sacrament meetings, including fast meetings. This also applies to priesthood meetings."
April 1969 - Elder Ezra Taft Benson says in General Conference, "The world teaches birth control. Tragically, many of our sisters subscribe to its pills and practices when they could easily provide earthly tabernacles for more of our Father's children. We know that every spirit assigned to this earth will come, whether through us or someone else. There are couples in the Church who think they are getting along just fine with their limited families but who will someday suffer the pains of remorse when they meet the spirits that might have been part of their posterity."
April 14, 1969 - The First Presidency writes in a statement, "Where husband and wife enjoy health and vigor and are free from impurities that would be entailed upon their posterity, it is contrary to the teachings of the Church artificially to curtail or prevent the birth of children. We believe that those who practice birth control will reap disappointment by and by.
"However, we feel that men must be considerate of their wives who bear the greater responsibility not only of bearing children, but of caring for them through childhood. To this end the mother's health and strength should be conserved and the husband's consideration for his wife is his first duty, and self control a dominant factor in all their relationships.
"It is our further feeling that married couples should seek inspiration and wisdom from the Lord that they may exercise discretion in solving their marital problems, and that they may be permitted to rear their children in accordance with the teachings of the gospel."
1970 - The Priesthood Correlation Program brings the Relief Society and other auxiliaries under the centralized control of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The Relief Society Magazine publishes its final issue in December, as it and other magazines published by auxiliaries are replaced by the Ensign.
Helen and Aubrey Andelin show up unannounced at church headquarters and secure a meeting with President Joseph Fielding Smith. They talk for an hour but never mention Fascinating Womanhood, as Helen believes he should be able to discern the purpose of her visit on his own.
June 1972 - BYU professor Rodney Turner publishes Woman and the Priesthood. (Excerpts here).
January 23, 1973 - Church Historian Leonard J. Arrington records in his diary, "Carol Lynn [Pearson] left with me a copy of her original unexpurgated draft of Mormon women of the 1870s which is due to appear in the February issue of the Ensign. A number of things in this were removed by editors of the Ensign for publication purposes. By and large they consisted of items which would seem to encourage women to leave the home and enter professional or business careers."
February 1973 - In an Ensign article entitled "Strengthening the Patriarchal Order in the Home", BYU professor Brent L. Barlow decries the trend toward "female-dominant" or "equalitarian" [sic] marriages and women working outside the home. He rhetorically asks, "With two people presiding, would democratic principles work? Suppose you had two stake presidents, two elders quorum presidents, two Sunday School presidents, two Primary and Relief Society presidents presiding over each of the priesthood quorums, groups, and auxiliaries. How would the Church function? Would 'law and order' prevail? Similarly, should two people preside over each other in a marriage, particularly when one holds the priesthood and has been divinely designated to preside?"
September 30, 1973 - In a speech at BYU, Elder Spencer W. Kimball says, "Young wives should be occupied in bearing and rearing their children. I know of no scriptures where an authorization is given to young wives to withhold their families and to go to work to put their husbands through school. There are thousands of husbands who have worked their own way through school and have reared families at the same time....
"Another thing. It is my opinion that young women often frustrate their own best interests. Generally they are as well off financially on the campus as are their young men counterparts, especially those who have spent their accumulated funds on missions, so that young women should not be demanding of expensive dinners and corsages and cars and other things which often are the basis for dates and courtship. Perhaps the high cost of courting may be one reason for the delayed courtships and marriages."
November 1974 - Prominent Catholic antifeminist Phyllis Schlafly meets with new Relief Society general president Barbara B. Smith and convinces her that the Church should oppose the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states, "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."
1975 - BYU's four-year full tuition and boarding expenses presidential scholarship, previously available only to men, is made available to an equal number of women.
February 18, 1975 - The Utah legislature votes against the Equal Rights Amendment.
October 11, 1976 - In an interview with Dennis L. Lythgoe for Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Managing Director of Public Communications Wendell J. Ashton says that women's rights has already become a bigger media issue than the priesthood and temple ban on people of African descent.
October 22, 1976 - The First Presidency writes in a statement, "From its beginnings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has affirmed the exalted role of woman in our society....
"There have been injustices to women before the law and in society generally. These we deplore.
"There are additional rights to which women are entitled.
"However, we firmly believe that the Equal Rights Amendment is not the answer.
"While the motives of its supporters may be praiseworthy, ERA as a blanket attempt to help women could indeed bring them far more restraints and repressions. We fear it will even stifle many God-given feminine instincts.
"It would strike at the family, humankind’s basic institution. ERA would bring ambiguity and possibly invite extensive litigation.
"Passage of ERA, some legal authorities contend, could nullify many accumulated benefits to women in present statutes.
"We recognize men and women as equally important before the Lord, but with differences biologically, emotionally, and in other ways.
"ERA, we believe, does not recognize these differences. There are better means for giving women, and men, the rights they deserve."
January 8, 1977 - In a speech on the Equal Rights Amendment in Pocatello, Idaho, Elder Boyd K. Packer says, "We cannot eliminate, through any pattern of legislation or regulation, the differences between men and women.
"There are basic things that a man needs that a woman does not need. There are things that a man feels that a woman never does feel.
"There are basic things that a woman needs that a man never needs, and there are things that a woman feels that a man never feels nor should he.
"These differences make women, in basic needs, literally opposite from men.
"A man, for instance, needs to feel protective, and yes, dominant, if you will, in leading his family. A woman needs to feel protected, in the bearing of children and in the nurturing of them.
"Have you ever thought what life would be like if the needs of men and women were naturally precisely the same?"
Utah Senator Jake Garn inserts the speech into the Congressional Record on February 1, and it is reprinted in the March 1977 Ensign.
Early February 1977 - President Spencer W. Kimball assigns Relief Society general president Barbara Smith, Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, and Elder Marvin J. Ashton to meet with Helen and Aubrey Andelin. When they hesitate to endorse her book, Helen asks President Smith if she thinks Fascinating Womanhood is manipulative. The latter responds, "I certainly do, and I do not think it fitting for the LDS woman." The Apostles assign her to investigate the program further, but Helen never sees or hears from her again.
July 9, 1977 - The International Women's Year convention in Salt Lake City anticipates about 2,000 attendees, but is overwhelmed by 12,000 LDS women who vote down every proposal on the ballot, including resolutions against racism and in favor of equal pay, daycare, aiding incest and rape victims, and world peace. Twelve of fourteen anti-ERA delegates selected for the national meeting in November are LDS. The New York Times reports, "Although [Maggy Pendleton] and other organizers said they had had hopes of opening a 'dialogue' with the Mormons that might begin to reverse the polarization that has existed in Utah between churchwomen and feminists for some time, the acrimony that prevailed at the convention overrode nearly every attempt at a thoughtful discussion of women's issues."
Church spokesman Don LeFevre says, "The church has always been concerned with threats to the stability of the family and the home. We don't make any excuses for our women's participation. We're proud of them. Other women's groups could probably take a note from their book."
December 3, 1977 - At a fireside in San Antonio, Texas, President Spencer W. Kimball tells women that "you are to become a career woman in the greatest career on earth - that of homemaker, wife, and mother. It was never intended by the Lord that married women should compete with men in employment. They have a far greater and more important service to render....
"The husband is expected to support his family and only in an emergency should a wife secure outside employment. Her place is in the home, to build the home into a heaven of delight....
“I beg of you, you who could and should be bearing and rearing a family: Wives, come home from the typewriter, the laundry, the nursing, come home from the factory, the café.
"No career approaches in importance that of wife, homemaker, mother - cooking meals, washing dishes, making beds for one’s precious husband and children.
"Come home, wives, to your husbands. Make home a heaven for them. Come home wives, to your children, born and unborn. Wrap the motherly cloak about you and unembarrassed help in a major role to create the bodies for the immortal souls who anxiously wait.
"When you have fully complemented your husband in home life and borne the children, growing up full of faith, integrity, responsibility and goodness, then you have achieved your accomplishments supreme, without peer, and you will be the envy through time and eternity."
1978 - BYU President Dallin H. Oaks and his assistant Dr. Marilyn Arnold establish a Women's Research Institute at BYU.
Mildred Chandler Austin publishes Woman's Divine Destiny. She writes, "I once heard a marriage counselor talk about how one should choose a mate as he chooses a shoe: if it isn't a good fit, it will be painful. If we consider this shoe-to-foot analogy, we can see the husband as being the foot, having to climb the rocky road to exaltation. A bare foot is going to find the path too painful; it needs a comforter, a shoe. When I consider what makes a shoe comfortable, I see more clearly how to be a comforting wife.... Those of us playing the role of shoes need to seriously consider what happens to shoes that are painful. They are generally discarded and a more comfortable pair takes their place. Some men are honorable enough to endure the pain of uncomfortable shoes..."
April 1, 1978 - President Spencer W. Kimball says in General Conference, "The scriptures remind us that 'Women have claim on their husbands for their maintenance, until their husbands are taken.' (D&C 83:2.) Women also have a claim on their husbands for respect, fidelity, and thoughtfulness for in that subtle, sweet relationship that should obtain between men and women, there is partnership with the priesthood.
"We delight and marvel in the appropriate development and expressions of our sisters' many talents. Surely the Church's educational effort in behalf of its women is a sermon in itself.
"Perhaps more than any other people of like size, we are deeply committed to the development of the skills and talents of our sisters, for we believe our educational program is not simply education for this world, but involves an education for all eternity.
"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has sponsored the advancement of women from its very outset. It was the Prophet Joseph Smith who set forth the ideals for womanhood. He advocated liberally for women in the purest sense of the word, and he gave them liberty to fully express themselves as mothers, as nurses to the sick, as proponents of high community ideals, and as protectors of good morals.
"What more can any woman want for herself? What more could any man want for his wife? What more could any man want than to match that standard in his own conduct?
"The Prophet Joseph gave us the Relief Society organization to advance these high purposes for Latter-day Saint women. That society today is a worldwide movement holding membership in national and world organizations for the advancement of women.
"Finally, when we sing that doctrinal hymn and anthem of affection, 'O My Father,' we get a sense of the ultimate in maternal modesty, of the restrained, queenly elegance of our Heavenly Mother, and knowing how profoundly our mortal mothers have shaped us here, do we suppose her influence on us as individuals to be less if we live so as to return there?"
April 4, 1978 - Barbara Walters interviews teen heartthrobs and Latter-day Saints Donny and Marie Osmond. She says to 18-year-old Marie, "Now I have noticed here that you have no trouble speaking your mind, and yet in the Church, the feeling about it it seems to me is that the woman is somewhat in the secondary position."
Marie responds, "Secondary, no. But you have to remember that you need a patriarch at the head of the home and this is the way that I feel... You need someone to run the home; the woman is equally as important, but as far as speaking her mind, that should be the man's job."
June 8, 1978 - President Spencer W. Kimball makes endowments, sealings, and missionary service available to women of black African descent.
August 15, 1978 - Sonia Johnson, a cofounder of Mormons for ERA, testifies in favor of the ERA before a Senate subcommittee led by Indiana Senator Birch Bayh. After her remarks she is harshly questioned and criticized by Utah Senator (and fellow Latter-day Saint) Orrin Hatch.
August 1978 - As Marvin K. Gardner later reports from the Seminar for Regional Representatives, "The First Presidency and Council of the Twelve have determined that there is no scriptural prohibition against sisters offering prayers in sacrament meetings. It was therefore decided that it is permissible for sisters to offer prayers in any meetings they attend, including sacrament meetings, Sunday School meetings, and stake conferences. Relief Society visiting teachers may offer prayers in homes that they enter in fulfilling visiting teaching assignments."
Sonia Johnson later recalls, "Apparently what happened was that my testimony before the Senate subcommittee - in which I quoted church leaders' affirmation of the 'exalted role of woman in our society,' and pointed out that they considered women too 'exalted' to offer prayers in sacrament meetings - began circulating immediately and widely underground in Utah, alerting many Mormons for the first time that women had been officially cut off from such prayers for a long time.... Most Mormon women, accustomed to having so few rights in the church, had not even noticed, and besides, not allowing women to pray in sacrament meeting had been well on its way to becoming standard practice in many localities of the church before the directive....
"One woman in Provo, Utah, read the testimony and vowed that she would not sing in church until prayer privileges were restored, because 'the song of the righteous is a prayer unto God.' Several faculty members at Brigham Young University were shocked into action and demanded an accounting from church headquarters. In the end, so much hue and cry was raised that President Kimball was forced to admit that the policy was not in accord with scripture and could not stand..."
September 1978 - Mary Frances Sturlaugson is the first woman of black African descent to be set apart as a full-time proselytizing missionary. She serves in the Texas San Antonio Mission.
October 12, 1978 - In a letter to General Authorities and all local leaders in the United States, the First Presidency writes, "The history of the Church clearly demonstrates the long-standing concern of its leaders that women, as daughters of God, should have without discrimination every political, economic, and educational opportunity. Where there now exist deficiencies concerning these matters, they can and should be corrected by specific legislation. Additionally, because of their unique capacities and responsibilities as wives and mothers, women should be the beneficiaries of such special laws as will safeguard their welfare and the interests of children and families.
"While the enactment or rejection of the Equal Rights Amendment must be accomplished by recognized political processes, we are convinced that because of its predictable results the matter is basically a moral rather than a political issue; and because of our serious concern over these moral implications, we have spoken against ratification, and without equivocation do so again. We are convinced, after careful study, after consultation with various Constitutional authorities, and after much prayerful consideration, that if the proposed amendment were to be ratified, there would follow over the years a train of interpretations and implementations that would demean women rather than ennoble them, and that also would threaten the stability of the family which is a creation of God.
"Because of our serious concern, we urge our people to join actively with other citizens who share our concerns and who are engaged in working to reject this measure on the basis of its threat to the moral climate of the future."
August 1979 - In the Ensign, gynecologist Homer Ellsworth addresses the question, "Is it our understanding that we are to propogate children as long and as frequently as the human body will permit?" He writes, "I hear this type of question frequently from active and committed Latter-day Saint women who often ask questions that are outside my professional responsibilities....
"So, as to the number and spacing of children, and other related questions on this subject, such decisions are to be made by husband and wife righteously and empathetically communicating together and seeking the inspiration of the Lord. I believe that the prophets have given wise counsel when they advise couples to be considerate and plan carefully so that the mother’s health will not be impaired. When this recommendation of the First Presidency is ignored or unknown or misinterpreted, heartache can result.
"I know a couple who had seven children. The wife, who was afflicted with high blood pressure, had been advised by her physician that additional pregnancy was fraught with grave danger and should not be attempted. But the couple interpreted the teachings of their local priesthood leaders to mean that they should consider no contraceptive measures under any circumstances. She died from a stroke during the delivery of her eighth child."
August 25, 1979 - At the invitation of the National Organization for Women, Sonia Johnson speaks to the Montana State Convention in Kalispell. She says, "The leaders of the Mormon Church are somewhat isolated in Utah. Those who are directing this anti-ERA activity need a taste of the consequences of their behavior, and one of the things everyone can do is write and call church headquarters and say, 'I am outraged that the Mormons are working against my equal civil rights, and if your missionaries ever come to my door, I wouldn't consider letting them in.'" The next day, newspapers misquote her as telling people not to allow missionaries into their homes.
September 1, 1979 - At a meeting of the American Psychological Association in New York City, Sonia Johnson gives a speech entitled "Patriarchal Panic: Sexual Politics in the Mormon Church". She asserts "that our sisters are silently screaming for help and that they are not only NOT finding it at Church, but that at Church they are being further depressed and debilitated by bombardment with profoundly demeaning female sex-role stereotypes. Their Church experience is making them sick.
"Because Mormon women are trained to desire above all else to please men (and I include in this category God, whom all too many of us view as an extension of our chauvinist leaders), we spend enormous amounts of energy trying to make the very real but - for most of us - limited satisfactions of mother- and wifehood substitute satisfactorily for all other life experiences. What spills over into those vacant lots of our hearts where our intellectual and talented selves should be vigorously alive and thriving are, instead, frustration, anger and the despair which comes from suppressing anger and feeling guilty for having felt it in the first place....
"But women are not fools. The very violence with which the Brethren attacked an Amendment which would give women human status in the Constitution abruptly opened the eyes of thousands of us to the true source of our danger and our anger. This open patriarchal panic against our human rights raised consciousness miraculously all over the Church as nothing else could have done. And revealing their raw panic at the idea that women might step forward as goddesses-in-the-making with power in a real - not a 'sub' or 'through men' - sense, was the leaders' critical and mortal error, producing as it did a deafening dissonance between their rhetoric of love and their oppressive, unloving, destructive behavior."
December 5, 1979 - Bishop Jeffrey Willis excommunicates Sonia Johnson for apostasy. Church spokesman Jerry Cahill later explains, "That Mrs. Johnson had taken public issue with the Church’s opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment was not among the grounds for the ecclesiastical action leading to her excommunication.
"But, in her advocacy of ERA, Mrs. Johnson expressed attitudes and views which went beyond that issue and constituted a direct and irresponsible attack upon the Church, its leaders, doctrines, and programs. In public statements she urged the obstruction of the Church’s worldwide missionary effort, demonstrated that she was not in harmony with Church doctrine, and misrepresented and held up to ridicule the leadership and membership of the Church."
March 1980 - Copies of the Ensign include a pamphlet on "The Church and the Proposed Equal Rights Amendment: A Moral Issue".
November 17, 1980 - Twenty women (including Sonia Johnson) and one man from Mormons for ERA are arrested for chaining themselves to the gates of the Seattle Washington Temple on the day of its dedication.
April 5, 1981 - Five women from Mormons for ERA stand up and shout "No" during the sustaining of church leaders in General Conference. In a statement to the media they explain, "We fully sustain and support President Kimball as the church’s religious leader. However, we want church leaders to know that we do not accept them as our unelected political leaders."
1982 - Elder Boyd K. Packer writes in his book That All May Be Edified, "There is another area that is important for each of you to consider. The husband, the holder of the household, is established this day in this marriage covenant as the head of the family and the breadwinner. It may be hard for you to recognize this role, young lady, but your happiness is conditioned upon it. I will say to you plainly, you show me a woman who is in charge of a home, who directs the management of all affairs, including those of her husband - you show me such a woman - and I will show you an unhappy woman. I would hope that you would make a solemn resolution with reference to this marriage covenant. It does not negate democracy in marriage. When the final decision is to be made, when particularly it has reference to prayer and the need of special guidance, then you, as the wife, defer to your husband who holds the priesthood and place the responsibility upon his shoulders, and then you follow where he leads."
1985 - Helen and Aubrey Andelin begin serving a mission in Australia. Their mission president allows Helen to spend much of her time teaching Fascinating Womanhood classes.
February 12, 1986 - The First Presidency announces that Latter-day Saint women married to non-members may be endowed with their husbands' consent.
March 1986 - In an Ensign article entitled "Working Double-Time: The Working Mother's Dilemma", Assistant Editor Jan Underwood Pinborough urges respect and tolerance for all mothers regardless of their employment or lack thereof. She concludes, "Perhaps the best way to counter the false messages we receive from the world is by giving each other loving and understanding support. We can believe in each other - applauding each others’ contributions, refraining from judging, and giving empathy and help in our difficulties. This feeling of having a community of support - both from those who work outside the home as well as from those who do not - can be one of the greatest blessings of our sisterhood in the gospel."
February 22, 1987 - At a BYU fireside entitled "To the Mothers in Zion", President Ezra Taft Benson says, "The Lord clearly defined the roles of mothers and fathers in providing for and rearing a righteous posterity. In the beginning, Adam - not Eve - was instructed to earn the bread by the sweat of his brow. Contrary to conventional wisdom, a mother's calling is in the home, not in the market place....
"In a home where there is an able-bodied husband, he is expected to be the breadwinner. Sometimes we hear of husbands who, because of economic conditions, have lost their jobs and expect their wives to go out of the home and work even though the husband is still capable of providing for his family. In these cases, we urge the husband to do all in his power to allow his wife to remain in the home caring for the children while he continues to provide for his family the best he can, even though the job be is able secure may not be ideal and family budgeting will have to be tighter.
"Our beloved prophet Spencer W. Kimball had much to say about the role of mothers in the home and their callings and responsibilities. I am impressed tonight to share with you some of his inspired pronouncements. I fear that much of his counsel has gone unheeded, and families have suffered because of it. But I stand this evening as a second witness to the truthfulness of what President Spencer W. Kimball said. He spoke as a true prophet of God."
Mid-April 1990 - The endowment ceremony is changed so that women no longer covenant to "observe and keep the law of your husband and abide by his counsel in righteousness", and no longer veil their faces except during the prayer circle. Eve is no longer cursed with pain in childbearing and Adam is no longer chastened for hearkening to his wife when he ate the forbidden fruit.
April 5, 1991 - In an address at the Regional Representatives Seminar, President Gordon B. Hinckley says, "Logic and reason would certainly suggest that if we have a Father in Heaven, we have a Mother in Heaven. That doctrine rests well with me.
"However, in light of the instruction we have received from the Lord Himself, I regard it as inappropriate for anyone in the Church to pray to our Mother in Heaven....
"Search as I have, I find nowhere in the standard works an account where Jesus prayed other than to His Father in Heaven or where He instructed the people to pray other than to His Father in Heaven.
"I have looked in vain for any instance where any President of the Church, from Joseph Smith to Ezra Taft Benson, has offered a prayer to 'our Mother in Heaven.'
"I suppose those... who use this expression and who try to further its use are well-meaning, but they are misguided. The fact that we do not pray to our Mother in Heaven in no way belittles or denigrates her."
May 18, 1993 - In an address to the All-Church Coordinating Council, Elder Boyd K. Packer says, "There are three areas where members of the Church, influenced by social and political unrest, are being caught up and led away. I chose these three because they have made major invasions into the membership of the Church.... The dangers I speak of come from the gay-lesbian movement, the feminist movement (both of which are relatively new), and the ever-present challenge from the so-called scholars or intellectuals. Our local leaders must deal with all three of them with ever-increasing frequency....
"Some mothers must work out of the home. There is no other way. And in this they are justified and for this they should not be criticized. We cannot, however, because of their discomfort over their plight, abandon a position that has been taught by the prophets from the beginning of this dispensation.... To point out so-called success stories inferring that a career out of the home has no negative effect on a family is an invitation to many to stray from what has been taught by the prophets and thus cause members to reap disappointment by and by."
September 19, 1993 - After compiling and editing the anthology Women and Authority: Re-Emerging Mormon Feminism the previous year, scholar Maxine Hanks is excommunicated for apostasy. She will be rebaptized in 2012.
September 23, 1995 - Published in response to ongoing court battles over same-sex marriage in Hawaii, "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" states in part, "All human beings - male and female - are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose....
"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. Disability, death, or other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation. Extended families should lend support when needed."
Relief Society general presidency first counselor Chieko Okazaki later recalls that "the Relief Society presidency was asked to come to a meeting. We did, and they read this proclamation. It was all finished. The only question was whether they should present it at the priesthood meeting or at the Relief Society meeting. It didn’t matter to me where it was presented. What I wanted to know was, 'How come we weren’t consulted?'... They just asked us which meeting to present it in, and we said, 'Whatever President Hinckley decides is fine with us.' He decided to do it at the Relief Society meeting. The apostle who was our liaison said, 'Isn’t it wonderful that he made the choice to present it at the Relief Society meeting?' Well, that was fine, but as I read it I thought that we could have made a few changes in it.
"Sometimes I think they get so busy that they forget that we are there. It’s different from the time when Belle Spafford was president of the Relief Society. She was her own boss, as I read her life. And so was Florence Jacobsen. There’s a great deal of difference now."
April 1997 - Helen Andelin writes to President Gordon B. Hinckley and other church leaders in her final failed attempt to secure the Church's endorsement of Fascinating Womanhood.
November 9, 1997 - President Gordon B. Hinckley is interviewed by David Ransom of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's show "Compass". Ransom asks, "At present women are not allowed to be priests in your Church. Why is that?"
Hinckley: "That’s right, because the Lord has put it that way. Now women have a very prominent place in this Church. They have their own organisation. Probably the largest women’s organisation in the world of 3.7 million members. Their own [inaudible]. And the women of that organisation sit on Boards. Our Board of Education things of that kind. They counsel with us. We counsel together. They bring in insight that we very much appreciate and they have this tremendous organisation of the world where they grow and if you ask them they’ll say we’re happy and we’re satisfied."
Ransom: "They all say that?"
Hinckley: "Yes. All except a, oh, you’ll find a little handful, one or two here and there, but in 10 million members you expect that."
Ransom: "You say the Lord has put it that way. What do you mean by that?"
Hinckley: "I mean that’s a part of His programme. Of course it is, yes."
Ransom: "Is it possible that the rules could change in the future as the rules are on Blacks?"
Hinckley: "He could change them, yes. If He were to change them that’s the only way it would happen."
Ransom: "So you'd have to get a revelation?"
Hinckley: "Yes. But there’s no agitation for that. We don’t find it. Our women are happy. They’re satisfied. These bright, able, wonderful women who administer their own organisation are very happy. Ask them. Ask my wife." [To his wife] "Are you happy?"
Mrs. Hinckley: "Very happy!" [laughs]
Next: The LDS Church and Women in the Twenty-first Century
"And I hereby announce that all such marriages are prohibited, and if any officer or member of the Church shall assume to solemnize or enter into any such marriage, he will be deemed in transgression against the Church, and will be liable to be dealt with according to the rules and regulations thereof and excommunicated therefrom."
April 16, 1908 - Jane Manning James dies. The Deseret News carries her obituary on the front page, a treatment usually reserved for General Authorities and prominent Utah politicians. President Joseph F. Smith speaks at her funeral.
July 1916 - In a section on Birth Control, Elder Rudger Clawson writes in the Relief Society magazine, "Woman is so constituted that, ordinarily, she is capable of bearing, during the years of her greatest strength and physical vigor, from eight to ten children, and in exceptional cases a larger number than that."
Elder George F. Richards writes, "My wife has borne to me fifteen children. Anything short of this would have been less than her duty and privilege."
March 26, 1926 - President Heber J. Grant tells Zina Young Card in a letter that the First Presidency "do not encourage calling in the sisters to administer to the sick, as the scriptures tell us to call in the Elders, who hold the priesthood of God and have the power and authority to administer to the sick in the name of Jesus Christ."
1938 - The Church implements a policy that Latter-day Saint women married to non-members or unendowed members may not be endowed.
October 1949 - President J. Reuben Clark, Jr. says in General Conference, "Remember the prime purpose of sex desires is to beget children. Sex gratifications must be had at that hazard. You husbands, be kind and considerate of your wives. They are not your property; they are not mere conveniences; they are your partners for time and eternity."
August 25, 1952 - An editorial in the Church News calls mothers working outside the home "one of the greatest threats we have to stable home life in America".
1960 - In LDS Reference Encyclopedia, seminary teacher Melvin R. Brooks writes, "Considering the way man has profaned the name of God, the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ, is it any wonder that the name of our Mother in Heaven has been withheld, not to mention the fact that the mention of Her is practically nil in scripture?" No General Authority will ever repeat this hypothesis, but it will nonetheless become the standard explanation among lay church members for the paucity of detail about Heavenly Mother.
1965 - Latter-day Saint Helen Andelin self-publishes Fascinating Womanhood, a guide patterned after classes she runs that teach women to be totally submissive to their husbands and pretend to be stupid and helpless. She believes this is the secret to happy and lasting marriages that she has been called by God to share with the world. Her book is carried by Deseret Book and the BYU campus bookstore, and sells so well that BYU's Continuing Education System starts hosting classes for it. Eventually it will sell over three million copies and her program will influence more famous books like Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus and The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands.
April 1965 - Elder Spencer W. Kimball says in General Conference, "A woman would have no fears of being imposed upon nor of any dictatorial measures nor of any improper demands if the husband is self-sacrificing and worthy. Certainly no sane woman would hesitate to give submission to her own really righteous husband in everything. We are sometimes shocked to see the wife take over the leadership, naming the one to pray, the place to be, the things to do."
1966 - BYU professor Reed Bradford publishes a scathing review of Fascinating Womanhood in the student newspaper and urges the campus bookstore to stop selling it. The university's Family Relations Department lists the book as "not recommended".
January 1967 - Helen Andelin and her husband Aubrey attempt to meet with President David O. McKay to secure the Church's endorsement of her Fascinating Womanhood program as a solution to the alarming divorce rate of members. They meet instead with his counselor Alvin R. Dyer, who encourages them to persevere in their effort.
March 1967 - Helen Andelin calls Elder Ezra Taft Benson to arrange a private meeting about Fascinating Womanhood, but he curtly tells her he's too busy.
July 1967 - According to the Priesthood Bulletin, "The First Presidency recommends that only those who bear the Melchizedek Priesthood or Aaronic Priesthood be invited to offer the opening and closing prayers in sacrament meetings, including fast meetings. This also applies to priesthood meetings."
April 1969 - Elder Ezra Taft Benson says in General Conference, "The world teaches birth control. Tragically, many of our sisters subscribe to its pills and practices when they could easily provide earthly tabernacles for more of our Father's children. We know that every spirit assigned to this earth will come, whether through us or someone else. There are couples in the Church who think they are getting along just fine with their limited families but who will someday suffer the pains of remorse when they meet the spirits that might have been part of their posterity."
April 14, 1969 - The First Presidency writes in a statement, "Where husband and wife enjoy health and vigor and are free from impurities that would be entailed upon their posterity, it is contrary to the teachings of the Church artificially to curtail or prevent the birth of children. We believe that those who practice birth control will reap disappointment by and by.
"However, we feel that men must be considerate of their wives who bear the greater responsibility not only of bearing children, but of caring for them through childhood. To this end the mother's health and strength should be conserved and the husband's consideration for his wife is his first duty, and self control a dominant factor in all their relationships.
"It is our further feeling that married couples should seek inspiration and wisdom from the Lord that they may exercise discretion in solving their marital problems, and that they may be permitted to rear their children in accordance with the teachings of the gospel."
1970 - The Priesthood Correlation Program brings the Relief Society and other auxiliaries under the centralized control of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The Relief Society Magazine publishes its final issue in December, as it and other magazines published by auxiliaries are replaced by the Ensign.
Helen and Aubrey Andelin show up unannounced at church headquarters and secure a meeting with President Joseph Fielding Smith. They talk for an hour but never mention Fascinating Womanhood, as Helen believes he should be able to discern the purpose of her visit on his own.
June 1972 - BYU professor Rodney Turner publishes Woman and the Priesthood. (Excerpts here).
January 23, 1973 - Church Historian Leonard J. Arrington records in his diary, "Carol Lynn [Pearson] left with me a copy of her original unexpurgated draft of Mormon women of the 1870s which is due to appear in the February issue of the Ensign. A number of things in this were removed by editors of the Ensign for publication purposes. By and large they consisted of items which would seem to encourage women to leave the home and enter professional or business careers."
February 1973 - In an Ensign article entitled "Strengthening the Patriarchal Order in the Home", BYU professor Brent L. Barlow decries the trend toward "female-dominant" or "equalitarian" [sic] marriages and women working outside the home. He rhetorically asks, "With two people presiding, would democratic principles work? Suppose you had two stake presidents, two elders quorum presidents, two Sunday School presidents, two Primary and Relief Society presidents presiding over each of the priesthood quorums, groups, and auxiliaries. How would the Church function? Would 'law and order' prevail? Similarly, should two people preside over each other in a marriage, particularly when one holds the priesthood and has been divinely designated to preside?"
September 30, 1973 - In a speech at BYU, Elder Spencer W. Kimball says, "Young wives should be occupied in bearing and rearing their children. I know of no scriptures where an authorization is given to young wives to withhold their families and to go to work to put their husbands through school. There are thousands of husbands who have worked their own way through school and have reared families at the same time....
"Another thing. It is my opinion that young women often frustrate their own best interests. Generally they are as well off financially on the campus as are their young men counterparts, especially those who have spent their accumulated funds on missions, so that young women should not be demanding of expensive dinners and corsages and cars and other things which often are the basis for dates and courtship. Perhaps the high cost of courting may be one reason for the delayed courtships and marriages."
November 1974 - Prominent Catholic antifeminist Phyllis Schlafly meets with new Relief Society general president Barbara B. Smith and convinces her that the Church should oppose the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states, "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."
1975 - BYU's four-year full tuition and boarding expenses presidential scholarship, previously available only to men, is made available to an equal number of women.
February 18, 1975 - The Utah legislature votes against the Equal Rights Amendment.
October 11, 1976 - In an interview with Dennis L. Lythgoe for Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Managing Director of Public Communications Wendell J. Ashton says that women's rights has already become a bigger media issue than the priesthood and temple ban on people of African descent.
October 22, 1976 - The First Presidency writes in a statement, "From its beginnings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has affirmed the exalted role of woman in our society....
"There have been injustices to women before the law and in society generally. These we deplore.
"There are additional rights to which women are entitled.
"However, we firmly believe that the Equal Rights Amendment is not the answer.
"While the motives of its supporters may be praiseworthy, ERA as a blanket attempt to help women could indeed bring them far more restraints and repressions. We fear it will even stifle many God-given feminine instincts.
"It would strike at the family, humankind’s basic institution. ERA would bring ambiguity and possibly invite extensive litigation.
"Passage of ERA, some legal authorities contend, could nullify many accumulated benefits to women in present statutes.
"We recognize men and women as equally important before the Lord, but with differences biologically, emotionally, and in other ways.
"ERA, we believe, does not recognize these differences. There are better means for giving women, and men, the rights they deserve."
January 8, 1977 - In a speech on the Equal Rights Amendment in Pocatello, Idaho, Elder Boyd K. Packer says, "We cannot eliminate, through any pattern of legislation or regulation, the differences between men and women.
"There are basic things that a man needs that a woman does not need. There are things that a man feels that a woman never does feel.
"There are basic things that a woman needs that a man never needs, and there are things that a woman feels that a man never feels nor should he.
"These differences make women, in basic needs, literally opposite from men.
"A man, for instance, needs to feel protective, and yes, dominant, if you will, in leading his family. A woman needs to feel protected, in the bearing of children and in the nurturing of them.
"Have you ever thought what life would be like if the needs of men and women were naturally precisely the same?"
Utah Senator Jake Garn inserts the speech into the Congressional Record on February 1, and it is reprinted in the March 1977 Ensign.
Early February 1977 - President Spencer W. Kimball assigns Relief Society general president Barbara Smith, Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, and Elder Marvin J. Ashton to meet with Helen and Aubrey Andelin. When they hesitate to endorse her book, Helen asks President Smith if she thinks Fascinating Womanhood is manipulative. The latter responds, "I certainly do, and I do not think it fitting for the LDS woman." The Apostles assign her to investigate the program further, but Helen never sees or hears from her again.
July 9, 1977 - The International Women's Year convention in Salt Lake City anticipates about 2,000 attendees, but is overwhelmed by 12,000 LDS women who vote down every proposal on the ballot, including resolutions against racism and in favor of equal pay, daycare, aiding incest and rape victims, and world peace. Twelve of fourteen anti-ERA delegates selected for the national meeting in November are LDS. The New York Times reports, "Although [Maggy Pendleton] and other organizers said they had had hopes of opening a 'dialogue' with the Mormons that might begin to reverse the polarization that has existed in Utah between churchwomen and feminists for some time, the acrimony that prevailed at the convention overrode nearly every attempt at a thoughtful discussion of women's issues."
Church spokesman Don LeFevre says, "The church has always been concerned with threats to the stability of the family and the home. We don't make any excuses for our women's participation. We're proud of them. Other women's groups could probably take a note from their book."
December 3, 1977 - At a fireside in San Antonio, Texas, President Spencer W. Kimball tells women that "you are to become a career woman in the greatest career on earth - that of homemaker, wife, and mother. It was never intended by the Lord that married women should compete with men in employment. They have a far greater and more important service to render....
"The husband is expected to support his family and only in an emergency should a wife secure outside employment. Her place is in the home, to build the home into a heaven of delight....
“I beg of you, you who could and should be bearing and rearing a family: Wives, come home from the typewriter, the laundry, the nursing, come home from the factory, the café.
"No career approaches in importance that of wife, homemaker, mother - cooking meals, washing dishes, making beds for one’s precious husband and children.
"Come home, wives, to your husbands. Make home a heaven for them. Come home wives, to your children, born and unborn. Wrap the motherly cloak about you and unembarrassed help in a major role to create the bodies for the immortal souls who anxiously wait.
"When you have fully complemented your husband in home life and borne the children, growing up full of faith, integrity, responsibility and goodness, then you have achieved your accomplishments supreme, without peer, and you will be the envy through time and eternity."
1978 - BYU President Dallin H. Oaks and his assistant Dr. Marilyn Arnold establish a Women's Research Institute at BYU.
Mildred Chandler Austin publishes Woman's Divine Destiny. She writes, "I once heard a marriage counselor talk about how one should choose a mate as he chooses a shoe: if it isn't a good fit, it will be painful. If we consider this shoe-to-foot analogy, we can see the husband as being the foot, having to climb the rocky road to exaltation. A bare foot is going to find the path too painful; it needs a comforter, a shoe. When I consider what makes a shoe comfortable, I see more clearly how to be a comforting wife.... Those of us playing the role of shoes need to seriously consider what happens to shoes that are painful. They are generally discarded and a more comfortable pair takes their place. Some men are honorable enough to endure the pain of uncomfortable shoes..."
April 1, 1978 - President Spencer W. Kimball says in General Conference, "The scriptures remind us that 'Women have claim on their husbands for their maintenance, until their husbands are taken.' (D&C 83:2.) Women also have a claim on their husbands for respect, fidelity, and thoughtfulness for in that subtle, sweet relationship that should obtain between men and women, there is partnership with the priesthood.
"We delight and marvel in the appropriate development and expressions of our sisters' many talents. Surely the Church's educational effort in behalf of its women is a sermon in itself.
"Perhaps more than any other people of like size, we are deeply committed to the development of the skills and talents of our sisters, for we believe our educational program is not simply education for this world, but involves an education for all eternity.
"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has sponsored the advancement of women from its very outset. It was the Prophet Joseph Smith who set forth the ideals for womanhood. He advocated liberally for women in the purest sense of the word, and he gave them liberty to fully express themselves as mothers, as nurses to the sick, as proponents of high community ideals, and as protectors of good morals.
"What more can any woman want for herself? What more could any man want for his wife? What more could any man want than to match that standard in his own conduct?
"The Prophet Joseph gave us the Relief Society organization to advance these high purposes for Latter-day Saint women. That society today is a worldwide movement holding membership in national and world organizations for the advancement of women.
"Finally, when we sing that doctrinal hymn and anthem of affection, 'O My Father,' we get a sense of the ultimate in maternal modesty, of the restrained, queenly elegance of our Heavenly Mother, and knowing how profoundly our mortal mothers have shaped us here, do we suppose her influence on us as individuals to be less if we live so as to return there?"
April 4, 1978 - Barbara Walters interviews teen heartthrobs and Latter-day Saints Donny and Marie Osmond. She says to 18-year-old Marie, "Now I have noticed here that you have no trouble speaking your mind, and yet in the Church, the feeling about it it seems to me is that the woman is somewhat in the secondary position."
Marie responds, "Secondary, no. But you have to remember that you need a patriarch at the head of the home and this is the way that I feel... You need someone to run the home; the woman is equally as important, but as far as speaking her mind, that should be the man's job."
June 8, 1978 - President Spencer W. Kimball makes endowments, sealings, and missionary service available to women of black African descent.
August 15, 1978 - Sonia Johnson, a cofounder of Mormons for ERA, testifies in favor of the ERA before a Senate subcommittee led by Indiana Senator Birch Bayh. After her remarks she is harshly questioned and criticized by Utah Senator (and fellow Latter-day Saint) Orrin Hatch.
August 1978 - As Marvin K. Gardner later reports from the Seminar for Regional Representatives, "The First Presidency and Council of the Twelve have determined that there is no scriptural prohibition against sisters offering prayers in sacrament meetings. It was therefore decided that it is permissible for sisters to offer prayers in any meetings they attend, including sacrament meetings, Sunday School meetings, and stake conferences. Relief Society visiting teachers may offer prayers in homes that they enter in fulfilling visiting teaching assignments."
Sonia Johnson later recalls, "Apparently what happened was that my testimony before the Senate subcommittee - in which I quoted church leaders' affirmation of the 'exalted role of woman in our society,' and pointed out that they considered women too 'exalted' to offer prayers in sacrament meetings - began circulating immediately and widely underground in Utah, alerting many Mormons for the first time that women had been officially cut off from such prayers for a long time.... Most Mormon women, accustomed to having so few rights in the church, had not even noticed, and besides, not allowing women to pray in sacrament meeting had been well on its way to becoming standard practice in many localities of the church before the directive....
"One woman in Provo, Utah, read the testimony and vowed that she would not sing in church until prayer privileges were restored, because 'the song of the righteous is a prayer unto God.' Several faculty members at Brigham Young University were shocked into action and demanded an accounting from church headquarters. In the end, so much hue and cry was raised that President Kimball was forced to admit that the policy was not in accord with scripture and could not stand..."
September 1978 - Mary Frances Sturlaugson is the first woman of black African descent to be set apart as a full-time proselytizing missionary. She serves in the Texas San Antonio Mission.
October 12, 1978 - In a letter to General Authorities and all local leaders in the United States, the First Presidency writes, "The history of the Church clearly demonstrates the long-standing concern of its leaders that women, as daughters of God, should have without discrimination every political, economic, and educational opportunity. Where there now exist deficiencies concerning these matters, they can and should be corrected by specific legislation. Additionally, because of their unique capacities and responsibilities as wives and mothers, women should be the beneficiaries of such special laws as will safeguard their welfare and the interests of children and families.
"While the enactment or rejection of the Equal Rights Amendment must be accomplished by recognized political processes, we are convinced that because of its predictable results the matter is basically a moral rather than a political issue; and because of our serious concern over these moral implications, we have spoken against ratification, and without equivocation do so again. We are convinced, after careful study, after consultation with various Constitutional authorities, and after much prayerful consideration, that if the proposed amendment were to be ratified, there would follow over the years a train of interpretations and implementations that would demean women rather than ennoble them, and that also would threaten the stability of the family which is a creation of God.
"Because of our serious concern, we urge our people to join actively with other citizens who share our concerns and who are engaged in working to reject this measure on the basis of its threat to the moral climate of the future."
August 1979 - In the Ensign, gynecologist Homer Ellsworth addresses the question, "Is it our understanding that we are to propogate children as long and as frequently as the human body will permit?" He writes, "I hear this type of question frequently from active and committed Latter-day Saint women who often ask questions that are outside my professional responsibilities....
"So, as to the number and spacing of children, and other related questions on this subject, such decisions are to be made by husband and wife righteously and empathetically communicating together and seeking the inspiration of the Lord. I believe that the prophets have given wise counsel when they advise couples to be considerate and plan carefully so that the mother’s health will not be impaired. When this recommendation of the First Presidency is ignored or unknown or misinterpreted, heartache can result.
"I know a couple who had seven children. The wife, who was afflicted with high blood pressure, had been advised by her physician that additional pregnancy was fraught with grave danger and should not be attempted. But the couple interpreted the teachings of their local priesthood leaders to mean that they should consider no contraceptive measures under any circumstances. She died from a stroke during the delivery of her eighth child."
August 25, 1979 - At the invitation of the National Organization for Women, Sonia Johnson speaks to the Montana State Convention in Kalispell. She says, "The leaders of the Mormon Church are somewhat isolated in Utah. Those who are directing this anti-ERA activity need a taste of the consequences of their behavior, and one of the things everyone can do is write and call church headquarters and say, 'I am outraged that the Mormons are working against my equal civil rights, and if your missionaries ever come to my door, I wouldn't consider letting them in.'" The next day, newspapers misquote her as telling people not to allow missionaries into their homes.
September 1, 1979 - At a meeting of the American Psychological Association in New York City, Sonia Johnson gives a speech entitled "Patriarchal Panic: Sexual Politics in the Mormon Church". She asserts "that our sisters are silently screaming for help and that they are not only NOT finding it at Church, but that at Church they are being further depressed and debilitated by bombardment with profoundly demeaning female sex-role stereotypes. Their Church experience is making them sick.
"Because Mormon women are trained to desire above all else to please men (and I include in this category God, whom all too many of us view as an extension of our chauvinist leaders), we spend enormous amounts of energy trying to make the very real but - for most of us - limited satisfactions of mother- and wifehood substitute satisfactorily for all other life experiences. What spills over into those vacant lots of our hearts where our intellectual and talented selves should be vigorously alive and thriving are, instead, frustration, anger and the despair which comes from suppressing anger and feeling guilty for having felt it in the first place....
"But women are not fools. The very violence with which the Brethren attacked an Amendment which would give women human status in the Constitution abruptly opened the eyes of thousands of us to the true source of our danger and our anger. This open patriarchal panic against our human rights raised consciousness miraculously all over the Church as nothing else could have done. And revealing their raw panic at the idea that women might step forward as goddesses-in-the-making with power in a real - not a 'sub' or 'through men' - sense, was the leaders' critical and mortal error, producing as it did a deafening dissonance between their rhetoric of love and their oppressive, unloving, destructive behavior."
December 5, 1979 - Bishop Jeffrey Willis excommunicates Sonia Johnson for apostasy. Church spokesman Jerry Cahill later explains, "That Mrs. Johnson had taken public issue with the Church’s opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment was not among the grounds for the ecclesiastical action leading to her excommunication.
"But, in her advocacy of ERA, Mrs. Johnson expressed attitudes and views which went beyond that issue and constituted a direct and irresponsible attack upon the Church, its leaders, doctrines, and programs. In public statements she urged the obstruction of the Church’s worldwide missionary effort, demonstrated that she was not in harmony with Church doctrine, and misrepresented and held up to ridicule the leadership and membership of the Church."
March 1980 - Copies of the Ensign include a pamphlet on "The Church and the Proposed Equal Rights Amendment: A Moral Issue".
November 17, 1980 - Twenty women (including Sonia Johnson) and one man from Mormons for ERA are arrested for chaining themselves to the gates of the Seattle Washington Temple on the day of its dedication.
April 5, 1981 - Five women from Mormons for ERA stand up and shout "No" during the sustaining of church leaders in General Conference. In a statement to the media they explain, "We fully sustain and support President Kimball as the church’s religious leader. However, we want church leaders to know that we do not accept them as our unelected political leaders."
1982 - Elder Boyd K. Packer writes in his book That All May Be Edified, "There is another area that is important for each of you to consider. The husband, the holder of the household, is established this day in this marriage covenant as the head of the family and the breadwinner. It may be hard for you to recognize this role, young lady, but your happiness is conditioned upon it. I will say to you plainly, you show me a woman who is in charge of a home, who directs the management of all affairs, including those of her husband - you show me such a woman - and I will show you an unhappy woman. I would hope that you would make a solemn resolution with reference to this marriage covenant. It does not negate democracy in marriage. When the final decision is to be made, when particularly it has reference to prayer and the need of special guidance, then you, as the wife, defer to your husband who holds the priesthood and place the responsibility upon his shoulders, and then you follow where he leads."
1985 - Helen and Aubrey Andelin begin serving a mission in Australia. Their mission president allows Helen to spend much of her time teaching Fascinating Womanhood classes.
February 12, 1986 - The First Presidency announces that Latter-day Saint women married to non-members may be endowed with their husbands' consent.
March 1986 - In an Ensign article entitled "Working Double-Time: The Working Mother's Dilemma", Assistant Editor Jan Underwood Pinborough urges respect and tolerance for all mothers regardless of their employment or lack thereof. She concludes, "Perhaps the best way to counter the false messages we receive from the world is by giving each other loving and understanding support. We can believe in each other - applauding each others’ contributions, refraining from judging, and giving empathy and help in our difficulties. This feeling of having a community of support - both from those who work outside the home as well as from those who do not - can be one of the greatest blessings of our sisterhood in the gospel."
February 22, 1987 - At a BYU fireside entitled "To the Mothers in Zion", President Ezra Taft Benson says, "The Lord clearly defined the roles of mothers and fathers in providing for and rearing a righteous posterity. In the beginning, Adam - not Eve - was instructed to earn the bread by the sweat of his brow. Contrary to conventional wisdom, a mother's calling is in the home, not in the market place....
"In a home where there is an able-bodied husband, he is expected to be the breadwinner. Sometimes we hear of husbands who, because of economic conditions, have lost their jobs and expect their wives to go out of the home and work even though the husband is still capable of providing for his family. In these cases, we urge the husband to do all in his power to allow his wife to remain in the home caring for the children while he continues to provide for his family the best he can, even though the job be is able secure may not be ideal and family budgeting will have to be tighter.
"Our beloved prophet Spencer W. Kimball had much to say about the role of mothers in the home and their callings and responsibilities. I am impressed tonight to share with you some of his inspired pronouncements. I fear that much of his counsel has gone unheeded, and families have suffered because of it. But I stand this evening as a second witness to the truthfulness of what President Spencer W. Kimball said. He spoke as a true prophet of God."
Mid-April 1990 - The endowment ceremony is changed so that women no longer covenant to "observe and keep the law of your husband and abide by his counsel in righteousness", and no longer veil their faces except during the prayer circle. Eve is no longer cursed with pain in childbearing and Adam is no longer chastened for hearkening to his wife when he ate the forbidden fruit.
April 5, 1991 - In an address at the Regional Representatives Seminar, President Gordon B. Hinckley says, "Logic and reason would certainly suggest that if we have a Father in Heaven, we have a Mother in Heaven. That doctrine rests well with me.
"However, in light of the instruction we have received from the Lord Himself, I regard it as inappropriate for anyone in the Church to pray to our Mother in Heaven....
"Search as I have, I find nowhere in the standard works an account where Jesus prayed other than to His Father in Heaven or where He instructed the people to pray other than to His Father in Heaven.
"I have looked in vain for any instance where any President of the Church, from Joseph Smith to Ezra Taft Benson, has offered a prayer to 'our Mother in Heaven.'
"I suppose those... who use this expression and who try to further its use are well-meaning, but they are misguided. The fact that we do not pray to our Mother in Heaven in no way belittles or denigrates her."
May 18, 1993 - In an address to the All-Church Coordinating Council, Elder Boyd K. Packer says, "There are three areas where members of the Church, influenced by social and political unrest, are being caught up and led away. I chose these three because they have made major invasions into the membership of the Church.... The dangers I speak of come from the gay-lesbian movement, the feminist movement (both of which are relatively new), and the ever-present challenge from the so-called scholars or intellectuals. Our local leaders must deal with all three of them with ever-increasing frequency....
"Some mothers must work out of the home. There is no other way. And in this they are justified and for this they should not be criticized. We cannot, however, because of their discomfort over their plight, abandon a position that has been taught by the prophets from the beginning of this dispensation.... To point out so-called success stories inferring that a career out of the home has no negative effect on a family is an invitation to many to stray from what has been taught by the prophets and thus cause members to reap disappointment by and by."
September 19, 1993 - After compiling and editing the anthology Women and Authority: Re-Emerging Mormon Feminism the previous year, scholar Maxine Hanks is excommunicated for apostasy. She will be rebaptized in 2012.
September 23, 1995 - Published in response to ongoing court battles over same-sex marriage in Hawaii, "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" states in part, "All human beings - male and female - are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose....
"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. Disability, death, or other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation. Extended families should lend support when needed."
Relief Society general presidency first counselor Chieko Okazaki later recalls that "the Relief Society presidency was asked to come to a meeting. We did, and they read this proclamation. It was all finished. The only question was whether they should present it at the priesthood meeting or at the Relief Society meeting. It didn’t matter to me where it was presented. What I wanted to know was, 'How come we weren’t consulted?'... They just asked us which meeting to present it in, and we said, 'Whatever President Hinckley decides is fine with us.' He decided to do it at the Relief Society meeting. The apostle who was our liaison said, 'Isn’t it wonderful that he made the choice to present it at the Relief Society meeting?' Well, that was fine, but as I read it I thought that we could have made a few changes in it.
"Sometimes I think they get so busy that they forget that we are there. It’s different from the time when Belle Spafford was president of the Relief Society. She was her own boss, as I read her life. And so was Florence Jacobsen. There’s a great deal of difference now."
April 1997 - Helen Andelin writes to President Gordon B. Hinckley and other church leaders in her final failed attempt to secure the Church's endorsement of Fascinating Womanhood.
November 9, 1997 - President Gordon B. Hinckley is interviewed by David Ransom of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's show "Compass". Ransom asks, "At present women are not allowed to be priests in your Church. Why is that?"
Hinckley: "That’s right, because the Lord has put it that way. Now women have a very prominent place in this Church. They have their own organisation. Probably the largest women’s organisation in the world of 3.7 million members. Their own [inaudible]. And the women of that organisation sit on Boards. Our Board of Education things of that kind. They counsel with us. We counsel together. They bring in insight that we very much appreciate and they have this tremendous organisation of the world where they grow and if you ask them they’ll say we’re happy and we’re satisfied."
Ransom: "They all say that?"
Hinckley: "Yes. All except a, oh, you’ll find a little handful, one or two here and there, but in 10 million members you expect that."
Ransom: "You say the Lord has put it that way. What do you mean by that?"
Hinckley: "I mean that’s a part of His programme. Of course it is, yes."
Ransom: "Is it possible that the rules could change in the future as the rules are on Blacks?"
Hinckley: "He could change them, yes. If He were to change them that’s the only way it would happen."
Ransom: "So you'd have to get a revelation?"
Hinckley: "Yes. But there’s no agitation for that. We don’t find it. Our women are happy. They’re satisfied. These bright, able, wonderful women who administer their own organisation are very happy. Ask them. Ask my wife." [To his wife] "Are you happy?"
Mrs. Hinckley: "Very happy!" [laughs]
Next: The LDS Church and Women in the Twenty-first Century