Women and authority : re-emerging Mormon feminism / edited by Maxine Hanks.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hanks, Maxine, 1955- editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women in Latter Day Saint churches.

Latter Day Saint women.

Physical Description:

xxxiii, 460 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Salt Lake City : Signature Books, 1992.

Summary:

Utah women today might be surprised to learn their grandmothers' views on feminist issues, according to Maxine Hanks. LDS Relief Society co-founder Sarah Kimball referred to herself as "a woman's rights woman, " while Bathsheba Smith was called on Relief Society mission in 1870 to preach equal rights for women. The society editorialized that females belonged not only "in the nursery" but also "in the library, the laboratory, the observatory." Sisters sent east to study medicine were assured that "when men see that women can exist without them, it will perhaps take a little of the conceit out of some of them." Temple officiators were called "priestesses, " Eliza R. Snow the "prophetess, " and women were discouraged from confessing to bishops on grounds that personal matters "should be referred to the Relief Society president and her counselors." Women were set apart as healers "with power to rebuke diseases." In addition, Mormon theology spoke reassuringly of a Mother God of the divinity ofMary, Mary Magdalene, and Eve. No wonder Relief Society president Emmeline B. Wells could write with confidence: "Let woman speak for herself; she has the right of freedom of speech. Women are too slow in moving forward, afraid of criticism, of being called unwomanly, of being thought masculine."

Contents:

The Mormon concept of a mother in heaven / Linda P. Wilcox

The historical relationship of Mormon women and priesthood / Linda King Newell

Empowerment and Mormon women's publications / Vella Neil Evans

Historic Mormon feminist discourse-excerpts

An expanded definition of priesthood? : some present and future consequences / Meg Wheatley

Mormon women as "natural" seers : an enduring legacy / Ian G. Barber

Non-hierarchical revelation / Todd Compton

Let women no longer keep silent in our churches : women's voices in Mormonism / Dorice Williams Elliott

The grammar of inequity / Lavina Fielding Anderson

Healing the motherless house / Carol Lynn Pearson

Personal discourse on God the mother / Martha Pierce

Emerging discourse on the divine feminine

Mormonism's odd couple : the priesthood-motherhood connection / Sonja Farnsworth

Sister missionaries and authority / Maxine Hanks

Reconciliation / Edwin Brown Firmage

Why shouldn't Mormon women want this priesthood? / Marian Yeates

Mormon women have had the priesthood since 1843 / D. Michael Quinn

Put on your strength O daughters of Zion : claiming priesthood and knowing the mother / Margaret Merrill Toscano

Women as healers in the modern church / Betina Lindsey.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Other Format:

Online version: Women and authority.

ISBN:

1560850140

9781560850144

OCLC:

25509094