Mormon Women

Mormons oppress women?

Mormon Women Women preach from Mormon pulpits and serve as organization presidents, teachers, committee chairs, etc, even at the global level of leadership. (Accurate as of 2006.)

The LDS women's organization, called the Relief Society, was started in 1842 and is the largest women's organization in the world. (Accurate as of 2006.)

The Church also has an organization for young women (image).

In 1870, Utah became the second state in the United States to extend to women the right to vote. Wyoming beat us by two months. (Accurate as of 2006.)

Some highly visible Mormon women have included...
  • Ivy Baker Priest (1905-1975), who served "as the U.S. Treasurer under President Eisenhower. Her signature appeared on U.S. currency from 1953 to 1961. She went on to serve as California Treasurer under Ronald Reagan."
  • Paula Hawkins, who was the first female senator elected from the state of Florida.
  • Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon, who was the first female state senator in U.S. history.

Mormons practice polygamy?

While Mormon polygamy is interesting from a historical standpoint, it is not relevant to modern Mormonism. Members of the Church have not practiced polygamy for over a century, and any Church member with multiple wives is excommunicated.
  • When Mormons did practice polygamy, it was very different than the polygamy practiced by renegade Mormon off-shoot groups today, groups that are no longer affiliated with the LDS Church. Even before the LDS Church prohibited polygamy, no more than 5% of Mormon adults were members of polygamous families.
  • Polygamy was not used to oppress women, as evidenced by a number of historical facts.
    • Many Mormon women were prominent in their communities, such as Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon, whose story is mentioned above.
    • In response to anti-polygamy legislation proposed in the Senate, 3,000 Mormon women held a massive protest in Salt Lake City, showing a surprised America that they supported polygamy. (See The Story of the Latter-day Saints, pg. 352.)
    • Utah was the second state in the union to give women the right to vote.
    • In fact, recognizing that support for polygamy ran high among Mormon women of the time, Congress took away their right to vote 17 years after the Utah government had acknowledged it, all part of a federal attempt to combat the practice. (See The Story of the Latter-day Saints, pg. 352-353.)
  • Currently, even in countries where polygamy is legal, any individuals practicing it cannot be members of the Church.
  • Enemies of the Church like to mention this practice to criticize us, but they rarely mention that some modern Muslims and Hindus, as well as ancient Israelites, also practice(d) polygamy. This criticism directed at Mormons is furthermore paradoxical because polygamy, while historically interesting, is irrelevant in modern Mormonism.
  • That having been said, I am very grateful Mormons don't practice polygamy today and that it no longer plays a role in Mormon theology. I can barely handle my one wife!
8 Comments » Leave a comment
  1. Anonymous
    10-19-2007, 10:02:37 AM

    Thanks. It's nice to be informed!

  2. Glade
    11-12-2007, 07:32:35 PM

    My great-grandfather was a Mormon pioneer and polygamist. The doctrine of polygamy has not been abandoned. The keys to this sacrament were taken back after the church's due diligence in accordance with the 11th article of faith. In compliance with the 12th article of faith, and the knowledge that the sacrament is not essential to salvation, submission to the law of the land was in order. The church sought all of its legal challenges to the prohibition on polygamy before submitting, and after the then President of the church received revelatory experiences and confirmation from the Lord. "At that time conditions were such that the Lord by revelation withdrew the command to continue the practice, and President Wilford Woodruff issued the Manifesto directing that it cease." (Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, pp. 213-218.)

  3. John S.
    12-16-2007, 09:01:03 AM

    Many good facts herein. I learned several new things by reading this page. Thank you for your research and for taking the time to help educate others.

  4. Anonymous
    10-5-2008, 04:08:37 PM

    Women in the early church and up until about 1940 did hold the priesthood. They never held an office, they were able to annoint and bless in the name of Jesus Christ, but could not evoke a blessing by using the words 'by the power of the holy... Priesthood.' This was used during childbirth, attending the sick, etc. Apparently it was abandoned due to conflict of it's use and what Joseph Smith had intended. However when still hold limited powers of the priesthood to bless, annointed and pronounce blessings in the temple (initiatory) and those who have received the second annointing with their husbands. Both of which are not discussed further outside the temple.

    Webmaster: Interesting, Anonymous. I'm confident God also hears a mother's prayer for her children. I bet in His eyes such a prayer bares the same weight as a priesthood blessing...

  5. Anonymous
    2-9-2009, 08:58:54 AM

    I am a woman in the LDS church and I love it! I was brought up by a very strong willed woman and I am a strong willed woman myself, and I find a great deal of freedom in my testimony of the gospel. Couples are taught to work together on decisions. This keeps me from taking charge all the time and making our marriage unbalanced. :) I take charge sometimes, about half, and its nice that I don't have to take charge the other half of the time. Praying together with my husband brings us closer. It is true that women in the church are encouraged to stay home with their children if at all possible, but women are also encouraged to be educated and world sauvee. We are taught to prepare for a career in order to support ourselves if something happens to our husbands. I know that stay-at-home-mom is a stereotype that is looked down on in today's modern world, but the stay-at-home-mother is the greatest force in the world today, and I am finding that I enjoy working at home much more than working out in the field! Who wants to dress up anyways?

  6. Mark F. Brinton
    12-9-2009, 03:38:46 PM

    While LDS women received the right to vote in 1870, Utah became a state in 1895, making the "second state" claim correct only if in 1895 only one other state previously had granted suffrage rights to women.

    Webmaster: Good catch, Mark. You're right, Utah was not officially a state until 1896.

  7. Lewinsky_Logistics
    7-12-2010, 05:12:06 AM

    I thought polygamy had been practiced for the purpose of there being a war sometime back when and several of the men had been killed. Therefore, since women couldn't own land, as well as work, they were assigned to their "polygamous homes" to live that way and replenish our people..??

  8. El Santo Gringo
    7-18-2010, 12:27:18 AM

    Hi Lewinsky_Logistics. That's a common misconception. It is certainly true that in some cases widows were “married” as second wives so they could have someone to take care of them. A number of Brigham Young's wives, for example, were elderly widows who were probably “wives” in name only. However, this situation can only explain a small fraction of all 19th-century polygamous marriages. Furthremore, polygamous marriages were not typically arranged; I don't believe it was common for women to be “assigned” to any marriage. Additionally, many Mormon women of the 19th century were leaders in the feminist movement of their time. It is simply not true that they couldn't work. Some of the first female doctors in the United States were Mormon.

    Consider this quote from Brigham Young: "As I have often told my sisters in the Female Relief Societies, we have sisters here who, if they had the privilege of studying, would make just as good mathematicians or accountants as any man; and we think they ought to have the privilege to study these branches of knowledge that they may develop the powers with which they are endowed. We believe that women are useful not only to sweep houses, wash dishes, make beds, and raise babies, but that they should stand behind the counter, study law or physic [medicine], or become good book-keepers and be able to do the business in any counting house, and this to enlarge their sphere of usefulness for the benefit of society at large."

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