Mormonism and gender issues/Women

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Mormonism and women's issues

Neylan McBaine, "To Do the Business of the Church: A Cooperative Paradigm for Examining Gendered Participation Within Church Organizational Structure"

Neylan McBaine,  Proceedings of the 2012 FAIR Conference, (August 2012)

I will be talking today about how women fit into the functional structure of LDS church governance; but, unlike many of the others speaking today, I do not have advanced degrees in my subject nor consider myself an academic. My credentials as someone qualified to talk about this subject come from: first, a lifetime of personal experience as a woman in the Church and now the mother of three daughters; second, my role as founder, in 2010, of a non-profit organization, The Mormon Women Project, which publishes stories of faithful Latter-day Saint women from around the world; and third, a twelve-year career in marketing and brand strategy including my current role as associate creative director Church-owned Bonneville Communications, the agency partnered with the Church on Mormon.org and the “I’m A Mormon” campaign.

Mormonism and gender issues: Women

As prophets anciently

Summary: The Old and New Testaments talk of women prophets. Why are there no women prophets in the church today?

Childbearing

Summary: Some claim that LDS teachings about childbearing put an improper burden on LDS families, especially women.

Birth control

Summary: What is the stance of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on birth control?

Role in the Church

• • Priesthood—
    Brief Summary: Why do women not exercise priesthood authority in the Church? (Click here for full article)
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  • Married and Single—
    Brief Summary: Some critics charge that the LDS Church devalues those who are not married and those who are childless. (Click here for full article)
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Church over Family?

Summary: Some former Church members claim the time commitments that went with their involvement in Church service encouraged them to neglect their families.

Sexual abuse, assault, rape, and incest

Summary: The Church condemns the sins of sexual assault, abuse, incest, and rape as extremely grave sins, while considering the victims innocent of wrong-doing.

• • Sexual assault victims ought to fight to the death?—
    Brief Summary: Do Church leaders teach that those subject to sexual abuse or assault ought to fight to the death or be considered guilty of sin? Absolutely not. (Click here for full article)
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Marriage, in general

Summary: Index of wiki articles on marriage in Mormonism.

Women as "sons of perdition"?

Summary: Are there women who would be among those cast into outer darkness? Are there female 'Sons of Perdition'?

Are Mormon women taught to be subservient to men?

Summary: In an unpublished paper “Mormon Women, Prozac, and Therapy," by Kent Ponder (copyrighted 2003, readily available on the Internet), the idea is put forward that women in the LDS church are taught to be “subservient” to men and are considered “eternally unalterable second-class.” Among some of its more colorful statements are the claims that women are expected to be “gratefully subservient to Mormon males” and that women must “not aspire…to independent thought.”

The Church and the "Equal Rights Amendment"

Summary: Why did the Church oppose the "Equal Rights Amendment" in the United States?

• • The Church and Abortion—
    Brief Summary: What is the LDS Church's position on abortion? (Click here for full article)
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