In the book \u00a0Women\u2019s Voices, the authors, Kenneth and Audrey Godfrey and Jill Derr, talk about three well known women in Mormon history.\u00a0 They have searched their diaries and made them human before us.\u00a0 I was fascinated to read their ups and downs and their personal marvelings of their growth within the gospel.<\/p>\n
Brigham Young is quoted as saying, \u201cWe 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 physics, or become good bookkeepers and be able to do the business in any counting house, and all this to enlarge their sphere of usefulness for the benefit of society at large.\u201d\u00a0 These women have demonstrated this in their own little ways.<\/p>\n
In the late 1800\u2019s Relief Societies, meeting during the week, would build their own halls, with their own money, to meet in.\u00a0 Mary Jane Tanner records how the women would gather \u201cat private residences\u201d, because they had no hall to meet in.\u00a0 They would gather weekly to quilt, sew carpet rags, discuss church history and doctrine, and share testimonies.\u201d\u00a0 They met to organize and conduct business for the Retrenchment societies and the Primary Associations, which the Relief Society would \u201cmother\u201d.<\/p>\n
Many Relief Society meetings focused on a specific work that needed to be done:\u00a0 various home industry projects;\u00a0 \u201cindignation meetings\u201d that would later become suffragette meetings; organizing the women into presidencies, for the other associations (looking after the younger children); grain meetings, and organizing visits to care for the poor and the sick.<\/p>\n
Eliza R. Snow, one time presidentess of all three associations (RS, YW, and Primary), declared, \u201cWe are women of God,–women filling high and responsible positions\u201d.\u00a0 She rallied the sisters to serve diligently and faithfully in callings in these various organizations, as well as getting involved in the antipolygamy campaigns, the local suffragette meetings, and national women\u2019s associations.<\/p>\n
These women found themselves doing things they never thought they could do.<\/p>\n
Mary Jane Mount Tanner spent her life dividing her time between raising her family and fulfilling her Relief Society responsibilities.\u00a0 \u00a0She gave birth to nine children, only six surviving.\u00a0 She was Relief Society President for twenty-two years.\u00a0 She wrote life sketches of the female descendants of the ruling houses of Europe, as well as published works of poetry.\u00a0 She records in her journal, \u201cI attended a meeting today for electing delegates to the County Convention. \u00a0Political meetings are something new to me. \u00a0\u00a0There were several ladies present, and we said [aye] sometimes by way of exercising our rights, and went home feeling the importance of our positions.”\u00a0 She was eventually elected president of the Provo Woman\u2019s Suffrage Association.<\/p>\n
Emmeline B. Wells, was abandoned by her first husband.\u00a0 She gave birth to six children, losing a baby.\u00a0 At the age of forty-six, she began writing for the Women\u2019s Exponent, eventually becoming its editor.\u00a0 She published a book of poetry that became so popular, another edition had to be printed.\u00a0 At eighty-two years of age, she was called to serve as the fifth General Relief Society President.\u00a0 She writes in her journal, \u201cI went to the Eleventh Ward to a Retrenchment meeting; Sister E.R. Snow and Zina D. Young were there also Bishop McRea and his Counselors.\u00a0 It was a very good meeting I rose and tried to speak for a few minutes, the first time in my life that I ever spoke in public before men.\u201d\u00a0 She would later travel east to defend the cause of Mormon women before Congress and the US President.<\/p>\n
Susa Young Gates, the daughter of Brigham Young, was a divorced young mother of two, trying to go to school.\u00a0 She was keenly interested in education having studied stenography, baking, and literature.\u00a0\u00a0 She directed the school choir, taught piano and voice, and helped establish the music and domestic science departments.\u00a0 She also spent much time serving in the temple and doing family history work.\u00a0 She would later write a course in genealogy research and teach it in the Lion House for ten years.\u00a0 She was the editor of the Young Women\u2019s Journal, as well as the Relief Society Magazine.\u00a0 She wrote several novels, poems and stories.\u00a0 She served seven terms as delegate to the national and International Councils of Women.\u00a0 She eventually remarried and had eleven more children, only four growing to maturity.<\/p>\n
Susa Young Gates\u00a0sensed as did these other women that she had \u201ca destiny in this church to fulfill\u201d.\u00a0 I hope we all feel we have our own destiny to fulfill in this church.\u00a0 Some things will be new to us, many things will be scary, but the Lord needs us to move His work forward, even more than what these great women have already accomplished.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the book \u00a0Women\u2019s Voices, the authors, Kenneth and Audrey Godfrey and Jill Derr, talk about three well known women in Mormon history.\u00a0 They have searched their diaries and made them human before us.\u00a0 I was fascinated to read their ups and downs and their personal marvelings of their growth within the gospel. Brigham Young […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[476,10],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-womanhood","category-women-of-god","tag-enlargingsphere"],"yoast_head":"\n