(part 1 of 3) Thoughts on the movement Ordain Women

Mary and Martha by Minerva Teichert

I am not a member of Ordain Women, although I have several friends who are and I respect them and sympathize with the movement. While I am in favor of their goals as I understand them (Is it wrong to ask the leaders to pray for revelation for something you feel you want and should have? No! Is it wrong for women to try to go to Priesthood session of conference? No!), I am concerned about their tactics. I fear that it is too much and too soon, and that their movement and tactics may have served to close doors that were opening due to more gentle and slow tactics from other feminist movements in the church. (Although I could be wrong and I hope I am. It may be that their success in raising awareness large scale has opened doors. I don't know.)

My impression is that the leaders of the church have just started to soften a bit towards feminist ideas, after the perception in the 1980s and 90s that feminists and intellectuals were enemies of the church (as Elder Packer put it). The leaders listened to the heartfelt and well written letters and let a woman pray in conference. Women missionaries have been given more leadership roles, and the responsibilities of mission presidents’ wives have increased. These have been small steps but in the right direction.

I thought the “wear pants to church day” was a good awareness event. Even with such a mild goal regarding our own personal dressing choices and helping all people feel accepted at church, though, it got a lot of unwarranted negative backlash. I saw messages from people on both sides of the issue on my Facebook feed. Those who felt strongly enough to write against it did so in apocalyptic terms. 

The same thing has happened with the Ordain Women movement, which is less mild. The following word cloud from Ordain Women posts really sums it up well, I think: the size of each word in the cloud is proportional to how often it turned up in comments either for or against. Which side is being reasonable, and which seems to be extremist?

Ordain Women Word Clouds

comments from the people who agree with Ordain Women

comments from the people who don’t agree with Ordain Women

Major change and negative media attention (I think) seem to upset the leaders, at whose discretion any change has to come. So what would be more modest goals to enlarge women’s role in the church? This article most closely says what I feel right now would be positive, achievable change.

BeyondFamily: Woman’s Leadership in the LDS church

Here is an excellent article defending the Ordain Women movement:

ALetter from the Past for Today

Here is an excellent blog post my friend Genevieve wrote on the subject:

ImaginaryConversations with a conservative Mormon woman about feminism and the Church

(here is part 2 of 3)

(here is part 3 of 3)