One Utah

Yesterday’s Trib carried an article about comments and reaction to them from the Mormon Church’s Relief Society President.

Beck did not mention the working-versus-stay-at-home issue, but quoted Benson’s infamous speech, “To the Mothers in Zion,” urging Mormon women not to limit or delay child-bearing. 

She then went on to say that Mormon mothers honor their sacred covenants by bringing daughters to church “in clean and ironed dresses with hair brushed to perfection; their sons wear white shirts and ties and have missionary haircuts.” 

Beck also linked the idea of nurturing with housekeeping and that included “cooking, washing clothes and dishes, and keeping an orderly house.” She suggested that Mormon women cut back on activities outside the home “to conserve their limited strength in order to maximize their influence where it matters most.”

Within a broad historical context, Beck is simply restating the early 19th century “Cult of Republican Motherhood” (so named because the US is a republic and having nothing to do with the contemporary political party of the same name)  in which women were consigned to the “separate sphere” of the home and tasked with raising children who would be good citizens.  A woman’s duty was to bear children, to master her sphere of home and childrearing, and not bother her pretty head with such things as politics and study.

Nineteenth century feminists argued that women should receive an education so they could raise intelligent children; a mother, it was argued, must be able to read to her children, assist their schoolwork, teach them social graces and cultural awareness, and to do so, she must be educated.  The first wave of women’s colleges in the US were opened in response to these arguments.  As women demonstrated they were the equals of men in their ability to learn, more and more women attended colleges.  After the Civil War, many colleges began admitting women (my own alma mater Grinnell College in Iowa among them).  Throughout the 19th century, American feminist continually pushed forward in educational advancement; the first female doctors and lawyers were 19th century feminists (Elizabeth Blackwell became the first female doctor in the US in 1849). 

My great aunts Effie, Alice and Evelyn - born in Salt Lake City in the 1890s, all had successful careers, attained advanced educations.  Alice in particular was extremely successful - at one time she was the highest ranking women in the US State Department, lived on Embassy Row in DC, address congress and UN.  The post World War Two turn to domesticity reinforced and reintroduced in a new and particularly toxic form the “separate spheres” arguments.  Women were relegated to childrearing, housekeeping, and (in a post war twist) ideal sexual mates for their husbands; IOW, a good wife and mother kept a spotless house, raised children with perfectly combed hair, tidy, well pressed clothes, cooked great meals, was eye-candy for her husband, and was an enthusiastic lover.

Beck’s statements come as no surprise to me - it is in accord with everything that Mormon leadership has said about women and families for decades - cloying, sentimental, unconnected to reality and guaranteed to induce guilt.  The Trib’s comments were filled with people who defended Beck - arguing in essense “She’s right.  Everyone knows that and they just lack the discipline to achieve the ideal.”  There were also people who criticized her for being tone-deaf to the concerns of real families, single people, divorced people, poor people. 

The bottom line to me, though remains what is has always been:  When the Mormon hierarchy speaks about family, they are using the same script Joseph Smith heard in upstate New York in the early nineteenth century, misinterpreting 19th century social movements as divine revelation.

This entry was posted Monday, October 15th, 2007 at 10:43 am and is filed under Salt Lake City, Society, This Blog, Tribalism & Blind Obedience to Authority. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.