As I looked over the talks given this weekend at General Conference, the broadcast given by the leaders of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for their members, I was perturbed. Out of twenty-six talks given that weekend, one was from a woman. I think we need to hear from women more often in the church; diverse perspectives will only strengthen it. We have come far from the days when women were expected to live to cook, clean, raise children, and look nice, but we still have a way to go before they are valued equally to men.
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| Locke believed women were fully rational, and had particularly high praises for Damaris Cudworth Masham. |
John Locke was actually an early supporter of semi-feminist ideas. He even used religion and scriptures to support his claims in his Two Treatises on Government. In his efforts to establish that monarchies did not have a divine right to rule, he ended up claiming that this extended to the "right" of dominion God supposedly gave to Adam over Eve.
Locke claims that God punished Eve for disobeying him, but that he did not give the authority of a monarch to Adam as the Enlightenment monarchs often claimed. This meant that women did not owe their husbands obedience, and that their children owed equal subordination to both parents, not just the father. Locke believed that men only had power over women in their physical superiority—which was actually pretty progressive for his time.
I rarely though about my status as a woman until I came to BYU; my plan was to make a good career for myself. Since coming here, though, I've met a lot of people who think my priority should be getting married, having kids, and staying at home. If we had female perspectives being shared at a level of authority more often in the church, we might begin to accept that not all women want the same thing. I rarely hear about men being badgered about having kids, and never hear them being pressured to put their careers aside to raise them.
If we want people to feel heard and included in the church and society in general, we need to invite diverse perspectives and new ways of thinking, like John Locke started to. Perhaps if women were seen with more authority in the church, its members would be more accepting of each others' diverse paths. It wouldn't be the first time religion was used to empower women.
While I am glad to have an advocate for more female speakers during the regular sessions of conference speaking up, saying that there was only one female speaker was a falsehood as there were in fact four of them. I would suggest not making such statements without either qualifying the sentence further or double-checking the numbers. That being said, I do agree that more female speakers need to be brought in. It's undoubtedly annoying to the women of the church to not have as many people of the same gender speaking to them!
ReplyDeleteI was not including the women's session, only the general sessions. The women's session included three female and three male speakers.
DeleteI really appreciate your post. I too believe that women need to be heard more. I also think that women need to be careful with saying that we need more equality (you did it very tastefully, so thank you!!). Too many times, women will speak up about making men and women equals but their ideas often involve kicking the legs out from underneath the men so that they come "down" to a woman's level, rather than allowing women to be pulled up to that same height. One of my roommates is doing a project where she asks male college students what their biggest struggles are. One of them brought up the issue of gender equality. I can't quote him exactly, but he said he often feels belittled as a man (because "men" are what is wrong with "women") and he doesn't know how he can defend himself without making it look like he's bashing women. Women need to be careful about what they say about gender inequality, because when we say, "men do this" and "men do that," we incidentally include ALL men, including those who love and respect women. Again, thank you for your post. Well said.
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