Molly Mormons, Mormon Feminists and Moderates: Religious Diversity and the Latter Day Saints Church

Sociology of Religion, Spring, 2001 by Lori G. Beaman

Lori G. Beaman [*]

Based on data from life history interviews with 28 Latter Day Saints women, this paper considers the process of boundary negotiation on two key sites. First, how do Mormon women maintain their autonomy and agency in the context of institutionalized patriarchy. Secondly, how do women make sense of church prescriptions on male authority both within the family and in the church hierarchy. The study reveals that LDS women are not monolithic in their response to these issues, and that they tend to fall into one of three groups -- Molly Mormons, feminists, or moderates. The paper reviews strategies used by Mormon women to negotiate boundaries within their families, the church, and society around four issues: participation in the paid labor force, male headship, the priesthood, and the separation of their faith from decisions made by the male hierarchy of the church.

INTRODUCTION

The study of boundary negotiation between religious groups and the social context in which they exist has long held fascination for sociologists. Donald Kraybill (1989) and Conrad Kanagay (1994) have explored the permeability of boundaries in relation to the Amish, Nancy Ammerman (1987) has examined the ways in which fundamentalists negotiate boundaries in a secular culture, and James Davison Hunter (1991) has constructed a theory of culture wars based on assumptions about boundaries. In religion, the struggle over boundaries is manifested in the ways in which both church organization and ideology is acted upon and acts upon individual believers in their social context.

A multi-faceted approach to religious participation may serve to help us understand women's participation in conservative religions, and the process of boundary negotiation at multiple levels. Elizabeth Ozorak argues that higher levels of religiosity amongst women presents a paradox that needs to be explained. She asks "why do women disproportionately invest in an institution that systematically devalues them?" (1996: 17). While the women Ozorak interviewed identified some inequalities in the church, they chose to deal with it through 'cognitive restructuring' -- reinterpreting their environment and adjusting their responses to it. Such a tactic allowed women to maintain their self-esteem without abandoning their religious beliefs. Davidman (1986) and Kaufman (1991) have explored boundary negotiation in relation to Orthodox Jewish women, Neitz has studied charismatic Catholic women (1987) and their negotiation of boundaries both within the church and society, and I have examined how evangelical women shape c hurch teachings and negotiate church-community boundaries in relation to wife abuse (1996, 1997).

Christel Manning's work with Catholic women serves to raise another problem arising out of boundary negotiation. Different responses to religious dogma result in divisions between women within religious organizations. While Manning (1997) points out that such divisions may be bridged to some extent by moderating factors, they do contribute to the overall polarization within the church. Similar strains exist amongst evangelical women (Beaman 1997). For LDS [1] women, the divisions have sometimes been rather dramatically and publicly played out through events like the 1980 excommunication of Sonia Johnson for her activism in relation to the ERA.

The negotiation of boundaries and the strategies employed by LDS women in their day to day lives will be examined in this paper. The strategies used to understand roles, particularly in light of church teachings on headship, participation in the paid labor force, the priesthood and church hierarchy will be explored. How do LDS women maintain their autonomy and agency in the context of institutionalized patriarchy, particularly in light of the trend within the Mormon church to adopt the "family values" rhetoric of conservative Protestantism (Mauss 1994)? The discussion which follows reveals the diverse ways in which LDS women exercise their agency, negotiate their identities as agents, and challenge and shape church structure. My intention is to produce a more "textured interpretation of human agency," to use Ammerman's (1997) words, through a consideration of multiple sites which highlight the complexities of religious participation through the process of boundary negotiation. Using a qualitative approach wh ich focuses on life histories of participants, this paper examines Mormon women's perceptions of their own agency in the context of church doctrine, their families and their own life paths.

METHOD

The data for this paper is part of a larger research project which examines women's agency in patriarchal religions. This research has drawn from a variety of data sources: participant observation at a large general women's meeting, in-depth personal life-history interviews, email conversations, a day spent with an informal group of women who consider themselves, for the most part, to be Mormon feminists, and an "insider" informant -- an LDS woman whose family roots trace back to the great trek to Utah and who has been raised in Western Canada has acted as an informant on basic beliefs and practices, as well as an entry point into the LDS community. The interviews lasted 1-2.5 hours, with one participant asking to be interviewed again at some point in the future. Although I do nor claim that this is a representative sample, the 28 women who have been interviewed provide an interesting mini-portrait of the diversity of LDS women. Each of these women lives in Southern Alberta, although not all are originally f rom Western Canada. [2]