Few things are emphasized as heavily in contemporary culture as the importance of getting an education. There’s a reasonable justification for this fact: in today’s increasingly competitive job market, earning a degree in higher education is one of the surest ways of impressing prospective employers or working towards personal prosperity. For adolescents aging in the modern world, encouragement to go to school and start a career is widespread and omnipresent.
That is, unless you are a young woman growing up in the LDS church.
A statement titled “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” highlights the Mormon social stance on topics like marriage, sexuality and gender roles. It codifies the official church position that the place of the woman is in the home. “By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families […] and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families,” the statement reads. “Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children.” In other words, things like careers and bread-winning should be left to the men, while chores and housekeeping should be left to the women. The true 50s American Dream.
Except this statement wasn’t released in the 50s, it was released in 1995. And now, in 2016, church leaders are standing by it. In September, at the most recent General Women’s Conference session, Young Women’s president Bonnie L. Oscarson said Mormons should stand up boldly for teachings about the essential differences between the roles and responsibilities of men and women. “I worry that we live in such an atmosphere of avoiding offense that we sometimes altogether avoid teaching correct principles,” she said. “We fail to teach our young women that preparing to be a mother is of utmost importance because we don’t want to offend those who aren’t married, those who can’t have children or to be seen as stifling future choices.” The importance of education should also be emphasized, she added, but not so heavily that it makes education seem more important than marriage.
The problem with this doctrine, this “eternal teaching,” is not that it prepares women to be nurturing and good mothers. It is that it teaches them that this is all they should set out to do — even if lip service is paid to ideas like the importance of education. While there is nothing wrong with encouraging and wanting women to take the role of motherhood seriously, it is totally wrong to unilaterally decide that this should be the primary responsibility and focus of all women everywhere. What if a woman doesn’t want kids, or to even be married for that matter? Is choosing not to have children something worthy of our ridicule? If we value independence and individual choice, it shouldn’t be.
Believing that women should inherently prioritize motherhood over school or work appears to be having profound effects at the population level. A 2014 analysis by 24/7 Wall St. ranked Utah as the worst state for women based on a variety of factors, including gender wage gap and representation in the workforce. “Utah is the worst state for women,” the analysts said. “While men in Utah tend to earn more than men nationwide, women in the state earn less than women nationwide. The difference of $16,586 between male and female median earnings in the state is the second largest in the country.” The researchers also noted that women in Utah hold less than one in three management positions, which is lower than the country’s 40 percent average. Another study, this one from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, found that in 2015, Utah ranked as the worst state for political participation of women and the second worst for family-related leave and workplace flexibility. Through both of these studies, it is clear that Utah’s economic opportunities do not necessarily extend to women.
Utah may be a great state for things like health and economic prosperity. In terms of gender equality, however, it is among the least prosperous. This is likely due to a culture that teaches that all women should put maternal motivations above all others, and that the act of providing is a solely male role. If we wish to make Utah a pleasant and free state for all, we should start by de-stigmatizing working women and increasing female representation in the state.