The Strength of Women in Church History
I am deeply honored to have been asked to speak today and
hope to do the topic justice.
I was asked to speak on the strength of women with a
particular focus on the women of early church history.
Emma
The most famous of our early Mormon women is Emma Smith (1804-1879),
the first wife of Joseph Smith, who was known for her compassion, healing touch,
and selfless service. Called an “elect lady,” she compiled our first hymnbook
and was chosen as the first Relief Society president in 1842. At the first
meeting of the newly organized women’s society, Emma stressed the women’s
intention to make a difference, saying: “We are going to do something
extraordinary…we expect extraordinary occasions and pressing calls.”
But less remembered is that when Joseph was killed she was
barely four months into her 8th pregnancy and that she would give
birth to her last child—David Hyrum Smith—five months after her husband’s death
and that she would ultimately outlive all but four of her eleven children.
And instead of moving west to Utah with the majority of the
Saints, Emma remained in Nauvoo to care for her frail mother-in-law, Lucy Mack
Smith, who had lost her husband and four sons in quick succession over a four
year period. Like Ruth, Emma would not leave her mother-in-law’s side and cared
for her until Lucy passed away in May of 1856. Emma remarried a man named Lewis
C. Bidamon and lived another twenty years, passing away in Nauvoo on April 30,
1879.
Eliza
Equally well-known among Mormon women is Eliza R. Snow (1804-1887),
sister of Lorenzo Snow and polygamous wife to both Joseph Smith and Brigham
Young. With Emma, Eliza served in the leadership of the first Relief Society
organization as its secretary and was later named the second general Relief
Society president when it was re-organized in Utah. A well-known poet and prolific writer, Eliza
was a leading Mormon intellectual of her day and often called a Prophetess by
her contemporaries. She wielded considered power and commanded the respect of
many.
Recent scholarship from Dr. Andrea Radke-Moss, a historian
at BYU-Idaho, has unearthed new sources that verify that the then 34-year-old Eliza
was gang raped by a mob of men during the so-called Missouri War in 1838. The
brutal attack rendered her incapable of having children.
Given that statistically 1 in 5 women in America today will experience sexual
assault, Dr. Moss stresses the significance of sharing Eliza’s story:
"She [Eliza] unsilences the silenced. And yet, her victimhood does not and
will not define her, but this new knowledge has the potential to bring hope and
healing to other victims of sexual violence among our church membership and
others, for whom Eliza provides an emulative model of strength, hope, faith,
and resilience.”
Despite Eliza’s traumatic past, she did not let this define
her or diminish her considerable talents as a spiritual, political, and
artistic leader. Her legacy lives on in the form of her poetry, ten of which can
still be found in our hymn book including my personal favorite, hymn 292, “O My
Father.” Written in 1845 and based on Joseph Smith’s teachings, the poem so
beautifully invokes the image of our Heavenly Mother and was a much beloved and
popular hymn in the early church. Wilford Woodruff went so far as to call it
revelation.
Jane
But what of the other Mormon women, the ones not as well
remembered as Emma and Eliza? Well, there was Jane Manning James (1822-1908),
born a free black in Connecticut in 1822 and one of the first African-American
converts. Joining the church in its early days was an act of courage and
even more so for a black woman so disenfranchised by her race and sex in a
world decidedly prejudiced against her. Jane and her family walked over 800
miles to join the main body of Saints in Nauvoo because they were denied
passage on a boat with their fellow converts. Jane recorded: “We walked until
our shoes were worn out, and our feet became sore and cracked open and bled
until you could see the whole print of our feet with blood on the ground. We
stopped and united in prayer to the Lord, we asked God the Eternal Father to
heal our feet and our prayers were answered and our feet were healed forthwith.”
Finally arriving in Nauvoo, her family was immediately
welcomed by the Prophet and Jane was invited to live with Joseph and Emma where
she remained for several months. She
married, bore eight children, and again traveled many miles on foot to settle
in Salt Lake with the other pioneers. But all was not well in Zion for Jane.
She desperately desired to receive her temple endowments but was denied access
because of the priesthood ban. Over the course of 20 years, Jane would write
many persistent and impassioned letters and met with several apostles and
church presidents to request entrance into the temple. All were denied. “But,”
she said, she would “wait in patience on her Heavenly Father.”
When the ban was finally lifted many years after her death, Jane’s work was
among the first to be performed via proxy.
Patty
We could talk of Patty Bartlett Sessions (1795-1892), eighteen
and newly married, and how she was unexpectedly called to assist with a
neighbor’s difficult birth in her southwest Maine town. With no preparation and
little training, Patty fearlessly went where she was called and successfully
delivered her first child. Four months later, Patty was called to the bedside
of another woman in labor and thus a midwife was born. Though Patty herself
would tragically lose five of her eight children before they reached adulthood,
she reportedly delivered 3,997 babies, the most well-known and respected Mormon
midwife.
In 1833, Patty was introduced to Mormonism and like
midwifery, her conversion was almost instinctual. According to one of her
children, “As soon as my Mother he[a]rd she believed.”
Patty’s detailed journal is one of the best extant records of the overland
journey that we have and it provides invaluable details about the trek,
frontier life, and early church history. In her last years, Patty settled in
Bountiful, Utah near her remaining children and dedicated the Patty Sessions
Academy, a school where poor children in the area were admitted without cost.
She died in Bountiful in 1892 at age 97, survived by two sons, 33
grandchildren, 137 great-grandchildren, and 22 great-great-grandchildren.
Emmeline
We should also remember Emmeline B. Wells (1828-1921), an
educator and suffragette who would serve for numerous years in the general
Relief Society presidency and as the chief editor of the
Woman’s Exponent, a semi-monthly periodical where she tirelessly
promoted the rights of women. She wrote: “I believe in women, especially
thinking women”…”I have desired with all my heart to do those things that would
advance women in moral and spiritual as well as educational work and tend to
the rolling on of the work of God upon the earth.”
Numbered among her personal friends were both Elizabeth Cady
Stanton and Susan B. Anthony with whom she interacted frequently as Utah’s
representative at the National Woman Suffrage Association and the International
Councils of Women. She met with congressmen and even presidents. She was
instrumental in winning Utah women the right to vote, which they were given in
1896 when Utah was granted statehood. In 1910, at the age of 82, she was called
to be the RS general president where she served for 11 years and oversaw an
extensive welfare program and administered services to those in need of help from
the ravages of World War I. And it is to her that we credit the RS motto:
“Charity never faileth.”
Martha
But perhaps one of my favorites was Martha Hughes
Cannon (1857-1932) who, in 1896, ran for a seat on the Utah state senate
against her OWN husband and won, becoming the first female state senator in US
history. A trained doctor with degrees from the University of Michigan and
University of Pennsylvania, Martha used her time in office to crusade for
better public health, spearheading funding for speech- and hearing-impaired
students, establishing the state board of health, and enacting laws regulating
working conditions for women and girls. Not daunted by the demands of her
professional life, Martha gave birth to her third child during her second term
in office.
Inez
and Jennie
And finally, we have the example of Inez Knight (1876-1937)
and Jennie Brimhall (1875-1957)
,
the first sister missionaries of the Church. Although as many as 200 sisters
had served in missionary capacities as teachers and genealogists or as
companions to their husbands, Inez and Jennie were the first officially called
and set apart as proselyting lady missionaries in Great Britain.
The childhood friends (and future sisters-in-law) had originally intended to visit
England on an extended holiday, but when the European mission president
specifically requested female missionaries, Inez and Jennie were asked to
extend their visit and serve. They agreed and were set apart in Provo, Utah on
1 April 1898 and arrived in Liverpool on April 22. Jennie served six months
before returning home due to poor health while Inez served a full two years.
Calling herself an ambassador for Christ, Inez wrote of the
persecution she encountered in Bristol but assured her friends in Utah (April
1899) that: “The Lord is abundantly blessing us in our labors, and although we
do not always have clear sailing and have even been forced to seek protection
from mob violence in a police station, receiving the slurs of the mob and even
spat upon by the enemy, together with rocks and sticks from their hands, yet we
rejoice in the work. We do not find it hard to say, 'Father forgive them for
they know not what they do,' for truly it is the ignorant who persecute us
most. The Lord has said we must love Him with all our might, mind, and strength
and to do this, means to be willing to sacrifice all things, and work
faithfully for the upbuilding of His kingdom.”
The European mission president later said: “Whenever I had
the pleasure of listening to one of them bear testimony to the truth of the
Gospel…I felt their words were far more convincing than anything that could be
said by the men. … I believe there is room for a good many sisters to do
effective missionary service.”
Summary
Whether we have pioneer ancestors or not, we are all
spiritually descended from these remarkable women, each so different and so
complex and yet so instrumental to the building of Zion. More than anything,
they illustrate the need for women to recognize our divine nature and
individual worth not just as Latter-day Saints, but first and foremost as women.
From Emma and Emmeline we learn what it means to open our hearts and our homes
to others and how charity truly never faileth. From Eliza we see the limitless
reach of our intellect, but also the resilience to forge ahead and not let tragedy
diminish our standing before God and destroy our souls. From Jane, a woman of
rare courage, we understand what it means to be unafraid to ask for the
blessings which are our divine right and to seek a place in the Lord’s home. From
Patty and her 3,997 babies, we see the endless miracles of hands in action,
tender but sure of their purpose. And from Martha, Inez, and Jennie we hear the
power of a woman’s voice whether she be a missionary, doctor, politician, or
mother. The message of Mormon women of the past and of today is that we are
strong and we matter very much in the eyes of our Heavenly Parents and
especially to Jesus Christ.
For no one was a greater champion of women than Jesus
Christ. The relationships and interactions Jesus had with women were not
distant or domineering. They were intimate, respectful, and deeply affirming of
women’s full humanity.
The first miracle Jesus performed—turning water into wine at the wedding at
Cana—was done at the behest of his mother Mary (John 2:1-11). The first time Jesus acknowledged Himself to
be the Christ was to a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well.
(John 4:26). He taught men and women alike and treated sisters Martha and Mary
as some of his most devoted disciples (Luke 10:42). He felt the shy but hopeful
touch of the woman plagued by an issue of blood despite the crowd that
surrounded him and sought her out not to scold or revile her, but to tenderly acknowledge
that he had felt her faith and to promise her that it had made her whole. (Mark 5:25-34).
Even as he hung in agony upon the cross, Jesus beheld his
mother and beseeched his beloved disciple, John, to care for her as though she
were his own (John 19:26-27). And it was surely no coincidence that after rising
from his mortal tomb, Jesus appeared first to a woman, Mary Magdalene, and
commissioned her to announce his return as the first witness of his
resurrection.
As women, it is all too easy to feel ignored, dismissed,
inconsequential, or simply unimportant. I have felt all of these things. And
yet reading the stories of these inspiring pioneer women—whose lives were far
from easy or simple or even expected—reminds us who we are: daughters of God. And
because of that we are divine. And strong.
