Mormon Feminism: Essential Writings
New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. First edition thus. Paperback. 324pp.
This groundbreaking collection gathers together for the first time the essential writings of the contemporary Mormon feminist movement–from its historic beginnings in the 1970s to its vibrant present, offering the best Mormon feminist thought and writing.
No issue in Mormonism has made more headlines than the faith’s distinctive approach to sex and gender. From its polygamous nineteenth-century past to its twentieth-century stand against the Equal Rights Amendment and its twenty-first-century fight against same-sex marriage, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) has consistently positioned itself on the frontlines of battles over gender-related identities, roles, and rights. But even as the church has maintained a conservative position in public debates over sex and gender, Mormon women have developed their own brand of feminism by recovering the lost histories of female leadership and exploring the empowering potential of Mormon theology. The selections in this book-many gathered from out-of-print anthologies, magazines, and other ephemera–walk the reader through the history of Mormon feminism, from the second-wave feminism of the 1970s to contemporary debates over the ordination of women.
Collecting essays, speeches, poems, and prose, Mormon Feminism presents the diverse voices of Mormon women as they challenge assumptions and stereotypes, push for progress and change in the contemporary LDS Church, and band together with other feminists of faith hoping to build a better world. Contributors include: Linda King Newell, Margaret Toscano, Claudia Bushman, Carol Lynn Pearson, Judith Dushku, Linda Sillitoe, Sonia Johnson, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Mary Bradford, Chieko Okazaki, Lavina Fielding Anderson, Kate Kelly, Chelsea Shields, Gina Colvin and Janan Graham.
“Spanning the Second Wave to the present wave of the women’s movement, these essays constitute a significant body of work on the religious implications of feminism. Their usual omission from feminist and Mormon history makes collection of them here all the more welcome and necessary. They are, indeed, ‘essential.’ The study of contemporary Mormonism should not be attempted without them.” –Kathleen Flake, Richard Lyman Bushman Professor of Mormon Studies, University of Virginia. New. Item #30486
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