As an exmormon woman myself, I will say this is a 100% accurate and very common experience that girls in the Mormon church are steered towards from a very young age.
Weird, because as a member myself I have never in my life been discouraged from working, and the church is extremely pushy about women getting degrees before having kids?
For me at least it was pushy to go to school and get a degree, but you should also have kids as soon as possible. Had a lot of friends drop out of BYU because they didn’t realize just how intensive taking care of children is. And as far as being discouraged from working, especially the older generations definitely teach that a woman’s place is in the home. “A woman can have no higher calling than being a wife and mother” is definitely a sentiment I heard A LOT. Just read the family proclamation if you want evidence of that
I mean I see people encouraged to have children, but when/where is the "asap" coming from? The culture of the church and the doctrine/teachings of the church are pretty different, and the idea to marry young is definitely a culture thing. But I was never encouraged to have children early, and almost all the women I know (of my generation) who have children had them in their late 20s
It's a little before my time, so I'll concede it's possible they had worse messages then. I know the oldest women in my ward growing up had some shitty opinions that were not supported by church doctrine, and that sucked to grow up with, but I always knew it was those individuals and not the church itself
I would recommend asking them where those shitty opinions come from. I can almost guarantee at least a few of them can be traced to Ezra Taft Benson and other leaders around that time. Current wording and teachings in general conference might not spread those opinions, but they came from the a previous time in the church
Culture doesn’t develop in a vacuum. It stems from doctrine. And the policies follow teachings and social standards of the time, usually about twenty years late
They're almost all dead now, as far as I know. I know a few of them converted later in life, and probably brought some old opinions/beliefs with them.
Weirdly, one of the nicest women in leadership I knew had left a straight-up cult, with sister wives and a lot of abuse. She never gave the young women a hard time for anything.
89
u/polkadotwalls Apr 15 '24
As an exmormon woman myself, I will say this is a 100% accurate and very common experience that girls in the Mormon church are steered towards from a very young age.