174 DIALOGUE : A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT

ward. Each has considerable merit, but mon women were and are tremendous. none will change many critical minds who These essays certainly paint an alternative champion a need for creative historical picture to the stereotype of homebound, analysis rather than narrative description. downtrodden Mormon women. However, their efforts deserve a close read- In the final analysis, this collection of ing. I was most excited by two essays essays adds significantly to Mormon his- about women in the Church. Carol Corn- toriography. While the viewpoints are not wall Madsen's "Schism in the Sisterhood: necessarily new or intended to revise earlier Mormon Women and Partisan Politics, preconceptions, the essays are good history, 1890-1900" and Jill Mulvay Derr's "Chang- and they do service to the mentor and col- ing Charity to Make Way league honored. They illustrate a continu- for Welfare, 1930-1944" make significant ing need for a complete and open analysis contributions and fit well together in this of the Mormon historical experience. Until collection since Arrington championed the Church overcomes its fear of history, women's issues and history. The political we must view the Arrington period as a and social welfare contributions of Mor- mirage, so near, yet so far.

A Celebration of Diversity

A Heritage of Faith: Talks Selected those assigned themes, they fit nicely under from BYU Women's Conferences, edited the headings now. by Mary E. Stovall and Carol Cornwall Stovall and Madsen have gathered here Madsen (: Deseret Book, a balance of the bold and the conventional, 1988), 191 pp., index, $10.95. of the provocative and the familiar. Con- Reviewed by Helen Cannon, a teacher sider, for instance, ninety-year-old Camilla in the English department at Utah State Eyring Kimball's candid view of old age University. as "a time of dependency on others after a lifetime of being self-sufficient," a comment I N 1986 DESERET BOOK published an an- she immediately tempers with the reassur- thology of talks selected from BYU wom- ance that old age can hold the "satisfaction en's conferences. That collection, Woman of enduring to the end by being faithful to Woman, as the title suggests, included to important values in life" (p. 4). In a talks exclusively by Church women. Now, similar balance, she notes dangers of learn- a 1988 anthology includes both male and ing, while fondly relating her lifelong love female voices. of study and teaching. Citing 2 Nephi That is one difference in the two col- 9:28-29, Sister Kimball concludes "that lections. Another is that, while Woman to learning has its risks. But on the other Woman listed no editor, A Heritage of hand, ignorance has its risks too — just a Faith credits two competent ones, Mary E. different set" (p. 8). Stovall and , who Patricia Terry Holland takes a hard have selected and arranged the talks (from look at the complexity of women's concerns 1985, 1986, and 1987 women's conferences) and cautions against the Paula-Perfect Syn- thematically under the headings, "Seeking drome of being "caught in the crunch of Spirituality," "Coping with Hard Reali- trying to be superhuman instead of realisti- ties," "Inspiration from the Past," "Women cally striving" (p. 12). From experience in an International Church," and "Individ- she counsels for a "stilling of the center," uality and Community." Though the talks for an "acceptance of diversity," and for probably were not originally written to faith in a Mother in Heaven. This section REVIEWS 175

also includes talks by Dallin H. Oaks and Will, whenever sister Judith picked up a Carolyn J. Rasmus. book, she was told to "mend the stocking In the section "Coping with Hard Re- or mind the stew," and when yearning for alities," besides Francine R. Bennion's theatre, was told to marry the first man scriptural, philosophical understanding of who would put a ring on her finger. In a suffering as applied to our own lives and similar vein, Val MacMurray imagines how Deanne Francis' behavioral, psychological it would be for his seventeen-year-old exploration of the charted phases of grief, daughter Heidi to have been born a third- we additionally find two very specific looks world child. How would she function in at "Hard Realities" for women within the the Church — or in the world even? Would Church: women as affected by divorce she had lived to celebrate that seventeenth laws, presented and analyzed by lawyer birthday? Would she have had chances to Stephen J. Bahr, and Anne L. Horton's learn, or to marry, or to have children of candid sociological discussion of child and her own? How might the gospel enhance, spouse abuse within the Church. Her chal- and even save, his "Third-World Heidi's" lenge for us is to understand as well as to life? How must the Church change to eliminate this problem in our midst. properly encompass these Heidis? The third section, "Inspiration from John P. Hawkins looks at behavioral the Past," has only two selections, one by differences in a world-wide Church and Carol Cornwall Madsen, and the other a concludes "because behavior says things, I joint paper by Harriet Home Arrington believe that we, as Mormons, must abandon and Leonard J. Arrington. These are both the adherence to precise patterned behavior strong and relevant historical portraits as a definition of Mormoness. . . . Pro- suggesting that when we feel inclined to cedural uniformity may make members congratulate ourselves, assuming Church comfortable when they travel about the women have "come a long way," perhaps, Church, but it tends to make many local in the light of crusades and achievements Saints uncomfortable" (p. 167). by our nineteenth-century sisters, our own Finally, and strides are often tentative and even mincing. Louise Plummer look at how it is possible In terms of boldness and relevance, to remain individual within a generally perhaps talks in the section "Women in an conforming society. Davidson concludes International Church" would win the that "we do not all need to be the same. prizes. Betty Ventura, Val D. MacMurray, Sameness is one of the false premises of and John P. Hawkins speak from experi- peer pressure. One of the most important ence and training on the necessity to move things we come to learn as adult women beyond insular, provincial concepts of the is that two profoundly different people may Church. Noting cultural differences as well both be fine, devoted members of the as a need for gospel unity, Ventura dis- Church" (p. 183). Then humorously, cusses certain cultural barriers that are con- Louise Plummer asserts the same neces- trollable if "humanizing" principles, rather sity — the need for diversity. Just because than programs, schedules, and, what she her mother is a prudent, prepared "ant" calls "Americana," are allowed to govern. doesn't mean that the Church — or the What we want to achieve, she says, is "not world — has no need for herself as a "grass- a melting pot," but rather, "a mosaic" hopper." Rewriting the end of the fable of (p. 145). the grasshopper and the ants, Plummer has Virginia Woolf, in her classic A Room the ants coming to the grasshopper in all of One's Own, imagines Shakespeare to their preparedness and saying, "We are have had a wonderfully gifted sister — bored to death. Won't you tell us a story, a sister bent on writing. Though as ad- or at least a good joke?" The grasshopper venturous and ambitious as her brother consents, and when asked where she gets