WOMAN'S IMAGE IN AUTHORITATIVE MORMON DISCOURSE: A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS by Vella Neil Evans A dissertation submitted to the faculty of The University of Utah in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Communication The University of Utah June 1985 WOMAN'S IMAGE IN AUTHORITATIVE MORMON DISCOURSE: A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS by Vella Neil Evans A dissertation submitted to the faculty of The University of Utah in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Communication The University of Utah June 1985 THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH GRADUATE SCHOOL SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE APPROVAL of a dissertation submitted by Valla Neil Evans This dissertation has been read by each member of the following supervisory committee and by majority vote has been found to be satisfactory. Chairman: Ma 1 co 11T1 0. Sil'lars righam D. Madsen -zj— j. Boy^r Jarvis ZJ U ffi / (ftS Lt/o/arcT C . Hawes Michael E. Pacanows<* THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH GRADUATE SCHOOL FINAL READING APPROVAL To the Graduate Council of The University of Utah: I have read the dissertation o f _________^________________gjVans___________ in its final form and have found that (1) its format, citations, and bibliographic style are consistent and acceptable; (2) its illustrative materials including figures, tables, and charts are in place; and (3) the final manuscript is satisfactory to the Supervisory Committee and is readv for submission to the Graduate School. • / . J M T .,_______ ..______ Date / Malcolm 0. Sillars Member. Supervisory Committee Approved for the Major Department Robert K. Tiemens Chairman Dean Approved for the Graduate Council James L. Claytzon Dean ol i lie G raduate SelH'i'l Copyright c> Vella Neil Evans 1985 All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a rapidly-growing religious organization whose presence and political influence is increasing throughout the world. This study investigates the image of the ideal woman in that church to understand her stated nature and her roles. The data were authoritative published discourses selected from the period 1830 to 1984. Such materials were largely located in the general Church papers, magazines and journals and were intended for Church-wide consumption. In addition, a large body of discourse produced specifically for Mormon women, and a smaller body addressed specifically to men, were also considered. Analytical procedures derived from structuralism, hermeneutics and phenomenology were employed to manage the larger interpretive efforts. Smaller units of the discourse were managed by procedures drawn from content analysis and argumentation analysis, combined with a close rhetorical reading of the texts. The woman's image, itself, was loosely classified into the ecclesiastical, secular and domestic aspects of her role and the dimensions of her purported nature. Analysis disclosed the following patterns: Woman's image was most pluralistic during a brief period in the early 1840s, and from 1872 to the mid-1930s when the Church itself had a negative image in the larger American culture and when the female members managed their own auxiliaries, published their own magazines, interfaced more closely with women outside the Church, and held frequent, large conferences of their own. It has grown relatively constricted since World War II as the image of the Church has become attractive, as the women have lost their publications and control of their auxiliaries, and as men's priesthood and discourse have become predominant. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...........................................viii Chapter I INTRODUCTION .................................. 1 Statement of the Problem ......................... 4 Defense of the P r o b l e m ........................... 5 Location of the Problem........................... 6 Corpus of Materials............................... 7 Management of the D a t a ........................... 14 Historical Context ............................... 19 Summary............................................. 25 Notes............................................... 27 II WOMAN'S IMAGE IN THE EARLY MORMON CHURCH........... 31 — Woman's Image in Mormon Scriptures ............. 31 Domestic Images in the Early Church............. 35 Early Secular Images ............................. 38 Early Ecclesiastical Images...................... 48 Summary: Early Church Images .................... 73 Notes............................................... 76 III WOMAN'S IMAGE IN POLYGAMY DISCOURSE............... 77 The First I m a g e s .................................. 78 The Revelation on Plural Marriage............... 81 Introductory Discourse ........................... 85 Early Sermons and Women's Private Response . 94 The Necessity of Polygamy........................ 97 Gentile Images of Polygamy and the Sisters Public Response............................... 98 The Demise of Plural Marriage.................... 104 Summary: Polygamy Images ........................ 106 Notes............................................... 109 IV WOMAN'S ECCLESIASTICAL IMAGE........................ 110 Church Structure and Male Priesthood ........... Ill Mormon Women and the Gifts of the Spirit .... 117 Women Missionaries ............................... 145 Woman's "Relief Society" Image .................. 160 Fundamental Changes in Authority ................ 184 Summary: Ecclesiastical Images .................. ..195 Notes............................................... 199 V ASPECTS OF THE SISTERS' SECULAR IMAGE................201 The Sisters and "Political Discourse"........... 202 -— The Sisters' Image in the Work Force ........... 224 Summary: The Sisters' Secular Image............. 251 Notes............................................... 257 VI THE MORMON WOMAN'S DOMESTIC IMAGE .................. ..258 Young Adult Women and Courtship.................. 258 The Mormon Wife.................................... 284 Mormon Mothers .................................... ..311 The Mormon Homemaker ............................. ..34 5 Summary: The Sisters' Domestic Image ........... ..355 Notes............................................... 359 VII THE WOMEN'S JOURNALS ............................... 360 Ecclesiastical Redefinitions .................... ..363 Redefinitions of Secular Options ..................365 Woman's "Domestic" Image ...........................376 Women Should Be Independent...................... 381 Mormon Women Cease Publishing.................... 393 Summary: The Sisters' Publications ............. ..396 VIII THE RHETORIC OF FORM............................... 399 Honor for the Natural Woman...................... 401 Woman Appears Less Highly Valued Than Man. 412 The Orthodoxy of the Woman's Image ............. 434 Mitigating Factors ............................... ..443 Notes............................................... 448 IX.CONCLUSIONS .......................................... 449 The History of the Image ........................ 449 The Image is Reasonable and G o o d ............... 454 Final Observations ............................... 459 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................... 465 vi i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to acknowledge the contributions made to this study by the members of her committee: Malcolm 0. Sillars, Brigham D. Madsen, J. Boyer Jarvis, Leonard C. Hawes and Michael E. Pacanowsky. All have given useful advice and encouragement. Special thanks, however, are due to Professor Jarvis for his gracious acceptance of assignment and meticulous reading, to Professor Madsen for his enthusiasm and sense of humor, and to Professor Sillars for exceptional patience, effort, and scholarship. In addition, thanks are due to Janet Petersen and Aleaha Delaney for checking the accuracy of several hundred citations, and to Betty Anderson who proofread with more than a librarian's eye. Thanks are also extended to those students who enrolled in "Women's Studies 310" and provided both thoughtful and passionate response to this study. Finally, a thanks that lies beyond the words of thanks belongs to the members of the author's family: to Wayne who gave unceasingly of all his resources; and to the children who, while not entirely sympathetic to the research itself, were always warmly supportive of the woman who conducted it. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The official "image" of women in the Mormon Church is interesting. From the time the institution was organized in 1830 to 1984, conceptions of "female nature" and "woman's role" have varied significantly in authoritative discourse. During the nineteenth century, Mormon women were most often defined in terms that fit the multifaceted image of Colonial American women. On the other hand, contemporary Mormon women are authoritatively defined in the more restricted terms characteristic of the nineteenth century's "Cult of True Womanhood": They should essentially be "pure," "pious," "submissive," and "domestic" (Welter 151-174). These current aspects of the ideal are evident in the significant 1979 text titled Woman — a book in which fifteen "General Authorities"^ of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints addressed the "questions that trouble women, especially LDS women, in these latter days" (vii). Of those men, Church President Spencer W. Kimball wrote: The role of woman was fixed even before she was created, . the male to till the ground, support the family,