Make voices heard, LDS women urged

OREM — At the LDS Church's visitors center in Nauvoo, Ill., is a collection of sculptures showing pioneering women in different stages of life — including a woman courting a man, a woman caring for young children, and an elderly woman, alone, in a rocking chair making a blanket.

The title of the statue of the elderly woman is "Fulfillment."

"This statue is not my idea of fulfillment," said Claudia L. Bushman, to the laughs of an audience of about 100 people, mostly women, at Utah Valley State College on Thursday.

Bushman — a Columbia University professor, author and member of the New York City's Morningside Heights Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — spoke on "Should LDS Women Speak Out? Thoughts on Our Place."

The short answer is yes; although Bushman, during the question-and-answer period, said she purposefully avoided sharing her thoughts on the "p-word" (priesthood), or using the hot-button word "feminism" in her lecture.

Women who speak out are often looked down upon "in general society and maybe more particularly in our church," Bushman said.

But women have played important roles in the church's history and in the Book of Mormon, Bushman said.

Emma Smith, in fact, received a revelation from God that was added to the Doctrine and Covenants, Chapter 25, in which she was instructed to assemble a hymnal.

Smith, wife of church founder Joseph Smith, was also ordered be the first scribe for his translation of the Book of Mormon, comfort her husband, and "to expound scriptures, and to exhort the church."

"This quotation struck me with great force," said Bushman, who noted that God said nothing about cooking, housekeeping or child-rearing.

Emma Smith, however, did not speak out much on scriptures and the church.

"Just imagine what the church would look like now if Emma had exercised that opportunity," Bushman said.

More recently, LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley has praised women with careers and has told girls "for you, the sky is the limit," Bushman said.

"But old ideas die hard, and we still live with the residue of past teachings," she said.

Bushman, who raised six children and attended graduate school when her family was young, had advice for women at the lecture.

She urged women to introduce themselves to their bishops, stake leaders and Relief Society leaders. Share ideas and inspirations with them.

"Do it before they seek you out," she said.

Women should be required to be treated with respect.

"Our male hierarchy sometimes treats grown women as children," she said.

Present ideas in a practical form and be ready to carry them out.

Have a life outside the church. Talents and skills can be validated outside church, Bushman said.

"Practice your approach and your presentation," she said. "Plan your occasion, put on a smile and go and speak out."

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com