Strengthening women: 'Daughters in my Kingdom' is to help women in their responsibilities

In 1870 — a time of general misunderstanding about members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and their beliefs — a group of LDS women in Utah called a press conference and addressed newspaper reporters from across the country.

"It was high time (to) rise up in the dignity of our calling and speak for ourselves," said Eliza R. Snow, the LDS Church's second Relief Society general president. "The world does not know us, and truth and justice to our brethren and to ourselves demand us to speak. .... We are not inferior to the ladies of the world, and we do not want to appear so."

Reporters in attendance called the meeting remarkable. "In logic and in rhetoric the so-called degraded ladies of Mormondom are quite equal to the ... women of the East," wrote one reporter ("Daughters in my Kingdom," pp. 46-47).

More than 140 years later, much has changed for LDS women. Today they live in more than 170 countries and speak more than 80 languages; the Relief Society has become the largest organization for women in the world.

Still, said Sister Julie B. Beck, Relief Society general president, some misunderstandings remain. As did the press conference in 1870, a new book titled "Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society" will correct many false ideas about LDS women, she said.

The book, which in coming months will be distributed to adult Latter-day Saint women across the globe, was announced by the LDS Church's First Presidency in August.

Sister Beck said the book is remarkable because it was "written by women and it is about women." It also was a theme of the just-concluded general Relief Society meeting preceding this weekend's semiannnual general conference sessions.

The 208-page book is not a comprehensive history of the church, nor is it an LDS manual. It is intended as a personal and family resource to strengthen women and their families in their responsibilities, she said.

"It is an epic story and it is a record of the spiritual legacy of the women of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," she said. "I believe it is a witness of women's divine roles and it confirms an immovable standard of what we believe and what we defend."

In addition, the book addresses some of the misperceptions about LDS women.

"Women have always carried an important and influential leadership role in Heavenly Father's plan and in his restored gospel," she said.