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The Exponent II Blog features posts relating to Mormon feminism. We welcome posts by diverse voices. Submit a guest post to join the conversation.

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It’s no secret that our church is built for men, specifically married men, designed to serve their needs and reinforce their authority. By contrast, the only way for a woman to have any semblance of power is to be power-adjacent. To be an influence, an auxiliary, a wife. The church limits itself by holding onto patriarchy with tight, stubborn fists. The lack of diversity in our leadership creates an echo chamber of ideas and perspectives. Problems surrounding inequality--instead of being met with real solutions--become frustrated, circular. Could this be what God wants? For an entire gender to remain stunted, voiceless?
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Today is a day of sadness. The church has lost two of its best and brightest. Valerie and Nathan Hamaker from the Latter-day Struggles Podcast have formally resigned from the church, not because they wanted to, but because they refused to face excommunication.
Wives of LDS apostles
When a new apostle is called, his wife appears to be purposefully excluded from the meeting in which his call is extended. She's either not invited at all, or sent to wait somewhere else while the men meet. She's only informed after he's already accepted the calling that she'll be an apostle's wife until the day that he dies, travelling and living a very different retired life than she had expected.

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The sons of God lead and direct the church, but the daughters of God find that their spiritual authority is not valued within church walls. Many daughters of God have tried (and failed) to change this, but women lack the necessary institutional authority. Women and gender minorities are currently dependent on men in leadership positions to modify the structure of church administration so that the spiritual authority of every child of God can be honored.
All the things I truly valued about my faith told me that God could and would speak directly to me. I knew that God gave me a conscience to guide me and a passionate desire to good.
Blogger April Young-Bennett ponders the words of President Camille N. Johnson at the 2025 Worldwide Relief Society devotional about the Nauvoo Relief Society. She says, "I like the thought of women claiming a priestly lineage. When our male counterparts are ordained to the priesthood, they are told their priesthood lineage, tracing their priesthood ordination back through generations to Joseph Smith.  For women, the connection to our spiritual ancestors can feel vague. We don’t even join the Relief Society; we are just added to the roles automatically on our 18th birthdays with no ritual to mark the occasion.   It was different at the time of the Nauvoo Relief Society. At that time, women could be ordained."
A 2025 Worldwide Relief Society Devotional review focusing on Sister Dennis' words, "They Had That Covenant Relationship with God."
A 2025 Worldwide Relief Society Devotional review focusing on Sister Yee's words, "We are more similar than we are not."
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There's a common saying that many of us teach to younger women: "A man is not a financial plan." Meaning, a woman needs to be able to take care of herself, in some fashion, because she can't and shouldn't rely on having a man to take care of her. He may die or divorce her. He may not be able to support a family alone. He may never even show up in the first place. Along those same lines, too many people's retirement plans involve moving in with their children or involve the expectation that children (daughters, really) will become caregivers in or out of the home in old age or will be the ones providing the emotional labor of selecting and arranging for a nursing home if that becomes necessary.
After an honest look at history, it can be argued that Mormonism has hurt more people than they themselves have been hurt. We have persecuted and oppressed and even murdered “others” more than those others have done to us. We can only play the victim card for so long. I understand that we have a sensitive and trauma filled history. But that does not give us the excuse to pretend that our behaviors and actions do not matter; that we owe no one an apology or accountability.
In LDS theology and temple rituals, obedience is defined as the first law of heaven. Obedience is not to God but to the living prophet whom the Church says speaks for God. When obedience, not love, is the highest value of a Church, those who are marginalized often suffer.