That very descriptive title says it all!
Here is the news article at the Salt Lake Tribune:
Mia Maids? Mission prez’s wife? Please, in the name of all that is holy, change these outdated Mormon monikers, LDS women plead
Here is the original paper by V.H. Cassler and Neylan McBaine at SquareTwo:
What’s in a Name? SquareTwo Poll Survey Results on the Naming of Women’s Positions and Organizations in the LDS Church
And here are some related Exponent articles:
#VisibleWomen: We are daughters of Heavenly Parents
New Sister Missionary Leadership Policy: Reaction and Pre-action
Give a Title to the Woman who has a Mission President Husband
And while we are talking about renaming Young Women groups, I’d just like to throw out my favorite option for 12-13 year-old girls: Deacon. Our Catholic friends are looking into the female Deacon option right now:
9 Responses
I bet if women were really in charge of things these terms would have been updated quite a while ago.
I get Mia Maid, it’s not a great name even without the feminism side of things. But what do you call the Mission President’s Wife? That’s who she is.
It’s like the First Lady – and, heaven forbid, should Clinton be elected presumably Bill will be the First Gentleman (which is laughable I agree). Although he is still President Clinton officially, so who knows.
The point is, there is no calling currently in place for the wife of a Mission President, or indeed General Authority or Area Authority. That said they all do valuable work and often give training. At our most recent stake conference the visiting Area Seventy presiding brought his wife. She met with stake auxilliary leaders, she visited members with the stake RSP, she joint taught with her husband in the evening session and she spoke in the general session.
Her contribution was excellent and all without having the priesthood, or being set apart. So maybe wife of Area Seventy is all she needs to be to be useful and inspiring in the Kingdom.
Andrew R., a mission president’s wife is called and set apart as a missionary. It’s a real calling. She sets aside her career, home and family for literally years to serve in this position, so it is a calling that requires much more sacrifice than other callings in the church where the person called is honored with a title. (like mine for example–I’m choir president. I get to be honored with a title, but person serving a full-time mission in a foreign land for three years with much more responsibility than me does not) Also, there are certain high-level assignments officially given to her by the church that no other person in the mission is required to do, as are listed in one of the posts I attached. https://exponentii.org/female-district-and-zone-leaders/
Plus, no one in the church would ever treat a man this way, which is just offensive.
Choir president is a calling. You are not addressed as President. Only Presidents with priesthood keys are assessed as President. So she would still be Sister.
Having had a few a bishops for whom “Duffer” might have been a better title, I think what you do is much more important than what your title is. Since I am only slightly more likely to be a mission president than I am to be one’s wife I am not really likely to personally worry about it.
One thing I do know is that those who are mission presidents could not be so without the wife they have. They are remarkable women and my son has starred some very spiritual moments with his MPW.
It’s a couples calling and should be named as such. No single man serves in this role.
But in reality so too are Bishop and Stake President. A mission president can function without a wife. A family friend was serving as a mission president on Canada and his wife died. His son became his companion for the remainder of his mission. The man later remarried and became a temple president.
The President’s calling includes Priesthood responsibilities including acting as Bishop for all of the missionaries in that mission. He also does baptismal interviews as does his counsellors and that is why, when I suggested on many occasions to anyone who would listed, that I should be called my husband’s First Counselor, I was asked to think of another option. The best I can suggest, that would be the most comprehensive and least assertive to those who decide, is the title of Advisor. It gives plenty of flexibility to those women who cannot be involved for various reasons but still allows those who are completely engaged to be more than the “MPW”. While I would love to see the accurate title of Presidente used, I’m not holding my breath.
[…] post Give a Title to the Woman who Has a Mission President Husband—an issue that was in the news again just recently because we still haven’t resolved […]
I think it’s so ridiculous to change anything…why?? Let’s please just stay traditional and keep things the same. The moment we start changing everything to fit in with the world is when our church will start falling apart. It is not necessary to get all riled up over such mundane things.