My stake in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently began considering how it can assist members needing employment as my region faces the prospect of increased layoffs and persistent inflation.
As we ponder the economic roles Latter-day Saint women might play in supporting themselves and their families in uncertain times — as well as what assistance they might need from the church — it is important to confront the uncomfortable relationship that Latter-day Saint women often have with work and money.
For men and nonmembers who may be less familiar with the church’s past teachings to women on this subject, then-President Ezra Taft Benson’s 1987 address “To the Mothers in Zion” is a notable example of the messaging during my childhood. In the address, Benson spells out clear economic roles for men and women, explaining, “In the beginning, Adam — not Eve — was instructed to earn the bread by the sweat of his brow. Contrary to conventional wisdom, a mother’s calling is in the home, not in the marketplace.”
He explains that wives have a “claim on their husbands for their financial support” and that “the counsel of the church has always been for mothers to spend their full time in the home in rearing and caring for their children.”
Although Benson acknowledges some exceptions to this pattern, he emphasizes that this pattern should not be discarded lightly even during times of layoffs.
“Sometimes we hear of husbands who, because of economic conditions, have lost their jobs and expect their wives to go out of the home and work even though the husband is still capable of providing for his family,” he adds. “In these cases, we urge the husband to do all in his power to allow his wife to remain in the home caring for the children while he continues to provide for his family the best he can, even though the job he is able to secure may not be ideal and family budgeting will have to be tighter.”
It is hard to overstate how much pressure this rhetoric put on Latter-day Saints of my generation for women to stay home and for husbands to exclusively provide. Families who deviated from this model could be perceived as losing both class status and worthiness.
Subscribe To Mormon Land Newsletter
Get the latest news by subscribing to our Mormon Land newsletter. Enter your email below to receive more stories like these right to your inbox.
The church’s new messaging
Today’s church has adopted a more permissive and pragmatic stance to women participating in the workplace. For many younger couples, two-income households are an economic necessity if they wish to raise children with a middle-class lifestyle. Moreover, a majority of adult members are single and thus working and managing their own finances. In a recently released essay, the church acknowledges earlier teachings that “encouraged women to forgo working outside the home” but states flatly that how members “choose to balance caring for children and other family members with working to financially support them will vary according to individual circumstances.”
Even so, the earlier teachings persist and routinely impact the choices Latter-day Saint women make about their labor. It is difficult to undo years of absorbing the message that a woman’s decision to earn money may be a sign of pride or household failure. It is impossible to restore years of lost earnings and career development. Conversations about how members can make ends meet in times of economic instability need to address how these teachings have negatively shaped women’s understandings of their economic value and options.
Even today, Latter-day Saint women frequently approach their careers as backup plans or steer themselves into careers that provide more flexibility (and often less pay). They may be grateful for their spouse’s support and recognize the importance of having children while also finding themselves financially vulnerable if they stay home.
My parents strongly emphasized and supported my education, yet I never seriously considered how my education might translate into a financial return or career. This may seem astonishing in an era in which conversation around college is now framed almost exclusively in terms of earning potential. Yet I find that this is a typical experience among Latter-day Saint women of my own age. While my non-Latter-day Saint peers were charting their careers, I spent at least a decade of mental energy persuading myself that it was OK to earn money, and then another decade learning to ask for the compensation that I am worth.
Ironically, I felt enabled to pursue graduate work in literature because I assumed that my spouse would provide for us if I had a family. Although I eventually became a lawyer, partly because I recognized the need for more income, I never considered my career as primary, even when I earned more than my spouse. Unlike most of my female colleagues, I left the workplace when I had young children. The fact that my Latter-day Saint friends and family assumed that I would stop working undoubtedly contributed to my decision. At the same time, it was hard for me to spend money on my own needs while I was home with young children, because I felt acutely that I was not earning an income in a society that does not recognize the economic contributions of unpaid labor.
Putting faith before fear
Here’s what might surprise you: I don’t regret my path. I received a richer education because I was less focused on financial outcomes. As a mother of young children, I learned that the work I did at home was irreplaceable and that, for me, my family was a more lasting source of economic security and better investment than many jobs. I was able to resume my career when my children began attending school because I had an excellent resume. We are not rich, but we are, for now, financially fine. I am glad that I did not make life choices based on economic fear rather than faith.
Still, this path worked out for me because I am middle class, healthy and happily married to a man with unusual job security. While I wish everyone had these advantages, a career pause has not worked as well for all of my Latter-day Saint friends. As a consequence of prior teachings, many Latter-day Saint women lack the skills, networks, financial literacy, confidence and child care necessary to provide well for themselves and their families.
While I am grateful that the church now frames women’s decisions about work as individual choices, its long discouragement of women’s paid labor has resulted in a dearth of Latter-day Saint women to serve as mentors to working mothers and a lack of cultural support and infrastructure for working families. These are problems that we need to resolve if we are serious about better positioning members to face economic disruptions.
As we prepare for the future, we should ask what we can do for the many Latter-day Saint women who lack the skills and support they need to earn sufficient income. We need to understand and address the shame, inadequacy and class consciousness Latter-day Saint women (and their male partners) feel around paid labor in order to adapt the family-centric teachings we value to contemporary economic realities. As we do so, we will be better positioned to use our extensive community networks and resources to meet this moment and become thought leaders in building an economy that works for families.
(Natalie Brown) Salt Lake Tribune guest columnist Natalie Brown.
Natalie Brown is a Latter-day Saint based in Boulder, Colorado. She is writing in her personal capacity. Her views do not necessarily reflect those of the church or her employer.
