The Value and Role of Women in the Church and Society

Our society is very confused about the roles of men and women.

The roles and value of women have been downplayed and minimized in terrible ways, especially in recent times. 
The glory of the world is shallow and temporary. The glory of God is deep and eternal.

Professional or political achievement gets attention, praise, wealth and the glory of the world, but has no eternal, lasting value.

Creating a loving home that is a bit of Heaven on Earth. Teaching children to be intelligent, wise, law-abiding, respectful contributors to society. Contributing to the community through school boards, neighborhood and community action. These and several other invaluable pursuits build integrity, virtue and solid character, all of which we can take with us into the eternities. Tragically, these most important activities are not only minimized in modern society, they are mocked and scorned. In a nutshell, historically, men do the dirty work of life and get too much credit for it. Women do the much more important work and too often get mistreated for it.

Women can do almost anything in this world that men can do, and just as well. However, men cannot do a great many things that women can do, or at least not nearly as well. That's why women in their divine nature are so valuable to our society. 

This isn't about being able to have babies. It is about the divine nature that all women are blessed with, and how using those gifts is far more important than any accolades the world can give to the fleeting and temporary vainglory that so many are determined to seek.

It seems that many women feel the need to become more like their image of men: tough, insensitive and demanding. Recent protests directed toward the Church such as demands to ordain them to the priesthood, wearing pants to church meetings, etc, express demands that the Church conform to the world's shallow view of importance and prominence. Losing women to the pursuit of the counterfeit glories and philosophies of men, and to the rough, crude world outside of their divine, nurturing gifts, weakens everyone within their sphere of influence.

Margaret B. Nadauld, former Young Women General President, said it best:

“The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity.” (General Conference, October 2000)

My belief is that women play a far more important role in the Church and for the salvation of mankind in this life than men do. They always have. Two-thirds of the spirit children of our Heavenly parents chose to keep their first estate and come to Earth for their big test - mortality. While Heavenly Father directed the creation of all things within our sphere of physical existence (our planet, solar system, galaxy, etc), I have no doubt that Heavenly Mother taught us principles of intelligence, goodness, sensitivity and virtue.

Our Heavenly parents will never deprive us of our agency and will not force their will on us or deprive us of our right and ability to choose. As such, one-third of our spirit brothers and sisters chose Lucifer's path. Heavenly Mother was successful in getting two-thirds of Her children to keep their first estate.

Now we are on Earth. The Savior taught that "strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." (Matthew 7:14) I take this verse to mean that a greater number of us will not return to live with our Heavenly parents in the highest of kingdoms. We will have exercised our agency in ways other than what we were taught by Heavenly Mother.

In no way do I mean to imply that Heavenly Father is an inferior parent. I simply believe that Heavenly Mother's nurturing influence in our pre-mortal life was unique and priceless. I further believe that women on Earth, if they would follow Her example of what is most important, would do far more to serve mankind, and guide them toward eternal salvation, than any external pursuits could even approach.

The men of the priesthood cannot run, operate or manage the church alone. Priesthood authority is only one aspect of management and operation.

If the Church were run entirely by men, they could administer all of the priesthood ordinances, conduct meetings, and perform all of the management-related tasks needed. They could "manage it to death." But they could not be nearly as effective as women would be at teaching the gospel to children with the same quality of tender, nurturing care. Ordinances do not create testimonies. Nurturing does.

If the Church were run entirely by women, there would be no priesthood ordinances. That would be okay, because those would come in the Lord's due time. People simply would have to wait for them, just as they have done for millennia, until the Lord's Church, with its proper authority and saving ordinances, was restored in this final dispensation. But what is more important, in my opinion, is that people would be taught the gospel through love, tenderness and nurturing. Testimonies would grow. Love for the Savior and a desire to do good would abound. Good works in the local community would make real differences. I believe this is far more important to the salvation of Heavenly Father's children today than management and authority.

In these ways, I believe the world and the Church would be better off spiritually if men were to become more like women in their ability to nurture, than for women to try to become more like men. While both roles are important, perhaps equally so in their own contexts, I believe that the roles of women of God have more ultimate influence on salvation.

I wish the women in the Church could know beyond any doubt that they are priceless as mothers, homemakers, teachers, and local community advocates. I wish the superficial and counterfeit influences of the world would not downplay the irreplaceable value that women of God have. I wish that women were revered more than celebrities, but that isn't possible in our shallow, wicked world. People of God can only feel the magnitude of their true value among the godly, and through the comforting influence of the Holy Ghost. Praise be to the great women of this Church. They are the real power that moves God's kingdom forward on Earth as they nurture, lead, teach and love in ways that only they can.