“Long overdue, Maxine Hanks’s collection of feminist essays examines the Mormon experience from a different angle, and suggests once more that women view the world differently from men. Setting aside Mormonism’s preoccupation with male-oriented, tradition-bound history and theology, these essays push into new territory in feminist theory and methodology and are a sort of coming-out party. Finally, it seems, Mormon Women’s Studies is coming of age.” –Martha Sonntag Bradley, Professor of History, Brigham Young University, co-editor, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought

“Authority, I have learned to question it. I now question my relationship to it after reading Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism. The courageous and creative voices within this book provide a new way of seeing women’s spirituality and

authority—an exploration of ideas that is long overdue within the Mormon church. Women and Authority opens the door of discourse on Mormon women’s spirituality. This is just the beginning.” –Lynne Tempest, editor, network magazine


about the editor

Maxine Hanks is a free-lance researcher, writer, and editor residing in Salt Lake City. Previously she was employed by the University of Utah, Brigham Young University, and the Missionary Training Center. She serves on the advisory boards of the Association of Utah Publishers, network magazine, and the Utah Historic Trails Consortium. She is a 1992 Research Fellow, Utah Humanities Council, and is completing a degree in Women’s Studies at the University of Utah.

title page

Women and Authority:
Re-emerging Mormon Feminism

Edited by Maxine Hanks

Signature Books
Salt Lake City
1992

copyright page

To Ourselves

Cover Illustration:
The Birth of the Goddess, marble relief, fifth century B.C.
Cover design by Connie Disney

Composed and printed in the United States of America.
Printed on acid-free paper.

© 1992 by Signature Books, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Signature Books is a registered trade mark of Signature Books, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism /
Edited by Maxine Hanks.
p. cm. Includes bibliographical references.
1. Women in the Mormon church. 2. Women, Mormon.
I. Hanks, Maxine
BX8641.W65538 1992 289.3'082–DC20 92-9048
ISBN 1-56085-014-0