I will never forget when I happened to be at church during the young women's activity which was sitting and watching the boys receive awards for achievements in Scouting. Several of the boys were not even members.

I can never forget that evening as I remember my daughter asking me why the girls never get awards for anything.

One boy received an award for learning a second language. As this same daughter had been to a French immersion school, she was completely bi-lingual in french at the age of 8 years old.

She said to me, "I know a second language. How come they don't care about me" I told her I would ask the bishop.

I did ask and his response was "let me get back to you". That was 25 years ago.....I'm still waiting for an answer.LOL

I asked the bishop, when I was about 14, if YW could do more outdoor activities like the boys. His reply was no, because "girls are lazy."
I was with my friend, and I told members what the bishop said. I was, of course, told to stop lying even though my friend confirmed that's what he said.
Don't count on an adequate answer from bishops.

I attended a private girls camp and learned all kinds of great survival and outdoor skills. Later in life I attended a YMCA sponsored canoe trip to Canada and I had to teach all the boys how to canoe! Otherwise it would have become a hiking trip. Sheeesh.

Love your thread title. It is absolutely what the girls' activity is. Then you graduate to encouraging the boys to go on missions and you will write, support and and wait for them. So you watch them receive the so-called important title of elder, and then missionary, and what title do you get?

I think the title the Church-cult gives to the girls is SLAVE.

Yes, they try to add some nice adjectives to it, such as blessed slave and righteous slave, but it does not in the least little bit change what women and girls are in the cult.....slaves to the corporation.

The same daughter grew up and graduated from University with a double major in speech pathology and French. She spent three months in France living with a family and tutoring their children in English.

She obtained her Master's in Speech Pathology and now has a family and her own business.

She is not involved in the church and you can certainly understand why.

Great job with your daughter!

Good for your daughter!

You have one hard-working and very successful daughter. Congrats to her and to you.

My husband and I also encouraged our children, boys and girls, to get an education and career. They all have worked hard and achieved this, and we are very proud of them. We managed to make lots of other mistakes, but in this area we did alright.

Hope you and your daughter have lots of great times together.

The thing that I am happiest about is that not only do we have fun together but, you can't believe (you probably can) the trials, mistakes and difficulties that followed her all along the way and we both learned a valuable lesson that nothing worth having comes easy.

I think the most important lesson, however, came from that Young Women's activity where we both realized that neither one of us needed the church's approval of our worth as women.

I remember as a little girl scout wondering why the boys always got to do the cool stuff. we went to a boyscout camp one time (like, a real one, with bridges they had built, and forts, and everything), and i was pissed. cause all we ever got to do was make scented rice bags (you know, the ones ya put in the microwave to out on your sore back), make skits, etc. i wanted to make forts and tie knots and cook in dutch ovens and make fires!!
Looking back on that, i chuckle a little at my indignant 8 year old feminist TBM self. people hate feminists so much because some of them are on a warpath against all men. all i ever wanted was to be equal! to do the same fun stuff, to get paid the same for doing the same job, and all that good stuff!

My mother would not allow me to join the girl scouts because it was not approved by the church. All I heard was young women should be enough. It wasn't. I understand what you mean about just wanting to feel like you count.

As a male I always wished I wasn't forced into scouting/priestood/ whatever other bullshit the church wanted me to do... I would have been happily content to sit in the back and not be paraded out for the facade that is a court of "honor" in the dingy relief society room..

I'm not saying the girls are not missing out, but I am saying there is a whole another side to this story from the Young Men's perspective.

+1

I honestly don't know which is worse, being constantly treated as inferior, or being groomed to spend your life in priesthood servitude to the cult.

Actually, both options suck.

We joined the LDS church when I was 11 (down in Texas) - that would have been 1968. Back then, in Primary girls could earn little patches or pins that you attached to a sash, like the girl scouts did. That was a great incentive for me - I memorized the articles of faith in no time!

We also had a great summer camp for teen girls. WE learned to make fires, build a latrine, do lashing, tie knots, all sorts of stuff. I do remember being put in charge of the open pit of roasting chickens on a day that was 105 degrees! Maybe that wasn't so great.

I have no idea if they still do this, but ahh, back in the day . . .

in 1968 I was 21 and when I was 11 we did a lot of fun things as you described. I saw over the years a deterioration in the young women's program as well as the women's program. Even at that time however, the boys always got to be publicly awarded in Sacrament meeting and for the activity that the young women had to sit through. The girls never received any public acknowledgment in the church for personal achievements.