Posted by:
Brother Of Jerry
(
)
Date: November 19, 2019 02:14PM
The current Mormon worldview, which they seem bond and determined to maintain, in spite of cultural changes in the world, is that a woman will never ever be in a position of authority over any post-pubescent male. Period.
Women can be in a position of authority over other women, or over children, but not any group that includes males over the age of 12.
This of course flies in the face of the experiences young men and women are going to have in the world of work, where their managers are likely to be women. This is particularly true in entry level jobs (fast food places and the like).
This of course makes it difficult for female managers in Mormon-heavy regions, because their employees "know", at least subliminally, that women are never supposed to really be in charge of men, and they will behave accordingly.
The new YW theme is a major concession on the part of the Q15, which tells me they are alarmed at how many young women they are losing. They have previously resisted any mention of MIH for decades now. Nobody makes a major concession without being in a situation where not making the concession is an even worse alternative.
But, as noted above, they are not yet willing to tell young men that there are women in the universe who outrank them.
I have long speculated that as wards shrink, LDS Inc will eventually have to open some ward callings to women, because their hatred of giving women any position that only men had been eligible for in the past will be superseded by their hatred of closing wards for lack of leadership, making it obvious that they are shrinking.
I expect that ward positions that are strictly administrative positions will be the first opened to women - various ward clerk callings. They may be allowed to be counsellors in SS, and perhaps there will be a joint YW/YM presidency, though I expect a male would have to be president.
There have been tiny, though noticeable changes in recent years. I remember the goofy brouhaha over whether women should be allowed to offer prayers in Sacrament Meeting. The goofy part was that it seemed to vary depending on the time and place. Sometimes, they could offer neither opening nor closing prayer. Other times, they could do opening, or closing, but not the other. Somehow it Mattered Very Much that "the Priesthood" had to offer one of the prayers, but they had a tough time deciding which prayer it was that required a penis. The real problem of course was that it was a totally arbitrary decision, and they had a hard time remembering what arbitrary decision they had made, and their arbitrary excuse for making it.
Just in the last year, women will be allowed to serve as witnesses to temple ordinances. This is a position with no real authority over men, so it does not violate the Mormon dictum that no woman will ever be in a position of authority over any man.
So, progress is slowly being made. I can't help but think it is too little too late. Women are going to continue to notice that they are clearly second class citizens in Mormonism, and that is not true (or at least much less true) in the world at large, and many of them are not going to like the discrepancy.