By Danielle Stockton
About the author:
Danielle Stockton is a recent graduate of the Madeira School, where she was the co-editor-in-chief of both the school newspaper and the literary and arts magazine. She will be a freshman at Brigham Young University intending to double major in Political Science and English.
All too often, Mormon women are viewed as being housewives, their domain centered on raising children. Moreover, this perspective is reinforced by the fact that most Mormon men are strongly encouraged to go on missions to spread the Gospel, giving them a unique opportunity to both broaden their spiritual horizons and to discover a different part of the world. In actuality, with even a cursory glance at Mormon women’s lives, it is apparent that Mormon women are far from restricted in terms of their lifestyle. Reading about numerous Mormon women in Mormon Women: Portraits and Conversations and other separate publications emphasized my view that Mormon women are able to have a wide variety of different careers. Whether she is a poet, author, doctor, Utah Supreme Court chief justice, humanitarian, or historian, a Mormon woman can enjoy diverse professions in which she can spread Gospel principles in a wide variety of ways. However, these capable women do not neglect their familial responsibilities. Instead, they choose a healthy balance between their home and work obligations and use the Holy Ghost to guide them in the right direction. Although they have different interests, personalities, and nationalities, as Governor Olene Walker pointed out in Mormon Women: Portraits and Conversations, these women share “a common thread of service and faith” (xiii). More importantly, Mormon women use this faith as a foundation for their own lives and as a way to enrich the lives of their children as well as touch the lives of others.
To find out more about how Jim Kimball and Kent Miles capture some of the lives of Mormon women, please read their collection: Kimball, James N., and Kent Miles. Mormon Women: Portraits & Conversations. Salt Lake City: Handcart Books, 2009.
Also, please visit the following websites related to this book:
http://www.kentmiles.com
http://www.handcartbooks.com/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=101103385311&ref=mf
http://twitter.com/MormonWomenBook
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