From the Relief Society Bulletin, 1914 –
“Women in this Church choose to be womanly. They choose to honor their fathers and husbands. They choose their own sphere and duties with that calm and gracious dignity which ensures to them a full life here and eternal happiness hereafter. There are some men, perhaps, that are the inferiors of some women, mentally, morally and physically. But a superior woman is not expected to look up to an inferior man in her own home – which is her sphere. When the one man comes who is the right one, he will be just one or more degrees superior in intelligence and power to the superior woman.”
Discuss.
“When the one man comes who is the right one, he will be just one or more degrees superior in intelligence and power to the superior woman.”
Ha ha! I am glad that isn’t true. I am better at certain things than my wife, and she is better at other things. But there is no way that I am “one or more degrees superior” in anything important.
Good for you, JRL! 🙂
I enjoy the company of superior people — but I can generally recognize that someone knows more, is better prepared, is kinder, plays the instrument better, whatever, than I do, without being told by him that he is my superior.
Relief Society? 1914? Please tell me Emmeline Wells didn’t write this. I seem to recall her being in favor of a woman’s “sphere” extending beyond her home at least as far as the voting booth, and political office.
It isn’t signed — I suspect (but don’t know) that it was Susa Young Gates … who really didn’t limit herself to the rules she placed on other women.
It’s a logic problem. She shouldn’t marry an inferior man. So, by definition, she marries a superior one.
Oh Wow! I wonder how many women in the church really didn’t believe this but had to act as if the man was indeed superior. I made a large chart at one time for my daughter, with her photo in the middle. I drew several rings outside of her photo, each being one generation back for six or seven generations. I put a photo of each of her women ancestors where they fit on the rings. I wanted her to feel the strength of her strong women ancestors every time she looked at the chart. In a couple of cases, I could say that the woman was the superior one of the pair, but in most cases the men and women were probably equal partners. Knowing the stories of these ancestors, I really don’t believe that any of them felt that her husband was superior to her in any way.
evidently, the “equal partners” doctrine as explained in the Proclamation had not yet been revealed.
And precisely how long was she expected o wait for this superior man to come along?