What are some of the roles of women in the Mormon Church?
Mormon women are honored in the Mormon Church as having equal–but different–roles as those held by Mormon men. One specific role of Mormon women is that of caregiver of all the Lord’s children on earth. Whether she has raised her own children in this life, a Mormon woman is given the right and duty to care for all those she knows in this life. A program the Mormon Church created to facilitate the caring for of the Lord’s children is called the Relief Society.
In the 1840s Mormons were constructing and establishing the city Nauvoo in Illinois. While most members were creating strong lives for themselves, there were some who were struggling with poverty, disease, or other misfortunes. Mormon women in the city at that time were helping in different ways, but decided they could do more. It would be a good idea to institute a stronger, correlated service program. This new program was initiated on March 4, 1842. Eliza R. Snow, who was asked to write both the constitution and bylaws, finished her work and showed the results to the Mormon prophet and president Joseph Smith. He said that the documents were the best he had ever seen, and that he also wanted to provide "something better for them than a written Constitution." One sister (Mormon woman) recalled his saying, "I will organize the women under the priesthood after the pattern of the priesthood" (Sarah M. Kimball, "Auto-Biography," Woman’s Exponent, 1 Sept. 1883, p. 51).
The society was organized on March 17, 1842 with Emma Smith, Joseph’s wife, elected as the first President. A meeting was held where attendees expressed their strong desires to serve others and help those in need. The Prophet was touched and promised, “All I shall have to give to the poor, I will give to the society.” Others followed his example and donated money to the Relief Society to aid the needy. They were each confident that the Relief Society would be the ideal medium through which they could serve their fellow men.
The women strove tirelessly to find and help those in need. They brought widows and orphans into their homes and looked for ways to help the community.
Observing these acts of charity, Joseph Smith felt to remark, “It is natural for females to have feelings of charity. You are now placed in a situation where you can act according to those sympathies which God has planted in your bosoms. If you live up to your privileges the angels cannot be restrained from being your associates.” (Relief Society Minutes, 28 Apr. 1842, p. 38)
Mormons do believe that the Relief Society has a role of saving souls in a spiritual sense as well as material. This is explained in the following quote.
One of the purposes of the organization of the Relief Society was that a system might be inaugurated by which study of religious subjects, or Church doctrine and government, might be pursued by women. The administration of charity under the direction of the Bishopric … was to be part of their active work. But this was not intended to absorb their activities to the exclusion of the development of faith, and the advancement of women in literary, social and domestic activities of life (James R. Clark, comp., Messages of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 vols., Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1965–75, 5:217).
In short, the society was and still is a means through which women can teach each other and watch over all those who come into contact with members of the Mormon Church.
While the sisters have not been given the Priesthood, … that does not mean that the Lord has not given them authority. Authority and Priesthood are two different things. A person may have authority given to him, or a sister to her, to do certain things in the Church that are binding and absolutely necessary for our salvation. (Relief Society Magazine, Jan. 1959, p. 4)
As Gordon B. Hinckley, the current president of the Mormon Church, has stated, the women of the Relief Society "have their own offices, their own presidency, their own board. . . . The men hold the priesthood, yes. But my wife is my companion. In this Church the man neither walks ahead of his wife nor behind his wife but at her side. They are co-equals in this life in a great enterprise" (Ensign, Nov. 1996, p.48).