This is a guest post by Cynthia J.
Depending on how you define it, I suppose I can be labeled a feminist. I believe a woman can aspire to any level of education or any job she desires. I stayed single until I was 34. At that age, I already owned a house, a car, and managed my own accounts without a husband all those years, and remained active in the Church all that time. I have two daughters, and would love nothing more than for them to feel strong, confident, and excited about their dreams for the future, whether it be in politics, business, medicine, or mothering. I want my daughters to feel the confidence to do all of that for themselves just like I did. I have a strong voice in my family. I’m no shrinking violet (just ask my husband). I have opinions, ideas (often brilliant), and dreams of my own. I believe women can do anything they set their mind to do. So in that sense, I am a feminist.
But then again, yes, I’m a stay-at-home mom. My DH and I liked the idea of the two of us raising our kids rather than a day care. I simply couldn’t imagine leaving my children all day to go work, so I was happy to stay home. It has never felt like a sacrifice to me. And, unlike feminists of the world-at-large, I do not believe in the Gloria Steinem-esque views on abortion, feminizing boys (my three are decidedly masculine), dominating my husband by bully-whipping him into doing exactly 50% of the household chores after he gets home from his full-time job, changing the rules and prerequisites of jobs to make them easier for women to get, finding offense at every piece of male/female humor, telling women they have to work in order to feel fulfilled, or that there should be no differences between men and women, at all, ever. Those differences are there, they are obvious, and they are eternal (See the Proclamation on the Family). In that sense, I am, apparently, not a feminist.
When it comes to church, I’ve held callings in just about every organization, except Scouts (knock on wood). My favorite, to date, was as a missionary. The experiences I had on the mission were so profound in their impact on my life and my testimony, that I still think of those experiences today when I teach my children or in any way try to sort out life’s little problems. I’m sure the “Mormon Feminist” women who have gotten so much attention lately have had their own experiences in the gospel, just as I had, for them to be active members now. But I’m completely puzzled by these women. Never, ever in all my time as a working woman, a member, a missionary, or a mother did I think I was somehow being cheated by being “denied” the priesthood.
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