Eternal Womanhood and the Limits of Public Recognition

Given the ideological distortion of our common vocabulary, I would argue, we ought to proceed with caution in attempting to render our deepest religious beliefs fully "public" and "visible." There is no way of expressing the deepest truths in public language short of persuading the public to accept certain fundamental premises that are wholly at odds with dominant ideological views, and notably with prevailing understandings of "freedom" and "equality."

The world's understanding of "fairness" and "equality," which powerfully shapes every worldly conception of womanhood, every "feminism," tends powerfully and inevitably toward sameness. Feminism in particular tends to be driven by an envy of the power and privilege attributed to men. (And of course men have possessed an overwhelming advantage in visible power, which they have all too often abused.) Our good Mormon feminists have unique theological resources for elevating the meaning of womanhood, and they deny in all sincerity that they want women to be the same as men; but whenever we evaluate the status of women by framing a comparison with the public and visible status of men, we are tending to slide from the spiritual idea of equality to the secular idea of sameness.

How can we be sure, as Sharon Eubank seems to assume, that applying our unique doctrine more perfectly will lead to practices that are more "fair" and "equal" as the world understands these; that is, that we will treat men and women more as if they were the same? Let me be very clear that I have not the slightest objection to any practical suggestions made by Sharon Eubank or others concerning improvements that might be made in the Young Women's program, or greater visibility for women leaders. And in fact I am an enthusiastic supporter of the argument that we need to make the fullest use of women's wisdom in Church councils at all levels. But I believe we need to beware of the slippage from spiritual equality, which recognizes the distinctive and wondrous role of womanhood, to sameness, which buys into a logic of envy and comparison.