Mormonism and gender issues/Women/Childbearing

Criticism

Some claim that LDS teachings about childbearing put an improper burden on LDS families, especially women.

Source(s) of the Criticism

• Bob McCue, “Big Picture Analysis of Mormonism—And When Should We Speak Out?” web posting on 27 Oct 2004 13h48.

Response

While having children is an important priority for Latter-day Saints, the health of the mother, health of the father, and the ability of the family to properly care for them should factor into the decision:

No doubt there are some worldly people who honestly limit the number of children and the family to two or three because of insufficient means to clothe and educate a large family as the parents would desire to do, but in nearly all such cases, the two or three children are no better provided for than two or three times that number would be....In all this, however, the mother's health should be guarded. In the realm of wifehood, the woman should reign supreme.^[1]

As in all things, the Church enjoins the use of personal revelation to choose a proper course for an individual couple's situation.

More details on this subject are available in the section on birth control.

Other duties, which may arise from Church participation or the role of mother, are to be adapted to the situation, capacities, and needs of each individual.

Elder Marvin J. Ashton taught:

And although [Our Heavenly Father] will always be at our side if we will but invite Him, never will He take from His children the great gift of agency&nmdash;the power to choose. Young mothers (single or otherwise) must learn to use this power wisely. There may be times when more than one course of action is placed before us. Each is right. It is then that wise and prudent decisions must be made, taking into consideration the season of life and the pertinent facts.

Some mothers seem to have the capacity and energy to make their children's clothes, bake, give piano lessons, go to Relief Society, teach Sunday School, attend parent- teacher association meetings, and so on. Other mothers look upon such women as models and feel inadequate, depressed, and think they are failures when they make comparisons.

We should not allow ourselves to be trapped into such damaging inferiority feelings. This is another tool of Satan. Many seem to put too much pressure on themselves to be a "supermom" or "superwoman."

Sisters, do not allow yourselves to be made to feel inadequate or frustrated because you cannot do everything others seem to be accomplishing. Rather, each should assess her own situation, her own energy, and her own talents, and then choose the best way to mold her family into a team, a unit that works together and supports each other. Only you and your Father in Heaven know your needs, strengths, and desires. Around this knowledge your personal course must be charted and your choices made.^[2]

Endnotes

1. [note] David O. McKay, Relief Society Magazine (July 1916) 3:7.

Further reading

FAIR wiki articles

• Birth control
• Lies and self-contradiction