Mormon faith is a very male dominated faith. Men have the priesthood they can give blessings and hold all the major roles in the church. The women can only hold leadership roles over other women and young children. Their role in the home is to care for the children and keep up with the housework. Very few women in the Mormon religion have careers that take them out of the home. If they do, they are thought of by other members as bad mothers and poor wives. The men aren't expected to have to help out at all in the home, this is the wife's job. A good Mormon housewife cooks all the meals, cleans all the messes, cares for the children, and for bonus points, homeschools.
When I would go to church all the families would meet together and listen to a few talks, then split off into groups based on gender. The men went to priesthood meeting and the women went to relief society. Now I can't tell you what the men talked about during their meeting as I was a woman and therefore never allowed to go to their meetings, but I can tell you about the women's meetings.
We only met together for an hour, but that hour was spent talking about how we could better serve our families in our duties. How we could better teach love, kindness and faith through our daily activities. Never once did we talk about empowering ourselves or teaching our kids to think for themselves. It was always about encorporating the teachings of the scriptures into our lives.
Honestly, looking back it is sad to see so many women as brainwashed as I was. Thinking that our happiness was based on the happiness of the people around us. We were allowing ourselves to base our self worth on what others thought of us as wives and mothers. The Mormon faith has made women out to be treated almost like a slave, but brainwash them just enough to think they are happy in serving. They are allowed to have hobbies, as long as they fit into the good little Mormon housewife mould.
Women have fought for their rights for a very long time! It is so sad to see women not taking advantage of the advances in our rights that the women before us have dedicated their lives to. Women that choose instead, to continue to be oppressed by men.
It is upsetting to me that people live in a religion that is continuing to enslave both men and women alike. If a man were to speak out about how he wanted equal rights for the women in this religion he would be thought of as a freak. A man who agrees to let his wife be the bread winner in the family id commonly thought of as weak and lazy in the Mormon community.
I'm just really glad to know the truth now. I'm glad I can be the person I want to be without having to base my happiness on that of others. I am so glad to finally be free!
Rain Freedom
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