What was up with the LDS Church and the ERA?

[_Bond...James Bond]

Hey all,

I've been doing research for a paper on the ERA and alot of the material I'm finding on it comes with some connection to the LDS Church. Anyone know why the LDS made such a big issue about the ERA?

Alright now everyone can chew on another subject for a while :)

(Also any cool sources to throw out might appeal to my more selfish side, leading to many many blessings for you from whichever God I happen to have the ear of in the hearafter).

[_Scottie]

I'm not sure, but I remember being taught in church when I was VERY young that the ERA was a bad thing.

There was an unfortunate real estate company in Utah that went by the acronym ERA (for E-something Realty Association). I remember seeing these floats in parades and thinking that they were bad.

[_gramps]

Well, as good as place as any to start might be by googling Sonia Johnson--her interview is in Dialogue, along with some other articles about her. Also, by googling her name, you will find the Patriarchal Panic speech that set it all off.

Have fun!

[_gramps]

Oh! I forgot! Steve Benson's piece ( which I think you can find over on RfM) may be of help, as well.

Just search Benson and Sonia Johnson. It's bound to pop up.

[_Chap]

Hey all,

I've been doing research for a paper on the ERA and alot of the material I'm finding on it comes with some connection to the LDS Church. Anyone know why the LDS made such a big issue about the ERA?

Alright now everyone can chew on another subject for a while :)

(Also any cool sources to throw out might appeal to my more selfish side, leading to many many blessings for you from whichever God I happen to have the ear of in the hearafter).

Now if only Coggins7 was still posting on this board, he would be able to explain fully about the ERA. He has really thought deeply about this question, and has many insights that he could share with you.

Unfortunately, I think he left because he was offended by Runtu calling him on Pay Lay Ale, and offering him the choice between 'lying sack of crap' and 'world's worst memory'. A choice that he seems to have found uncongenial.

http://www.mormondiscussions.com/discus ... 433#134433

Pity. We shall probably have to discuss ERA without him.

[edited for typos]

[_gramps]

Hey all,

I've been doing research for a paper on the ERA and alot of the material I'm finding on it comes with some connection to the LDS Church. Anyone know why the LDS made such a big issue about the ERA?

Alright now everyone can chew on another subject for a while :)

(Also any cool sources to throw out might appeal to my more selfish side, leading to many many blessings for you from whichever God I happen to have the ear of in the hearafter).

Now if only Coggins7 was still posting on this board, he would be able to explain fully about the ERA. He has really thought deeply about this question, and has many insights that he could share with you.

Unfortunately, I think he left because he was offended by Runtu calling him on Pay Lay Ale, and offering him the choice between 'lying sack of crap' and 'world's worst memory'. A choice that he seems to have found uncongenial.

http://www.mormondiscussions.com/discus ... 433#134433

Pity. We shall probably have to discuss ERA without him.

[edited for typos]

That is pretty tasty "chum." I am betting he comes back for this one!

[_bcspace]

The Church and the Proposed Equal Rights Amendment: A Moral Issue

Ensign March 1980

[_Blixa]

I remember it well, Bond. I was there in the Capitol during the vote (I was covering it for the University of Utah student newspaper, The Utah Daily Chronicle). What a travesty.

[_Mister Scratch]

Hey all,

I've been doing research for a paper on the ERA and alot of the material I'm finding on it comes with some connection to the LDS Church. Anyone know why the LDS made such a big issue about the ERA?

Alright now everyone can chew on another subject for a while :)

(Also any cool sources to throw out might appeal to my more selfish side, leading to many many blessings for you from whichever God I happen to have the ear of in the hearafter).

Bond,

The best account I've read of this comes in a later section in Quinn's The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power (i.e., the 2nd volume). It is hard to say just why, exactly, but the LDS Church seems to have opposed the ERA primarily because of the sense, among a certain segment of LDS, that the ERA would lead to greater equality among the sexes. Here is what I perceive to be Quinn's summary of the underlying context and motives:

[F]rom the 1920s on, Mormon women experienced an erosion of their autonomy and status. In this complex development, general authorities increasingly adopted Victorian ideals of domesticity and ignored earlier teachings and examples of female autonomy. Administratively, the process was complete by July 1970 when the First Presidency ended the financial autonomy of the Relief Society and dismissed the organization's traditional fund-raising bazaar as "a noisy, carnival-like or commercial atmosphere."

In essence, the Church opposed the ERA because it opposed women having certain freedoms. The Brethren felt---and continue to feel--that a women's identity should conform to a certain "ideal."

[_Bond...James Bond]

Now if only Coggins7 was still posting on this board, he would be able to explain fully about the ERA. He has really thought deeply about this question, and has many insights that he could share with you.

Unfortunately, I think he left because he was offended by Runtu calling him on Pay Lay Ale, and offering him the choice between 'lying sack of crap' and 'world's worst memory'. A choice that he seems to have found uncongenial.

http://www.mormondiscussions.com/discus ... 433#134433

Pity. We shall probably have to discuss ERA without him.

[edited for typos]

In class we thoroughly covered "Women of the New Right" and all the arguments about how the ERA was going to lead to everything from women in combat to asexual restrooms (and other such horrors that Schlafly could think up).

(I miss Coggy. I was really on the edge about Global Warming being bunk. Now I guess I'll have to fall back to the Godless position that it's plausible).