The challenges of LDS women around the world

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Family pressures, keeping the law of chastity and cultural and societal differences are some of the challenges many women outside the continental United States face when they join the Mormon Church. Despite the challenges the face, the women feel the empowering blessings of the gospel, presenters at the Mormon History Association Conference said Friday, May 28.

The three presenters dealt with the difficulties women confront when they join the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Taiwan, the Bahamas and West Africa.

Taiwan: Balancing act

Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye, a former missionary to Taiwan whose academic studies at Harvard continue to focus on Taiwan, said that because Taiwan is a Confucian nation where women are trained to defer to and obey their fathers, their husbands, and as they become a part of the husband's family, they often move in with the in-laws and have to defer to their fathers- and mothers-in-law.

Education and employment are highly competitive, life is fast-paced and children are often cared for by grandparents while both parents work. As a people, the Taiwanese worship their ancestors and a large portion of the daily, time-consuming rituals involved in this practice fall to women. Many women converts are from part-member families and conversion places enormous stress on them as they try to balance family duties with church callings and Sunday worship.

They also have to deal with the sometimes-painful reality of membership in a church that is doctrinally centered on full-member families. Most women in Taiwan are from part-member families, and often they are the only member of the LDS Church in their families. It takes great faith and courage to straddle two cultures and to faithfully persist in gospel activity under such circumstances, Inouye said. Although those that remain faithful are remarkable, many fall into inactivity, she added

Bahamas: Staying true

Remaining chaste is the major challenge female Mormon converts face in the Bahamas, said Julia Holton Todd. She and her husband served as missionaries in the Bahamas and gathered many oral histories from members while there.

The Bahamas is a poor country with few jobs and little provision for assisting the destitute. In the Bahamas, immorality is widespread and faithful women who choose to remain chaste are often mocked or shunned. Men relentlessly pressure women to trade sexual favors for money or gifts, a socially acceptable practice the people there label "sweethearts."

In a society where so many women live in poverty and have to care for children, the temptation to succumb is enormous, Todd said. Nevertheless, Todd shared accounts of women who, because of great faith, courage and increased self-respect, chose to remain chaste.

West Africa: Strengthening family ties

The people of West Africa have an innate religiosity, said Angela Marie Ames, from the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City, who discussed her life-long love affair with the people of Africa, including experiences in West Africa.

There are many blessings and changes to a family once the gospel gains a foothold and second generation full-member families put down roots in the faith, she said.

The culture and conditions of the people in West Africa include very separate lives that native men and women live with women carrying much of the work and childcare burden. Women are often treated as inferior to men. Children are to be "seen and not heard" and often treated as a burden.

However, once families embrace gospel teachings and principles, lives change dramatically, Ames said. Women, because they play a central and equal role in the gospel, gain new respect and importance. Men and women develop more tender, companionate relationships. Children are recognized as blessings and esteemed members of the family.

Rather than single, separate individuals, families band together to support and love one another, she added.

Not only are marvelous things happening in the lives of Mormons in West Africa, but friends and acquaintances note, and many applaud, the differences they observe, Ames said.