For a decade, Latter-day Saint female officers in the San Francisco Bay Area had joined male leaders in sitting on the stand, facing members, during Sunday services. In the wake of the Ordain Women movement of 2013, it was seen as a small, visible step toward equality and inclusion.
Two years ago, an area president, whose jurisdiction included Northern California, abruptly discontinued the practice. In response, members in at least three stakes, or regional clusters of congregations, surrounding San Francisco expressed their concerns to lay bishops and stake presidents, while also conducting surveys and launching a letter-writing campaign to church headquarters in Salt Lake City to return the women to the stand — all to no avail.
Now, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a new prophet-president, Dallin H. Oaks, and he recently said in an interview that the Utah-based faith has “work left to do” on gender equity.
In an episode of The Salt Lake Tribune’s “Mormon Land” podcast, Amy Watkins Jensen, who served as a Young Women leader in Lafayette, California, and has been heading up a Women on the Stand Instagram account, explored what positive moves for Latter-day Saint women have happened in the past 24 months and what “work” she thinks remains. Here are excerpts, lightly edited for clarity and length, from that podcast:
Why was that tradition of having female leaders on the stand so meaningful? It doesn’t seem like a big thing.
It was a small thing, but in some ways, a really impactful thing. The stand itself is symbolic. It always has been symbolic of leadership and stewardship and priesthood power. When women and men sit on the stand together, it’s symbolic of united leadership and shared stewardship and the priesthood power that women and men both hold and share. When you see women on the stand, it also helps young women and women of all ages understand their importance in the sacred and their importance on the councils that they sit on as well.
That’s why the removal of women was so upsetting?
(Amy Watkins Jensen) Latter-day Saint Amy Watkins Jensen heads up a Women on the Stand Instagram account.
Yeah. It had been happening in this part of California for a really long time — from seven to 10 years, depending on the stake and the reason that it was put in place. It was always about problem-solving. It was always about church thriving. It’s about women and men and leadership coming together, seeing that there are changes that need to be made to best serve the people in these stakes in order for flourishing and thriving to happen. And in council, they came up with some things that could be done for better representation for women, better visibility for women. The goal was never just women. So when somebody outside of the stake comes and says, “we’re not doing that anymore”… there’s an emptiness of this thing that we did together that was important for us, and so we really felt it.
Your group’s effort didn’t succeed in returning women to the stand, but what did come of it?
I really do believe that it has mattered, that our voices have mattered in that. And I think that when President Oaks said we need to do better for women, he said, “We have work left to do. We’ve not always been wise in using the great qualifications and powers of the daughters of God.” I think that Women on the Stand and other things that have happened in the past two years are sort of like the “canary in the coal mine” for greater understanding that there is work to do.
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Members of the First Presidency — Dallin H. Oaks, Henry B. Eyring and D. Todd Christofferson — speak with journalist Jane Clayson Johnson in October. In this interview, Oaks said the church has "work left to do" to elevate women.
Given that President Oaks is now the top guy, are there any plans to make a new push for returning women to the stand?
We’ve just kept on keeping on. We at Women on the Stand believe in being respectfully relentless, and that’s not going to stop. We’re going to have these unflinching conversations thoughtfully and respectfully, and we’re going to keep on inviting new voices to talk about their experiences and what they hope and pray and wish for to find greater alignment with our doctrine of partnership and to find greater mutuality. I do think that President Oaks has, in some ways, really been at the forefront of talking about women and women’s priesthood power. He’s the one who started this greater understanding of how women actually do hold our priesthood power. And so it’s interesting to have him as the prophet. I’m hopeful.
What feedback have you gotten from outside of the area?
We’ve heard from people who are feeling excited to have these conversations and also from local leadership all across the country. I’ve had bishops reaching out and stake presidents reaching out, and these are our good men who are trying their hardest to bring more alignment into their own spaces of stewardship. I’ve had really great conversations with them and having them ask for resources, and wanting to sort of understand how they can do better, and how they can “lift where they stand.”
More young women are serving missions now, and even more may go since the age was lowered to 18, the same as men. What gender differences might they still see on missions?
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Latter-day Saint women now can serve full-time missions starting at age 18, same as with their male counterparts.
I served a mission. I loved my mission. It’s not the right choice for everybody. It was the right choice for me. I learned a lot as a missionary. I also learned about some of the imbalance as a missionary, and a lot of young women also learn that on their missions. Sometimes it’s the first occasion for young women to learn, “Oh, wait, hang on a second. There’s something not quite equitable about what’s happening here, and maybe my talents and my voice and my priesthood power are not being used in the same way as that of my male peers.”
What’s your wish list for women in the future?
There are so many things that can happen tomorrow that don’t take any change in any doctrine. It is all about actually aligning our practices with our doctrine. Giving young women leadership roles [like as mission zone leaders] that would be fantastic. There are simple things like asking new mothers how they would best like to participate in the blessing of their newborns. Do they want to hold the newborn? Do they want to hold the microphone? Do they want to be the first person to give their testimony? That’s simple, but it could have a huge impact. There’s a long list of things that we could do as a church that would help us realize our vision of partnership that has been exemplified by our doctrine of Heavenly Parents and the side-by-side leadership that we understand from our temple ritual. Then there are other practices, like: Does it really matter if it’s a man who is the Sunday school president? Would women lead in that role as well? Would that maybe give opportunities for more women to be in our ward councils?
What about girls passing the sacrament?
There’s no doctrinal reason for women and girls not to pass the sacrament.
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Latter-day Saint boys in Africa prepare to pass the sacrament. Some maintain girls and women should be allowed to do the same.
Would you like to see women on the stand everywhere, not just in the Bay Area?
I would love it if that were just available; that it was something that ward councils and stake councils could consider together; that it was in the [General] Handbook as something you might want to do. You could be prayerful about it and seek inspiration. Is this right for your ward? Would this make an impact on your young women? Having lived in a place where my daughters grew up seeing women on the stand, I know it was important for them. It was important for me. Having been on the stand as somebody who was a Young Women president in my ward, taking that turn, there’s things that you can see from the stand that you can’t see from the pews.
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