Gender Roles and Empowerment Goals: The LDS Women's Experience in Brazil

On June 12, 2024, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church, or “Church” for purposes of this paper) donated US$55.8 million in an effort to improve the well-being of women and young children worldwide. Not only is this one of the largest donations in the Church's history but this monumental project is also being led by the religion's women's organization, the Relief Society.1 This donation comes in the wake of recent pushback by LDS women on social media concerning feelings of disempowerment and gender inequality within the organization.2 Look up “the LDS Relief Society,” and you will find many recent news articles vacillating between positive actions of the organization (typically humanitarian in nature) and articles documenting the plight of LDS women who feel that their patriarchal religion does not support or represent them.3 These recent movements highlight an apparent paradox within the Church in regard to women's empowerment, where millions of dollars are being devoted to raising women up while their own members report feelings of being kept down.The LDS Church, established in 1830, has evolved from a small American congregation into a global religion with over 17 million members, half of whom reside outside the United States. An impressive 1.5 million of these members live in Brazil, where exponential growth in recent decades contrasts the difficult days of the early twentieth century.The Church's women's organization, the Relief Society, is particularly active in Brazil, where members participate in church activities, service projects, and missionary work. Though the Relief Society is strictly led and managed by women, they still work closely with male leaders, or “priesthood holders,” within the Church organization. At the end of the day, it is a man who makes the final decision at all levels of the organization. Embedded in Church doctrine is the belief that men and women have distinct, complementary roles, which coexists with the idea of women's inherent spirituality and altruism, and which works well with the Relief Society's primarily charitable mission. Also central to the LDS faith is the importance of family and gender roles, with men holding leadership positions, often resulting in the perception of women as subordinate. This patriarchal organization within the Church has created conflict in the last decade, with feminist movements such as Ordain Women and Wear Pants to Church combating this gender inequality.4 Many women within the Church have expressed feelings of subservience to their male counterparts, demonstrated through grassroots movements and recent social media activity.5Why do women participate in the LDS Church, or organized religion in general, if they are not represented or empowered? Women's empowerment within the LDS Church and other religious contexts in general is a complex issue. Though definitions of “empowerment” vary in scholarly literature, generally, it involves providing women with opportunities, resources, and agency. Despite attempts to improve female empowerment, women worldwide continue to face serious challenges. In many religious settings, women often navigate their roles within patriarchal structures, sometimes finding empowerment through spiritual practices and community support. And where you are in the world matters. In Brazil, for example, religious participation women and gender roles a of many particularly the LDS in Church gender a but the inherent patriarchal still to LDS women in find empowerment within the patriarchal of their their feelings of empowerment to the of their and the support by the Despite the patriarchal of the LDS Church and on gender roles, many LDS women in report through their religious This paradox the complex between religious and of empowerment, a for of these in a by gender inequality and to female empowerment within religious gender roles in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continue to and are by the of LDS women the history with LDS women in Brazil, that these women in through their religious service and that their within the Church a to the world in which they gender roles are still and the and by the Church to a of empowerment that contrasts with their in the often on the LDS Church and Relief Society in will also the on women's empowerment and gender roles, in religious and in the LDS the the will and the it into women in the support in gender roles, of the female spiritual and and history of the Church in with a and On and children the of the LDS Church on with the of American LDS a of the organized a small congregation as a in their of in the Church's in of and family of a In the American LDS in work to on and for a decade, to and Church in of the of in particularly men of not to the of the Church's in also from an of the to that a in that of in the not a with and the Church while with This to missionary outside of the of and into to to the of in This for many members of the Church, but and the of the Church from to in only this as missionary work the In the Church the and in the religion's of into the Church but and of the church at the also missionary work and Church with and Church as the to other of on the in with the of the American LDS in a of growth of Church in to the kept by in the American women, and children with the Church in in of the LDS Church in 1.5 million members and to Church the United and has the largest of LDS growth general religious in Brazil, with the religious in recent of has in recent while participation has on the In has from to in with the with the community of worldwide. 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