Laurel Thatcher Ulrich: Committed Feminist AND Mormon

The unfortunate sucess of Proposition 8 in California leading to the denial of marriage rights for homosexual couples in California has put the Mormon church in the spotlight. With the fervent support/spmorships of Prop 8 from many bigoted Mormons, it would seem on the surface that Mormonism and feminism are completely incompatible—what with the Church of LDS history of being sexist, racist, and most recently—highly homophobic.

Fellow Feministing community member, ohmissjulie, recently blogged about being “Mormon, Feminist, and Kind of Afraid.” I think it is important to point out to her that she is most definitely not alone as a Mormon feminist. Pulitzer Prize winning Harvard University History Professor Laurel Thatcher Ulrich– the woman who coined the phrase (that we have all seen on t-shirts or buttons at one rally or another “ Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History” is a devout Mormon AND feminist.

The phrase came from an obscure scholarly article she authored on the funeral rituals of Puritan women in early America—there was so little information available on the lives of these “ordinary women” hence the opening sentence of her article—“Well-behaved women seldom make history.”

In addition to her famous catch phrase, Ulrich’s prize winning book “ A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard based on her diary 1785-1812,” examining the life of Northern New England midwife Martha Ballard is an outstanding critical examination of the life of ordinary women in early America—including their role in the household and local market economy, the nature of marriage and sexual relations, aspects of medical practice, and the prevalence of violence and crime. Her most recent work, appropriately titled, “ Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History” traces a proud history of insubordination committed by notable women. One of the major themes we take away from Ulrich work is that, as well all know, history is mostly written by and about men. She is the preeminent scholar on early American women’s history and has spent her entire academic career fighting to change the paradigm in the scholarship of history from highly andocentric to a more inclusive woman-centered approach.

She is the advisor for the Mormon student campus club at Harvard University and has a written extensively about her experience as a Mormon AND feminist. She co-edited with Emma Thayne, a collection of essays about the lives of Mormon women called, “ All God’s Creatures Got a Place in the Choir.” When interviewed by the bloggers at Feminist Mormon Housewives, Ulrich explained,” My Mormonism and my feminism intersect in a belief in the absolute equality of all of God’s children and in a belief that we have a responsibility to make the world better.” Check out her full interview.

Ulrich believes that the biggest challenges to Mormon feminists and those who take their faith seriously are  knowing what our responsibilities are in the larger world. War, the disruptions of the global economy, pornography, sex trafficking, poverty and growing inequality in the United States, lack of respect for mothering and the “helping professions” in general—like public school teaching, nursing, and social work.” This does not read to me as a message of hate, bigotry, or intolerance. These sounds like goals we can all agree with. Mormonism has a sordid past and present filled with intolerance, especially in light of Prop 8—but this does not mean we cannot create allies in the Mormon community to work to overturn what has been done.

What should we take away from this? The stark realization that not ALL members of a  religion necessarily endorse every single policy of their church.  I certainly do not agree with the majority of the positions of the Church of LDS on a plethera of issues. However, Ulrich’s life and work show us that two things that seem categorically opposed to one-another can intersect to have a meaningful impact on the lives of many. If you believe that Mormonism and feminism cannot mesh—ask yourself the question, “ What would women’s history be without Professor Ulrich?” I recieved by MA in Women’s and Gender Studies from Roosevelt University in 2007, and I cannot imagine the field of Women’s Studies without her priceless contributions.
Yes, you CAN be a Mormon and feminist.