Although women have
equal rights and privileges with men in most matters pertaining to the Church,
they do not hold the priesthood which is conferred only upon men. Other than
having the right to sustain, or reject, by vote the members of the priesthood
in their various offices and appointments, the women have no voice of authority
in the Church outside of those organizations which have been specifically
placed in their charge. The Relief Society, the Young Women’s Mutual
Improvement Association, and the Primary Association are organizations which
are indispensable in the general program of the Church, and each of these
organizations is under the direct supervision of the women. These
organizations, together with the home responsibilities afford all women of the
Church a wide field of useful activity. Indeed, there is no greater nor more
sacred calling in the Church than that of the mother-teacher in the home.
In speaking of the priesthood
in the home, Elder John A. Widtsoe has said: “Organization must prevail in the
family, the ultimate unit of the Church. The husband, the priesthood bearer,
presides over the family; the priesthood conferred upon him is intended for the
blessing of the whole family. Every member shares in the gift bestowed, but
under a proper organization. No man who understands the gospel believes he is
greater than his wife, or more beloved of the Lord, because he holds the
priesthood, but rather that he is under the responsibilities of speaking and
acting for the family in official matters. It is a protection to the woman who,
because of her motherhood, is under a large physical and spiritual obligation.
“Motherhood is an
eternal part of priesthood. It is a wise provision that the man, who is the
freer to move about both at home and abroad, should be called to the family
presidency and be under the responsibility of holding the priesthood. This does
not limit equality among men and women. Citizens in a free land are not unequal
because some hold office and others do not.”
As in the home so in
the Church the priesthood speaks and acts for the Church in all official
matters. This supreme authority is not exercised by men because the priesthood
holders are men, but because men hold the priesthood. This priesthood is a
sacred trust for the blessing of all members in the Church, and the woman, if
more righteous than the man, will receive more blessings under the hands of the
priesthood than will the less worthy man though he holds the priesthood
himself.
Because man holds the
priesthood, which is God’s priesthood and not man’s, all inspiration pertaining
to the functions of the priesthood must as a matter of course come through that
man, or body of men, who holds the priesthood. Inspiration in all matters of
the gospel will never at any time be given to the Church through women. Such a
source through a gas line. Inspiration from God may be received by women as
well as by men, but when that inspiration has to do with affairs of the Church or
God’s kingdom upon the earth, then that inspiration must come through the
medium appointed for that purpose, which medium is the priesthood.
Sustaining the
priesthood is necessary to the free exercise and efficient functioning thereof.
The prerogative of sustaining the priesthood is held by women as well as by men.
There can be little inspiration and no progress, either in the home or in the
Church organization, where the women do not sustain the priesthood. And where
women, or men, interfere with the free exercise of the duly appointed
priesthood, only disorder and a spirit of contention will prevail.
All offices in the
Church and the auxiliary organizations, whether such offices are held by men or
women, are subject at all times to the counsel, will, and direction of the
priesthood. If the wife in the home, or the woman in the Church organization,
meddles in matters that pertaining exclusively to the priesthood she does not
have the spirit of the gospel, and she is a disturbing influence where only
love and harmony should exist. Her sweet companionship as a wife and her
counsel as a mother are sacred and vital, both to the well-being of the family
unit and the Church as a whole, but this companionship and counsel must be in
harmony with the priesthood and not contrary to its purposes. The work of the
woman in her sphere of activity is just as essential to the salvation and
progress of the human family as is the work of the man in his sphere which, by
God’s conferment and not by man’s will, is the priesthood. For woman to intrude
her will into the sphere of activity designed exclusively for the man is folly;
and for man to intrude into the realm where woman is divinely appointed to
reign supreme is foolish.
“The man is not
without the woman in the Lord; neither is the woman without the man.” The man
is not greater than the woman; neither is the woman greater than the man, but the
priesthood is greater than both. (Matthew Cowley, “Women and the
Priesthood,” July 1944, in Matthew Cowley Speaks: Discourses of Elder
Matthew Cowley of the Quorum of the Twelve of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1954], 193-95,
italics in original)