Today in the Washington Post, there is an article called “In Boston, Mitt Romney ‘evolved’ in Mormon leadership, some churchwomen say”.  The Exponent is featured in the story regarding Mitt Romney, Claudia Bushman, and feminism.  From the article:

Three decades ago, Carolyn Caci, a recently divorced Mormon convert, joined a congregation here presided over by a young church leader named Mitt Romney. As the local bishop, Romney conducted annual interviews with all the members of his flock, and he used his time with the newcomer to express both his disapproval of divorce and to remind the middle-aged woman, who had begun dating again, about the church’s opposition to premarital sex.

“I got awfully mad,” said Caci, now 80. “I told him it was none of his business and he said it was.” Romney persisted, she said, and also warned her to avoid consorting with a group of devout but independent Mormon women who had eased her transition into the church. Caci said she reported her “run-in” with Romney to those women, who published a Mormon feminist journal titled Exponent II…(continue reading here)

What do you think of the article?  Were you already aware of this history of The Exponent?

Guest Post by Holly Welker

As some of you may know, I’m editing an issue of “Sunstone” devoted to Mormon women and motherhood. As work for this project, I’ve been reading a book I picked up over two decades ago, “The Reproduction of Mothering” by Nancy Chodorow. There are some really boring chapters on psychoanalysis and Freudian ideas of infancy, but the second chapter is really great. In particular I was struck by these observations:

Mothers are women, of course, because a mother is a female parent, and a female who is a parent must be adult, hence must be a woman. [Of course that's not true; ten-year-olds have given birth.] Similarly, fathers are male parents, are men. But we mean something different when we say that someone mothered a child than when we say that someone fathered him or her.(11)

She discusses the fact that one need not give birth to a child to mother it, pointing to adoptive mothers and siblings and grandparents who provide excellent mothering. She notes that “Mothering is most eminently a psychologically based role. it consists in psychological and personal experience of self in relationship to the child or children” (32) and continues:

I have talked before about my feminist awakening, and how I grew up groomed by my family of origin and the Church to be a good girl.  A good girl goes to BYU, gets married in the temple, loves her children, wants to be home with them more than any job or career, and is happy in the gospel.  I did my very best, and I am fortunate that I do actually like staying at home with my children for the time being.  I am fortunate, because I have seen how those things do not fulfill many women who take the same path and find themselves lost and unhappy.

I am fortunate that I love my husband and like being married, and that I don’t mind being home with my children while they are young.  I don’t have much angst with regard to those roles that I have, because I genuinely find joy in them.  But even though I love being a mother and a wife, I don’t love the idea of being expected to fulfill these roles simply because I am a woman.  If I choose to marry and choose to bear children and choose to stay home with them, it’s my choice, not an obligation.  And I certainly cannot forget that I am quite privileged to be able to choose any of those roles to fulfill in the first place.

Today’s guest post comes to us from Claire, as part of the Doves & Serpents and The Exponent Blogger Swap.

Turning 30 means you have SOME life experience.  And therefore, if you live in the ‘mission field,’ you have met the first (and sometimes only) requirement that puts you on the short list for Relief Society President.

And so I found myself the Relief Society President in a large urban ward far, far away from church headquarters.  A few things I didn’t know when I accepted the calling- 1, most of my time would be acting as a social worker, 2, things would be so hectic upon occasion that I would actually forget to assign someone to teach the lesson and would have to fake it myself, and 3, there were two unofficial members of the RS board that would rotate regularly and over which I would have very little influence or control…. the Sister Missionaries.

We are pleased to announce that starting this coming Sunday September 25th, the Exponent bloggers will be doing a swap with the bloggers of one of our favorite blogs: Doves & Serpents.  If you haven’t read them yet, you are in for a real treat.  The blog is beautiful, thoughtful, and written by some fine people.

Over the next week we will be hearing from the fabulous Doves & Serpents bloggers here, and you can find all of us over at Doves & Serpents, where we would love to hear from you.  Find us and read both places!