A Testimony Of Motherhood: LDS Response To Changing Women’s Roles, 1940-2006 Most conservative religions objected to the movement of women out of the household in the 1960s, but doctrines linked to the practice of polygamy made changing gender roles particularly challenging for the LDS Church. To understand Church responses to this crisis, I analyzed all general conference talks and Improvement Era and Ensign articles on gender from 1940 to 2006. They show the Church harshly criticizing change, then accommodating it without really changing, and finally creating a new boundary between itself and its social environment. By stressing the positive aspects of its difference with contemporary society, the Church convinced members to adhere to doctrines that might otherwise have resulted in a loss of authority.

Carrie A. Miles, Ph.D., Presenter; Michael J. Stevens, Ph.D., Respondent