Quote of the Week

Circumstances have led me to look again at some of the materials we used at a time when I am no longer in the stage of thrilled discovery or searching for role models and freedom within the Mormon tradition. Casting an old, cold eye over the sources, I am surprised to find myself demystifying the pioneers. As I read the documents now, I find many feisty and accomplished women, but I would no longer use words like heroism and sacrifice. I find many women doggedly doing their duty, much wishful thinking about home industry, much effort to rise above difficult situations, and much heavy rhetoric about gentility and refinement. I find women who are strong of necessity, who did what they had to do, rising to the opportunities and challenges that beset them, but women who are very much like their great-granddaughters of today. This is not a master race of foremothers set apart by their nobility; these are our own sisters. In their place, we would have done as well.

Claudia L. Bushman (NYC, 01 June 1997)

Mormon Sisters: Women in Early Utah

May we live up to this expectation.