Women and the Book of Mormon

I recently read an essay by Carol Lynn Pearson in which she discusses some of her feelings about the way in which women are portrayed in the Book of Mormon:

“A few years ago, I read the [Book of Mormon] specifically to focus on what it says about women, circling in red every female reference. And as I did, it became more and more clear why I had always felt like an unwelcome visitor as I entered Nephite society, a stranger in a strange land indeed.”

I was initially surprised when I read this, because I have never thought of the Book of Mormon as portraying women negatively. But Pearson makes some excellent points.

She has three primary concerns. Her first concern is that none of the major discourses or doctrinal expositions in the Book of Mormon are specifically addressed to women. “Only two instances in the entire 522 pages [2 Nephi 4:3 and Mormon 6:19] provide evidence that women are being specifically addressed along with men.”

For example, consider King Benjamin’s address in Mosiah 2. Women are clearly present: “They pitched their tents round about, every man according to his family, consisting of his wife, and his sons, and his daughters, and their sons, and their daughters” (verse 5). Yet none of the salutations are addressed to women:

—“My brethren, all ye that have assembled yourselves together …” (verse 9)

—“Yet, my brethren …” (verse 15)

—“I say unto you, my brethren …” (verses 20 and 36)

—“O, all ye old men, and also ye young men, and you little children who can understand my words …” (verse 40)

Similar observations can be made about my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon: 2 Nephi 31, Alma 5, Alma 32, Moroni 7, etc. Even the resurrected Jesus is quoted as speaking only to men (see 3 Nephi 18:21).

Pearson’s second concern is that very few women are discussed in the Book of Mormon. And of the few that are discussed, none are particularly good examples of spiritual role models for women today:

Except for references to the biblical women Eve, Mary, and Sarah, there are three women mentioned by name in the Book of Mormon: Sariah, wife of Lehi [1 Nephi 5:1–8, 8:14–16, 18:19]; Abish, the Lamanitish woman in the story of Ammon and King Lamoni [Alma 19:16]; and Isabel, the harlot [Alma 39:3]. This starkly contrasts with the presence of women in the Bible. One hundred eighty-eight women are mentioned by name in the Bible, compared to three in the Book of Mormon. Indeed, two books of the Bible — Esther and Ruth — are named after women.

Numerous biblical women can serve as spiritual role models for women today: Huldah was a prophetess [2 Chronicles 34:22, 2 Kings 22:14]; Deborah was a prophetess [Judges 4:4]; Miriam was a prophetess [Exodus 15:20]. Not one woman in the Book of Mormon appears to have her own connection to the heavens. Sariah does not receive anything like the visionary experience that Lehi has. Nephi receives the vision of the Tree of Life after his father, but Sariah does not. Abish, who performs one of the few strong deeds by a woman in the book, had converted to the Lord because of a remarkable vision her father had had years before, not a vision of her own. Lamoni’s queen is another spiritually dependent woman: she does not receive from God but from her husband’s servants the knowledge that Ammon is a prophet. …

[T]he huge majority of the references to women are to the nameless, faceless “our women” or “our wives” clearly listed with the Nephite men’s possessions [see, e.g., Alma 7:27].

Pearson’s third concern is the negative female imagery contained in the Book of Mormon:

The strong anti-female statement made by Nephite society … comes not only from the lack of meaningful stories about individual women in the Book of Mormon but also from female imagery applied to things rather than people. Of course, the Mother of all negative female images in the Book of Mormon is … the great and abominable church, the mother of abominations, the mother of harlots, the whore of all the earth. I wonder if we appreciate what this really means. The males who lived in Book of Mormon times — and the males who read the book today — have as major symbols for their maleness: God the Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, and all the prophets. And the females who lived in Book of Mormon times — and the females who read the book today — have as a major symbol for their femaleness; the great and abominable church, the whore of all the earth.

For those who believe — as I do — that the Book of Mormon is the “word of God,” what conclusions should we draw from this?

I don’t know exactly how to answer that question, but there are a few conclusions that I believe we absolutely should not draw. For example, I don’t believe that we should assume that God inspired the authors of the Book of Mormon to address their writings primarily to men, or to leave out stories about women, or to use female-denigrating phrases like “the whore of all the earth,” etc. As a wise institute teacher once told me, the Book of Mormon is the word of God, but not the actual words of God.  

It seems to me that the Book of Mormon’s treatment of women is yet another example of God speaking to people “in their weakness, after the manner of their language, that they might come to understanding” (D&C 1:24). The Nephites apparently had a significant weakness with respect to their attitudes about women. The fact that God worked with the Nephites “in their weakness” should not be seen as an endorsement of that weakness. God meets us where we are.

Nor should we feel as though there is something wrong with pointing out the Nephites’ weakness. I believe that one of the benefits of reading scripture is the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of others. This is in fact what the prophet Mormon specifically encouraged us to do: “Give thanks unto God that he hath made manifest unto you our imperfections, that ye may learn to be more wise than we have been” (Mormon 9:31).

Pearson provides an excellent example of this, asking whether there is a connection between the Nephites’ attitudes about women and their propensity toward violence (which led to their ultimate destruction):

I believe that the Book of Mormon is indeed a book written for our day, that it contains many powerful lessons that can greatly benefit us. I propose that there is a lesson in this book that we have not really examined, one that is profoundly important. I propose that a society that negates femaleness will likely be a society that is militaristic — or that a society that is militaristic will likely be a society that negates femaleness; whichever the cause and whichever the effect, the result will be disaster. … [T]he anti-female bias evident among the Nephites may have been one of the numerous causes of their downfall. … A society that marginalizes its women and creates negative images of femaleness is a society that will not succeed, and indeed is a society that may very well destroy itself through war.

How well have we learned this lesson?