ABSTRACT

The Routledge Handbook of Mormonism and Gender is an outstanding reference source to this controversial subject area. Since its founding in 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has engaged gender in surprising ways. LDS practice of polygamy in the nineteenth century both fueled rhetoric of patriarchal rule as well as gave polygamous wives greater autonomy than their monogamous peers. The tensions over women’s autonomy continued after polygamy was abandoned and defined much of the twentieth century. In the 1970s, 1990s, and 2010s, Mormon feminists came into direct confrontation with the male Mormon hierarchy. These public clashes produced some reforms, but fell short of accomplishing full equality. LGBT Mormons have a similar history. These movements are part of the larger story of how Mormonism has managed changing gender norms in a global context. Comprising over forty chapters by a team of international contributors the Handbook is divided into four parts:

• Methodological issues

• Historical approaches

• Social scientific approaches

• Theological approaches.

These sections examine central issues, debates, and problems, including: agency, feminism, sexuality and sexual ethics, masculinity, queer studies, plural marriage, homosexuality, race, scripture, gender and the priesthood, the family, sexual violence, and identity.

The Routledge Handbook of Mormonism and Gender is essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies, gender studies, and women’s studies. The Handbook will also be very useful for those in related fields, such as cultural studies, politics, anthropology, and sociology.

Introduction  Part I: Methodological issues  1. Gender and culture in a global church  2. Race and gender in Mormonism: 1830-1978  3. Intersectionality  4. Feminities  5. Masculinities  Part II: Historical approaches  6. Joseph Smith, plural marriage, and kinship  7. Mormon gender in the age of polygamy  8. Mormon women and scripture in the nineteenth century  9. Mormonism, gender, and art in nineteenth-century Scandinavia  10. Mormon gender in the progressive era  11. Mormon gender in the mid-twentieth century  12. Mormon feminism after 1970  13. Gender and missionary work  14. Homosexuality and therapeutic culture in Mormonism  15. Homosexuality and politics in Mormonism  16. Mormon LGBTQ organizing and organizations  17. Mormonism, gender, and art  18. Mormon literature and gender  19. Sexual purity and its discontents in Mormonism  20. Mormonism and sexual violence  Part III: Social scientific approaches  21. Women and religious organizations: a "microbiological" approach to influence  22. Global Mormon perspectives and experiences of family structures  23. Structures of home and family: North America  24. Non-traditional families  25. Social science perspectives on gender and Mormon orthodoxy  26. Gender and mental health in Mormon contexts  27. Women’s gender roles and Mormonism in England  28. Institutional gender negotiations within Irish Mormon congregations  29. Peruvian Mormon matchmaking: the limits of Mormon endogamy at Zion’s border  30. Mormon women at work in Nicaragua  31. Mormon masculinity, family, and kava in the Pacific  32. Gendered dynamics and institutions within Nigerian Mormonism  Part IV: Theological approaches  33. Scripture and gender  34. Theology of the family  35. Theology of sexuality  36. Queer Mormons  37. Trans and mutable bodies  38. Feminism and Heavenly Mother  39. Women and the priesthood  40. Men and the priesthood  41. Mujerista theology  Index