Women's Research Institute

The theme of the WRI:

"I believe in women, especially thinking women"-Emmeline B. Wells

Just down the hall from our office these is an office called the Women's Research Institute or the WRI. They offer a minor in Women's studies and they also conduct research and sponsor lectures on topics that have to do with women's issues. This year I've gone to two of their lectures and I enjoyed them and learned so much. The first lecture was a few weeks ago and it was entitled "The Security of Women, the Security of States: Assessing the Linkage" given by Valerie Hudson, PhD. (Jordan, you'll remember her from one of the classes you took from her when you majored in Political Science.) Since I recently finished reading the book "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (see my bookshelf), I was very interested to learn more about the linkage between women's issues (safety, opportunities for education, treatment by men, etc) and the national stability of the countries they come from. It was a very interesting lecture and there was a strong case built statistically that the more oppressed women are in a particular country, the more problems that country has with major social issues. The countries oppressed women come from are often at war and have other forms of unrest and instability. In a nut shell, research proves that countries where women are denied rights and opportunities, the more unstable that country is economically, socially and militarily. When men make all the decisions and repress their women, the entire country suffers and they stop progressing. In countries were women and girls are given opportunities for education and self-fulfillment, those countries generally thrive. It's an interesting train of thought that I hadn't considered before.


Today the lecture was given by Susan Easton Black EdD, and the topic was "Emma Smith: Elect Lady?" Again, I learned a lot about parts of her life I hadn't considered before. Here are a few things I didn't know or had forgotten:

• Emma never kept a journal or wrote a life history. There are a few letters she wrote that have been preserved and writings of second hand accounts of her life. If only she had kept a journal!
• The part of the Book of Mormon that she transcribed (16 pages) was probably the first chapters of Mosiah, or the King Benjamin account
• She waited to be baptized for one year after the church was organized and when seeking baptism, asked Oliver Cowdery to baptize her on June 18, 1830
• her patriarchal blessing was given to her by Joseph Smith Sr. There are no "ifs" in her blessing. At the end, she was promised that she would be 'saved in the kingdom of Heaven. Even so, Amen.'
• She had a beautiful soprano voice and loved to sing. She organized 5 hymnals during her lifetime.
• she only raised five of her 11 children to adulthood (she raised the two Murdock twins after losing twins of her own shortly before.) One of the Murdock twins dies from exposure one night after Joseph was dragged from the house and tarred and feathered.
• She was told in her own revelation in D&C Section 5 to - 1st comfort her husband, 2nd - care for her children, 3rd - take on church responsibilities and organize the hymnals
• her finest hour was when she walked 200 miles from Far West to Quincy IL with her five children (2 babes in arm) and took with her the Joseph Smith translation of the Bible. We have the translation today because of Emma or it would have been destroyed by the mobs.
• Sarah Grander Kimball thought of organizing a benevolent relief society. Their favorite hymn was "How Firm a Foundation". Joseph called Emma to be the 1st president. When they held their meetings, every woman was asked to report on a benevolent act she has done during the week. If she hadn't done one, she was asked to leave until she did. Women did not teach women the gospel. Men taught them and it was usually Joseph, Willard Richards or John Taylor and the themes were often "women bridle your tongues" & "women provoke your husbands to righteousness."
• After the death of Joseph, Emma said to him "forgive me" when she first saw him. She didn't know what property and belongings she owned. Most of their things were church property and she didn't know if she even had a home. She kept the manuscript of the translation of the Book of Mormon and felt like it was hers to safeguard.
• She only left Nauvoo one time after Joseph was martyred. She said "I only have no place to go but Nauvoo and no friend but God."
• She married Louis Bideman who was a boarder at the Nauvoo house. After the temple was burned down, he went to CA to mine gold. Emma became despondent. When he returned he took up with another woman and had a child with that woman. The women and her child moved into the Nauvoo house with Louis and Emma. How difficult would that be?
• She joined the RLDS church (although the leaders of that church considered her baptism into the LDS church to be sufficient and she wasn't baptized again) and attended for 19 years. She gave the translation of the Book of Mormon to Joseph Smith III.
• On the day of her death, April 1879, she told her children by her bedside that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God. She then called out, "Joseph, Joseph."
• Emma knew more sorrow and pain that most women of her time.
• Will Emma make it? That is the question most people want to know. She was sealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith. Her patriarchal blessing also states that she would be saved in the Kingdom of Heaven. God will be her judge.