More on Motherhood in Mormonism

In light of recent politically ignited articles on “Why Ann (Romney) Stayed Home” and “The rise of the Mormon feminist housewife” we bring back from the archives articles and essays discussing the role of motherhood in the Mormon Church: 
Begin with Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s significant survey of “Mormon Women in the History of Second-Wave Feminism” from 2010 that includes a handy timeline as well as important analysis: “Mormon women did not become feminists because they read The Feminine Mystique or subscribed to Ms magazine. They became feminists as new ideas, filtered through a wide range of personal associations, helped them make sense of their lives. Discovering history, they also discovered themselves.”
Then back in 1985, Dialogue published Linda P. Wilcox’s article “Crying “Change” in a Permanent World: Contemporary Mormon Women on Motherhood” that provided a snapshot of the time: “While Mormon women are beginning to write about motherhood with more realism, directness, and honesty, few of them move beyond a tentative examination of the ‘darker’ side to question their society’s structure, attitudes, and practices concerning motherhood. Most seem to feel that any problems women experience in their feelings or roles as mothers arise mainly from their own inadequacies and shortcomings, or they only hint at inadequacies elsewhere in the system.”
Then in 1988, Lavina Fielding Anderson analyzed President Ezra Taft Benson’s landmark address “To the Mothers in Zion” (highlighted in the news articles above) in “A Voice from the Past: The Benson Instructions for Parents.” She explains “Basically, the speech advocated that women place mothering responsibilities first by refusing paid employment. Since this has been virtually the major message Mormon women have heard from their male leaders since the 1920s, it is hardly new. Yet it seemed to arouse emotions out of all proportion to its content. I have made no effort to collect opinions randomly and representatively from Church women in a variety of regions, but I have asked many women about their own reactions and those of other women with whom they have talked. It is important to note that no one suggested President Benson’s concern about children was misplaced or that child-rearing was not supremely important. Women who responded positively to President Benson’s message seemed to focus on the benefits for children; those who responded negatively seemed concerned with the sweeping nature of his instructions, which did not adequately acknowledge the diversity of women and their circumstances.”
Tracie A. Lamb provides “Musings on Motherhood” as both a young mother in 1997, and then ten years later, now a mother of teenagers, she pens even “More Musings on Motherhood.” Lamb writes “As I expressed in my first essay on motherhood, written more than a decade ago, I found motherhood both exhilarating and overwhelming; but I never doubted that I would be a mother. As a good Mormon girl, I always had marriage and motherhood as my ultimate objectives. Even though I was also a returned missionary with a graduate degree, my life was not complete until I had children.”
Finally be sure to peruse the pages of the infamous “Pink” issue of Dialogue and its descendant the “Red” issue for even on more women’s issues in Mormonism.