Cover image via Gospel Media Library.
The following is excerpted from the Church Newsroom. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
There is a reason The Washington Post called 2024 “the Year of the Mormon Woman.” You don’t have to look far to see a significant spike in media attention — from Netflix to X to Hulu. You also don’t have to look far to see the negative distortion: from portraying oppressed and abused sister missionaries in the Hollywood horror movie “Heretic” to the drama and dysfunction in “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.”
All of this sells better, of course, if it appeals to the art of tabloid and reinforces myths and misperceptions.
At best, it seems, Latter-day Saint women are portrayed as somewhat weird, unhappy, oppressed women in emotionally distant marriages with little meaning, purpose or decision making in our lives. The image may seem unrecognizable to those of us who are Latter-day Saints. But why the fascination and distortion? What IS going on with Latter-day Saint women?
Pew research recently made it possible to look more carefully at Latter-day Saint women — including both their experience with faith and their overall well-being. Using a nationally representative sample within the United States, Pew surveyed aspects of religious life previously unexplored. These data offer some insight into how Latter-day Saint women’s lives actually are — compared with these national portrayals. In a closer look at some of the data, here is what we learned:
First, Latter-day Saint women are significantly more likely than any other religious group to say that religion is very important in their lives. They are also more religious in terms of daily prayer and frequent church attendance, with rates at or above 80%. The one exception is that Latter-day Saint mothers and Muslim mothers are equal in the percentage who pray daily.
The importance of religious faith appears to be linked to a meaningful outcome. Latter-day Saint women are significantly more likely to report that they consistently feel a deep sense of spiritual peace and wellbeing. For Latter-day Saint mothers, this percentage is as high as 77% — significantly higher than all other religions except for Muslim mothers at 75%.
But this is not only true for Latter-day Saint mothers.
Sixty-eight percent of single Latter-day Saint women indicate that they experience a deep sense of spiritual peace and well-being on a weekly basis, significantly higher than single women of almost all other religions.
On the other hand, only 6% of Latter-day Saint single women say they seldom or never experience deep spiritual peace, significantly lower than most other religious groups.
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
