Status of LDS women two years after their removal from the stand | Episode 419

For a decade, Latter-day Saint female officers in the San Francisco Bay Area had joined male leaders in sitting on the stand, facing members, during Sunday services.

In the wake of the Ordain Women movement of 2013, it was seen as a small, visible step toward equality and inclusion.

Two years ago, an area president, whose jurisdiction included Northern California, abruptly discontinued the practice. In response, members in at least three stakes, or regional clusters of congregations, surrounding San Francisco have expressed their concerns to lay bishops and stake presidents, while also conducting surveys and launching a letter-writing campaign to church headquarters in Salt Lake City to return the women to the stand — all to no avail.

Now The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a new prophet-president, Dallin H. Oaks, and he recently said in an interview that the Utah-based faith has “work left to do” on gender equity.

Amy Watkins Jensen, who served as a Young Women leader in Lafayette, California, has been leading a Women on the Stand Instagram account since the letter-writing campaign failed.

On this week’s show, she explores what positive moves for Latter-day Saint women have happened in the past 24 months and what “work” she thinks remains.