I’m David, a 70-year-old father of 11 and grandfather of 17 so far. My feminism and my being a 24/365 househusband for more than 30 years caused friction even in my liberal ward. As a new convert, I served as a Primary teacher before the Consolidated Schedule, when Primary was held on a weekday and men weren’t allowed to teach because it would place a Priesthood holder presided over by a woman. (Horrors!)
I fought for, and won—until it was later revoked—permission to name and bless my newborns while in their mother’s arms. I’ve held a wide variety of callings, both leadership and instructional. When I taught about prophets as an Elders Quorum teacher and a Sunday School teacher, I always included the prophets Miriam, Huldah, and Deborah. For a time I ran an unofficial weekly ward cooking class.
My children received no gender-specific training or instruction; they all had equal access to dolls, toy vehicles, toy tools, toy kitchens, sports equipment, etc. All were encouraged to pursue education and careers that best suited them.
While over the last half century there have been some glacially-slow changes in gender equity in the Church, it is truly disappointing how little has been gained. With ordained women, all the sexism, all the male privilege, all the inequality would fade away. Not immediately, of course, but there would no longer be a supporting structure to hang it on. We should not be happy to get a lowering of female missionary age to 19 with a concomitant lowering of male missionary age to 18 so that sisters will still largely be presided over by younger boys. That was two steps forward, one and a half back. We are continually being told that sure, women are equal, but men are just a tad more equal.
A lifetime author and editor, I have distilled more than half a century of feminist experience, disappointments, and hopes into a trilogy of novels about a Provo housewife who becomes enlightened and wages a campaign to eliminate all the inequities and male privilege in the Church in one fell swoop by promoting and asking for the ordination of women.
Is the story pie-in-the-sky? Perhaps. But if the Church is true and speaks for God, there are only two possibilities: 1) It must change its attitude toward female ordination, or 2) God doesn’t want women to have the Priesthood—which cannot be.
I know women should be ordained.