In The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church—due out today
—Jana Riess presents the findings of The Next Mormons Survey, an extensive
compilation of the “attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors” of current and former Mormons.
The results are revelatory.
Of particular interest to those of us concerned with gender equality in Mormonism is
that there appears to be “a clear divide between how older Mormons feel about
women’s roles compared to younger ones,” writes Riess. “For example, only 24% of
Boomer/Silent Mormons agreed that ‘the fact that women do not hold the priesthood
sometimes bothers me,’ meaning that the vast majority of these older generations are
not troubled by the restrictions placed on women in the Church.”
“It’s a different story for younger Mormons,” continues Riess. “Among Millennials, roughly six in ten say they are bothered that women don’t hold the priesthood, a jump of 35 points.”
“That’s just the picture among people who still identify as Mormon. Among those who no longer consider themselves Mormon, three-quarters are bothered by women not holding the priesthood.”
“What’s more, for many of the women in the former Mormon sample, this was a strong enough frustration that it helped to push them out of the Church. Among former Mormon women, ‘the role of women in the Church’ was the third most common reason cited out of thirty possible reasons for leaving the religion.”
“What we are seeing here is a generational shift,” concludes Riess. “The answers that have worked for [older generations] are less accepted among a generation that has grown up with women’s leadership being taken for granted everywhere . . . except at church.”