hkneale ([info]hkneale) wrote,
@ 2006-12-21 14:39:00
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Entry tags:uppity mormon women

Uppity Mormon Women: Susa Young Gates

Susa Young Gates

SuperMom


Susa Young Gates, daughter of Brigham Young by his twenty-second wife Lucy Bigelow Young, was a leader, prolific writer, editor, trustee of Brigham Young University, active in the local and national women's organizations, and the mother of thirteen children, world traveler and a general overachiever-type of SuperMom we didn’t think arose until the 1980's. Give her a minivan and a membership in the local PTA and stand back. Her famous quote; "Keep busy in the face of discouragement"[1] Breathe, woman, breathe!

She had the usual overachiever's accomplishments of a private education, including music and dance and went to university at age 13 in a flurry of Doogie Houser-like precocity. She married young at 16 to Dr. A.B. Dunford. They had two children but the marriage didn't last. Picking up the pieces, she moved to Brigham Young University and started the department of music where she learned to breathe.

Second time to the altar, she married one Jacob F. Gates and enjoyed a rather successful marriage. She devoted herself to her family and her causes. She was yet another of the raving bluestockings that lobbied furiously for women's rights and for equality between the genders. She became press chairman for the National Council of Women, and founded all sorts of magazines and wrote articles, pamphlets and books. Only death could pluck the pen from her fingers.

At the turn of the century, Susa suffered a nervous and physical breakdown. (Are you surprised? I'm not. You know it had to happen eventually.) Lacking a prescription for valium, she toned down her activities and turned more to her spiritual side. "I disciplined my taste, my desires and my impulses—severely disciplining my appetite, my tongue, my acts…and how I prayed!" [1] She became addicted to church work and once again, took on a heavy load of genealogy, temple work and research.

But she had already made an impact. This abbreviated bibliography shows that her thoughts turned often to other Uppity Mormon Women of her time. She'd hung out with people like Susan B. Anthony and Queen Victoria. She corresponded regularly with Tolstoy. She is known as one of the most prolific Uppity Mormon Woman writers to take up a pen in support of equality.

I have a feeling she wasn't much of a catwaxer. I only hope she remembered to breathe until 1933 when she stopped.


[1]Person, Carolyn W. D. "Susa Young Gates." In Mormon Sisters: Women in Early Utah, ed. Claudia L. Bushman, pp. 198-223. Cambridge, Mass., 1976.

Next post: Mary Fielding Smith, wife of Hyrum Smith and sister-in-law to the prophet Joseph.

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[info]singinheart
2006-12-26 11:17 am UTC (link)
Hmmm I don't understand the wonderful feistiness and strength, combined with the multiple wives tradition... Would you like to enlighten me?? And, does this arrangement continue with the Mormon traditions?
Thanks. :-)

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[info]hkneale
2006-12-27 08:19 am UTC (link)
A lot of people don't understand how Uppity Mormon Women and Plural Marriage (aka "polygamy") could possibly mix.

This confusion comes from the rather prevalent idea that marriage is the subjugation and enslavement of women. For many cultures, this was true, especially for many of the European cultures that later settled the US.

For example, English women weren't allowed to govern their own dowries without special dispensation from their fathers, own property without the permission of their husbands and don't even mention the vote. Heaven forbid a woman could get an education beyond the "proper female subjects" of music, art, etc. It was frowned upon for them to even think of math and science. It sucked to be an English woman.

But early Mormon culture was quite different. The LDS belief of marriage should be between equals (and I'm not talking social equals, but spiritual and intellectual equals), and thus had great significance for the progression of a human in God's Plan of Salvation and achievement of exaltation. None of this temporal "til death do you part" stuff!

Mormon women were allowed to vote, to own property, to get an education and a career (and we're not talking nurses or teachers; we're talking chemists and opthamologists).

Plural marriage is a rather complex issue to go into here, but in a nutshell, in the early days one of the purposes of plural marriage was to help bring souls to earth into families who could support those children spiritually and financially.

At the dawn of the 20th century the practice of plural marriage was discontinued by the main LDS faith.

However, there were several other faiths that splintered from the original church, and some of these, most notably the Fundamental LDS (FLDS) faith believe that once a revelation was given (plural marriage, as well as a few others) it couldn't be rescinded, and so they feel it's within their right to practice plural marriage to this day.

The core faith, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (aka the Mormons) does not condone plural marriage nor encourage its practice among its members.

But they are still strong proponents of women voting, women owning property and women getting educations and careers.

I hope this helps.

Feel free to click on the "Uppity Mormon Women" tag at the bottom of the original post to read the rest of the entries in my Uppity Mormon Women series if you haven't found it already.

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[info]singinheart
2006-12-28 05:28 am UTC (link)
I have been reading about your other uppity ladies, and with pleasure.
:-) Thanks and yes this makes sense!

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