4. Pioneering Women

Eliza R. Snow and Zina D. H. Young led the saints as they crossed the plains and settled the territory of Utah. Both women were married to Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and served as General Relief Society Presidents. They were also good friends who often traveled around the territory to instruct and aid women as they set up new Relief Societies. They were referred to as the "head and heart" of Relief Society. Their lives show us how women leaders functioned during the pioneer period.

READINGS

Eliza R. Snow, official bio, lds.org

Eliza R. Snow - Jaynann Morgan Payne, Ensign

Meet Eliza R. Snow Podcast with BYU professor Karen Lynn Davidson who recently coauthored a well-received biography “Eliza: The Life and Faith of Eliza R. Snow” for Deseret Book.

Filling in the Blanks of Women's History, Kathryn Pritchett

Ten Hymns written by Eliza R. Snow

Awake, Ye Saints of God, Awake 17

Great is the Lord, 77

Though Deepening Trials, 122

Again We Meet Around the Board, 186

Behold the Great Redeemer Die, 191

How Great the Wisdom and the Love, 195

The Time is Far Spent, 266

Truth Reflects Upon Our Sense, 273

O My Father 292

In Our Lovely Deseret 307

Also “Praise to the Man” is credited to W.W. Phelps but the poem that became the hymn text is Eliza’s and was first published in the “Times and Seasons” newspaper a month after the prophet’s death.

Zina D.H.Young - official bio, lds.org

Selected excerpts from The Four Zinas, Martha Sonntag Bradley and Mary Brown Firmage Woodward (Signature Books, 2000)--see attached file below.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Why do you think Eliza R. Snow had the ear of both Joseph and Brigham? (Intelligent, able to convey their messages)

2. How do we see her influence today? (Instrumental in setting up RS, YW and Primary, ten of her hymns are in the hymnal)

3. Does the recent news that she was possibly a victim of sexual violence change the way you perceive her?

4. Zina was known as a warm, caring person: the heart of the Relief Society, as opposed to Eliza's head. After Eliza's death she became the president of the Relief Society and we assume had a different leadership style than her friend and predecessor. How can we be open to different leadership styles?

5. Zina's leadership role came in part from her status as an insider: a wife of Brigham Young, and especially as a wife of Joseph Smith. Yet once her children were raised she moved out of the Lion House and became a public figure in her own right. In the modern church women often have prominent roles based on the callings of their husbands. How can women move to establish public and church leadership roles separate from their husbands?

QUOTES

“Church membership was one of the few public distinctions available to women. Men could be fence-viewers, deacons, constables, captains, hog reeves, selectmen, clerks, magistrates, tithingmen, or sealers of leather. Women could be members of a gathered church.” (Laurel Thatcher Ulrich quoted in Bradley/Woodward, The Four Zinas)

“As members of a religious community, women played roles they had never before thought possible. We cannot fully explain the appeal of religion to women of the past (and present) without understanding the potential religion had for freeing women from traditional ways of being. . .Women moved into confusing religious situations ready to be made anew—reshaped by ideas about God.” (Bradley/Woodward, The Four Zinas)