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Author’s note: I reviewed A House Full of Females by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich in the last SquareTwo edition with an emphasis on its insights into polygamy. However, Ulrich’s book also taught me a few new things about how the early members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints understood priesthood authority and power, especially when women are specifically considered. I recently finished The Priesthood Power of Women in the Temple, Church, and Family by Dr. Barbara Morgan Gardner, so I thought the two perspectives might inform each other.

The Priesthood Power of Women in the Temple, Church, and Family by Dr. Barbara Morgan Gardner was published in 2019 by Deseret Book, so I’m a little behind the times in this review. It isn’t a long book but is also not a quick read—Dr. Morgan Gardner obviously put a lot of thought and effort into the book. I found myself reading a few pages and then taking some time to think about the distinctions and details she emphasized. It took me more than a year to read this way, even though it’s not even 200 pages long.

Dr. Morgan Garner wrote that as a religion professor at BYU and as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ, she has encountered a general lack of understanding about the priesthood and its roles, power, authority, keys, and responsibilities. I appreciated that she shared results of years of informal surveys of her students to provide insight into the state of (mis)understanding priesthood among young adults in the Church of Jesus Christ. [1] She seems to have structured her book to help answer the questions of young adults. Dr. Morgan Gardner painstakingly parses the language we use around the priesthood by analyzing scriptures, doctrines, and teachings of latter-day prophets and officers of the Church. A true academic, she included a robust bibliography for anyone wanting to study and explore the topic more fully for themselves. [2]


Why do we keep talking about women and priesthood?

A lot of people shy away from talking about the relationship between women and priesthood. Growing up, I think “women and priesthood” was one of the most taboo topics I knew of in church. I had heard whispers of women who wanted to be ordained to priesthood offices who were excommunicated, and was warned from exploring or asking questions about the topic. I am afraid that fear of crossing lines may have cooled legitimate questions and seeking around the nature of the priesthood and so perpetuated a lot of ignorance around the topic.

Whatever caused it, ignorance abounds. For example, one Sunday while visiting my husband’s parents, the Sunday school teacher pointed out a woman in the class whose husband had passed away and asked her to share what it was like to live without priesthood in her home. My patient and courageous husband raised his hand, shared a quote from President Russell M. Nelson with the explanation that women who have made covenants with God have priesthood in their home, regardless of whether men (ordained or not) are present. In the process of rejecting worldly hierarchical patriarchy for holy covenant parity, men’s courage is essential.

Dr. Morgan Gardner noted an increase in sincere and important questions about priesthood coming from young women that are preparing for or returning from missions and endowments much earlier in their lives. In fact, she shared that 75 percent of the women in her classes are endowed, which is very different from the makeup of BYU religion classes (BYU in general) before the 2012 missionary age change. [3] Some of their questions include the following:

What a great list of questions! [4] How often do we rely on platitudes like “someday we’ll know all answers” instead of actually studying and asking and seeking answers to questions as plain and honest as these? I have great hope that such a major increase in faithful, seeking, teaching women asking, studying, and discussing such questions will spur powerful growth and strength in our marriages and families and wards. I hope that this topic will not be buried by leaders anytime soon.

Dr. Morgan Gardner seems to agree, not just because more women are asking questions, but also because “leaders of the Church are encouraging [young women] along this noble path [of searching for answers].” [5] Here are a few quotes she uses in the book to support this claim:


“What other power can it be?”

Once I started learning about priesthood power and authority that women had access to, it felt like a million people had taught on this subject—I was so surprised that I had not heard of these teachings. The idea does not seem to be new, it is not apostate, o is not shocking or blasphemous or extreme: women who make and keep covenants have priesthood power and authority. The same could be said for men, and you could add an “only” in front of the statement for either sex. Dr. Morgan Gardner shared a few quotes about women’s priesthood power, which I’m sharing in case you’ve never heard them!


Hierarchical Order vs. Familial/Patriarchal Order

One of the most valuable parts of this book to me is Dr. Morgan Gardner’s work at detangling the numerous meanings of the word “priesthood.”

First, the word “priesthood” is often used incorrectly, for example, to refer to a group of males of various ages, especially after young men prepare, bless, and pass the sacrament on Sundays. President Oaks and other Church leaders have repeated over and over: “Men are not the priesthood.” MEN ARE NOT THE PRIESTHOOD. In situations like bishopric members face after the sacrament is prepared, blessed, and passed, may I suggest that they can refer to the group of young men as “young men” or even “members of the deacons, teachers, and priests quorums.” Dr. Morgan Gardner relates a conversation she had with a man in her ward about why this is important, and they “concluded that even if a man was perfect, calling any mortal ‘the priesthood’ is demeaning to the power of God.”

Second, we use the word “priesthood” to refer to the infinite power and authority God possesses.

Third, we use the word “priesthood” to refer to the power and authority God has delegated to mankind. This type of “priesthood” is split into two different priesthoods: hierarchical (the kind of delegated priesthood used to organize the administration of the Church of Jesus Christ) and patriarchal (familial) (the kind of delegated priesthood used to form, grow, guide, and safeguard families). The hierarchical priesthood is a temporary priesthood—this hierarchy will not exist in eternities. The second familial/patriarchal priesthood is the “eternal” or “covenant” priesthood because we receive it only through the eternal covenants we receive in the temple, and because that’s the organization that will exist throughout eternity.

I know from personal experience that just because a man is ordained and set apart does not mean that he has priesthood authority and power. Man or woman, the keeping of covenants and cultivation of virtue are required (with the redeeming grace of Jesus Christ) to accessing and exercising priesthood power and authority.

Our mortal reality is that the hierarchical priesthood has bled into our homes and dominated the discussion and practice of priesthood in Church settings. This is not surprising since, as Dr. Morgan Garnder points out, there is practical overlap between the hierarchical and the familial when it comes to fathers. Men can be ordained and hold offices in the hierarchical priesthood, and this means they often officiate in hierarchical ordinances for family members like baptism, confirmation, baby blessings, blessing and passing sacrament, and ordaining sons to offices within the hierarchical priesthood. Since women are not ordained to offices in the hierarchical priesthood, many have erroneously supposed that women have no power or authority in the familial priesthood, and erroneously supposed that men have all keys and power and authority in the familial priesthood. A careful study of the sealing ordinance illustrates that this is simply untrue. Husbands and wives hold familial priesthood keys, power, and authority together. Dr. Valerie Hudson Cassler explore more fully how priesthood and priestesshood interplay in marriage and family in a SquareTwo article last year—I highly recommend reading this piece especially if you think priestesshood is anything that could be received from a man. [16]

Dr. Morgan Gardner noted, “In the temple, presiding keys or keys of presidency of any kind are not given to men or women.” [17] So, to preside as a father in the patriarchal/familial order of the priesthood is not the same as presiding in the hierarchical structure of the Church. Wives are not the first counselor of the presiding husband—they are together presiding as one over the family. “President Nelson taught, ‘To those couples who bear and share that priesthood worthily and remain faithful to the law of the everlasting covenant of eternal marriage…the Lord makes this promise: “Ye shall come forth in the first resurrection; …and shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions,… [and there] shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever.”’”

Ultimately, neither the patriarchal/familial priesthood nor the hierarchical priesthood is the entirety of God’s priesthood power and authority and keys. God has delegated only a portion of the power, authority, and keys in both orders at this time, although all is promised in the eternities. And, it must be noted, that we have no official teachings on how to speak about, characterize, and recognize the formal power of our Heavenly Mother. It is apparent that we only have a sliver of knowledge.


How can limiting ourselves and other women harm the Church, families, and individuals?

Dr. Morgan Gardner shared two stories of women exercising what she identified as priesthood power.

One immigrant from Peru to the United States told Dr. Morgan Gardner that “If it were not for the teachings of my mom, I would never would have made it, physically or spiritually.” She asked him to share what his mother had done to impact his life so deeply and he shared a story about her. When he was thirteen and still living in Peru, his single mother felt that the animals (especially the dogs) in their neighborhood “were being treated poorly, like garbage. In fact, she knew that people were literally throwing their dogs away in the garbage cans before the garbage was being picked up.” She started going around to garbage cans with her kids to rescue dogs. In 6 months, they had rescued more than 30 dogs and kept them and fed them. She eventually decided it was more effective to go to the landfill to pick up dogs after they were dumped. He said the size of the landfill was massive and it was unbearably disgusting. One night they heard a sound that caught their attention, and he and his mother and brother split up to find the source of the noise. They realized the sound was coming from beneath them, and they started digging. Instead of finding another dog, they found tiny twin baby girls, days old, buried in the landfill. He said, “My mom immediately picked up the girls, cradled them in her arms, and wrapped them in her own clothes.” He said she took them home and raised them as her daughters. He said, “for months, my mom thought she was being inspired to rescue dogs, but really the Lord…put her in a position to find the rest of our family.”

Dr. Morgan Gardner shared a story about her mother exercising priesthood power in her life: “From as early as I can remember, my siblings always had a paper route. By the time I was five, I started getting up early to help fold the papers, and by the age of six, I was helping deliver. As crazy as it sounds, I loved it! I loved walking around the neighborhood in the dark with my siblings and eventually doing so with just my dad. When I became a teenager, however, one day my dad slipped and fell on the early-morning ice, broke his leg, and was thus unable to help. I started doing the route alone. One dark morning, as I was turning the corner at the end of one of the streets in my neighborhood, a white van pulled up to me and a man opened up the side door and yelled at me to get in. Within seconds, our blue minivan screeched up right behind the white van, and my mother yelled for me to get in. I ran immediately for her van, jumped in, and slammed the door, and both my mother and the white van took off—in the opposite directions. I sat in silence, filled with panic and awe, as we drove home. Once we pulled into our driveway, we looked at each other, and without me saying a word to her, my mom said, ‘I just knew…’…Not once, prior to that occasion, do I remember her ever just meeting me on the route unexpectedly.”

Dr. Morgan Gardner then shared how many times she was told in her career that she couldn’t do something in Church religious education because she was a woman. First, as a seminary student, she asked a leader what she could do to be a full-time seminary teacher, and they said “I’m so sorry, but you can’t. They don’t hire women to teach full time.” She was later hired to teach full-time seminary. As a full-time seminary teacher, she asked if it was possible to coordinate on the East Coast. “No” was the response. “You need the priesthood to be a coordinator, especially in the East.” She was then asked to be the institute director and seminary coordinator in the Boston, Massachusetts area. She and many members and nonmembers were surprised to find she would also be the Latter-day Saint chaplain at Harvard and MIT, thinking being ordained to the priesthood was required for the assignment. “There was no change in policy; it just simply hadn’t ever happened before.”

This story was really powerful to me. Could we be exercising priesthood power when we persist in spite of others’ attempts to curtail your divine knowledge and purpose? I thought of a quote from General Relief Society President Ardeth Kapp I found a few years ago when reading At the Pulpit:

“Apostles and prophets have been provided in the church for the purposes of identifying and teaching true doctrine... Now, we can follow the Brethren blindly…but that could be an abdication of our responsibility to direct our own lives and become spiritually independent… I think of Eliza R. Snow, of whom Joseph F. Smith said, “She walked not in the borrowed light of others, but faced the morning unafraid and invincible.”… These divine and sacred blessings are not reserved for others alone. Visions and revelations come by the power of the Holy Ghost and the Lord has said, “And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.” (Acts 2:18)

Dr. Morgan Gardner continued: “When we limit a woman’s ability to serve based on misunderstanding priesthood roles and offices, we not only add to the confusion, but we also hinder progress for individuals, families, and the Church. The Brethren are pleading with the sisters to do more, to teach more, and to lead more. Just because women haven’t done certain things before, that doesn’t mean it can never happen in the future. Women now pray at general conference, sit in prominent positions on the stand at general conference, run the humanitarian program of the Church, serve in full-time missionary leadership positions, sit in the general councils of the Church, and much more.”


How did our foremothers understand priesthood power?

While I was on my mission about ten years ago, my mother related a story from her time serving as a stake Relief Society president in a rural stake that will remain unnamed. I believe all the stake Relief Society presidencies in the region were invited to be trained by the General Relief Society presidency. They began a training on how to work in their stake and ward councils more effectively, because by this time, there had been many conference talks and instructions on councils within the church. My mother recalled that nobody was really saying anything, and the General Relief Society presidency seemed confused. One brave woman raised her hand to ask if they were supposed to be going to stake level councils. My mom said the leaders seemed very surprised and said yes, and that if they had not yet been invited to attend the councils, to ask the stake presidencies if they could attend. After the training, my mom asked to attend the councils, and the stake presidency allowed her to come to portions of the council, but some high councilmen would roll their eyes or lean back and close their eyes when she spoke, and the stake presidency would only call for her opinion occasionally, and even then, at the very end of the discussion.

Women cannot sit on their hands waiting for their local leaders to receive revelation and make assignments on their behalf, although that might happen. This was not how we did it at the beginning of the Church nor at the time of Christ. We have many, many examples of women taking the initiative to come unto Christ, receive personal revelation, and organize themselves into useful and influential groups. No mortal showed Mary Whitmer the golden plates—Moroni, a resurrected angel, came to her with no male intermediary. Neither Peter nor John brought Mary Magdalene to the Savior’s tomb—she went herself. The angel Gabriel came to Mary by herself, not with or to her parents, or with Joseph, or only Joseph. Emma Smith, Sarah Kimball, Eliza Snow, and others gathered together without men to organize themselves before they presented their idea to the Prophet Joseph. We must make and keep sacred covenants. We must know the scriptures, the doctrine, the administrative policies, and the instruction of our general officers. We must ask hard questions and know what we want to accomplish. We must develop our ability to hear the Holy Ghost. And we must be courageous in acting in accordance to those promptings in spite of nay-sayers. Blind and mute obedience is not the way of the Lord.

Dr. Morgan Gardner stated “we, as covenant-keeping women, are able to leave the temple with the authority, keys, and power of the temple to be used in our own homes and lives.” She shared “President Russell M. Nelson’s invitation to learn from the Lord, who ‘loves to do His own teaching in His holy house,’ and is pleased if we would ask Him to teach us ‘about priesthood keys, authority, and power as [we experience the ordinances of the Melchizedek Priesthood in the holy temple.’” She invites us to “strive to better understand the priesthood in a personal way only the Spirit can teach.” According to Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women’s Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870, women in the early restored Church would agree with these statements, and confidently acted in the power they believed they received as covenant disciples of Jesus Christ:

Thatcher Ulrich suggests that our foremothers considered priesthood less of “an ecclesiastical position nor the power given to men to act in the name of God, [but] a revelatory essence, a source of illumination.” [23] Indeed, this resembles the priesthood power exercised by the mothers in the stories Morgan Gardner shared.


Questions that remain:

We have overburdened the word “priesthood”. This is not new. In the early church, “priesthood” was a euphemism for plural marriage. [24] This connotation is less common today, although many men have used the word to try and usurp the agency of women, as well as coerce them into doing the will of the man. [25] Words matter in this Church. We use specific words in ordinances and covenants to clearly teach what God expects of the covenant people. It is important to clearly have the words to teach the youth and adults what is priesthood power, authority, keys, offices, ordination, and the degree each can occur in individual lives, family settings, temples, and Church administration.

Besides the lexicographical clarification we need to clearly discuss and teach the nature of priesthood, I was left with a number of questions after reading The Priesthood Power of Women and A House Full of Females:

Dr. Morgan Gardner included questions of her own:


Conclusion

At the end of it all, I think we still know so little about the priesthood power of God, especially relating to our Heavenly Mother and Father. Additional, specific language may be helpful to facilitate these discussions. According to Dr. Morgan Gardner, we model our temple ordinances after the patriarchal or familial priesthood, but we do not see or hear Mother explicitly represented in the temple. I remember that as a girl I was sure I would learn more about Heavenly Mother in the temple because the language used around temple ordinances and Her were very similar: both were too sacred to speak about. Although I found great joy in the initiatory, I was (and still am) puzzled by the absence of references to Heavenly Mother in the temple endowment. Perhaps as women follow the invitations of latter-day prophets and apostles to receive personal revelation about priesthood power and women, we will as a Church learn more about Heavenly Mother.


NOTES:

[1] Obviously, seminary and institute/religion class students are not theology or doctrinal experts. Yet, as we trust teenagers to be experts enough to proselytize and teach others as ordained ministers, there must be some confidence in their understanding of our doctrine. Also, logically, teens’ and young adults’ understanding to some degree reflects the understanding of their teachers. If a majority of teens and young adults misunderstand the roles, responsibilities, power, authority, keys, etc. of the priesthood, I don’t think it’s that far-fetched to believe that general church membership also misunderstand these topics. [Back to manuscript].


[2] I would recommend supplementing Dr. Morgan Gardner’s bibliography with Dr. Thatcher Ulrich’s bibliography to get a more historical view of the evolving understanding of priesthood. [Back to manuscript].


[3] Morgan Gardner, ix [Back to manuscript].


[4] Morgan Gardner, x [Back to manuscript].


[5] Morgan Gardner, x [Back to manuscript].


[6] Morgan Gardner, 43 [Back to manuscript].


[7] Morgan Gardner, 90 [Back to manuscript].


[8] Morgan Gardner, 89-90 [Back to manuscript].


[9] Morgan Gardner, 92 [Back to manuscript].


[10] Morgan Gardner, p 42 [Back to manuscript].


[11] Morgan Gardner, p 68 [Back to manuscript].


[12] Morgan Gardner, 91-92 [Back to manuscript].


[13] October 2019 general conference [Back to manuscript].


[14] Morgan Gardner, xi [Back to manuscript].


[15] Morgan Gardner, 28-29 [Back to manuscript].


[16] Cassler, V.H. “Women, Power, and Authority, and the Church: We All Know More Than We Are Saying,” SquareTwo Vol. 17 No. 1 (Spring 2024) https://squaretwo.org/Sq2ArticleCasslerWomenPowerAuthorityChurch.html --- [Back to manuscript].


[17] Morgan Gardner, p 95 [Back to manuscript].


[18] Ulrich, p 21 [Back to manuscript].


[19] Ulrich, p 67, 110, 181 [Back to manuscript].


[20] Ulrich, p 44, 48 [Back to manuscript].


[21] Ulrich, p 15, 41, 52, 67, 109, 134, 180, 374 [Back to manuscript].


[22] Ulrich, p 60, 63, 68, 69, 108, 193 [Back to manuscript].


[23] Ulrich 311 [Back to manuscript].


[24] Ulrich, p 88 [Back to manuscript].


[25] Morgan Gardner shared that President Oaks thought when he was 12 years old and his father passed away, that he would be presiding in the home as a priesthood holder. “He stated that he was shocked to learn that his mother was actually presiding and realized that there was something he did not understand regarding the priesthood in the home.” She continues: “Any man, of whatever position, who acts in a position of authority when entering someone’s home other than his own is out of place. Any man who does so to a woman, regardless of marital status…is demeaning to her and her sacred role.” Note: I have heard men say something to the effect of “because I have the priesthood, I’m in charge, and you must do as I say” many times, mostly in my childhood home and ward. [Back to manuscript].


[26] “Family and domestic violence is a common problem in the United States, affecting an estimated 10 million people every year; as many as one in four women and one in nine men are victims of domestic violence.” Huecker MR, King KC, Jordan GA, et al. Domestic Violence. [Updated 2023 Apr 9]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2025 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499891/ --- [Back to manuscript].


[27] “In the United States, it is estimated that 46% of men and 16% of women between the ages of 18–39 have intentionally consumed pornography in a given week (Regnerus et al., 2016). When expanded to include pornography consumption in the last month, 91.5% of men and 60.2% of women in a large internet sample reported using pornography (Solano et al., 2020), including an estimated 15% of 10- to 17-year-olds who intentionally view pornography (Ybarra & Mitchell, 2005)” (Maitland DWM, Neilson EC. Associations Between Pornography Consumption Patterns, Pornography Consumption Motives, and Social Wellbeing among U.S. College Students: A Latent Profile Analysis with a Primarily Female Sample. J Sex Marital Ther. 2023;49(7):739-754. doi: 10.1080/0092623X.2023.2193182. Epub 2023 Mar 27. PMID: 36974348; PMCID: PMC10522785) [Back to manuscript].



Full Citation for this Article: Bell, Emilee Pugh (2025) "Book Review: The Priesthood Power of Women in the Temple, Church, and Family by Barbara Morgan Gardner (with some thoughts from A House Full of Females by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich)," SquareTwo, Vol. 18 No. 2 (Fall 2025), http://squaretwo.org/Sq2ArticleBellWomenPriesthoodPower.html, accessed <give access date>.

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