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A common CoJC trivia question is “How many women are in the Book of Mormon?” The answer is that only six women are mentioned by name in the entire Book of Mormon: Eve, Mary, Sariah, Sarah, Abish, and Isabel. Four of these women exist outside/prior to the Nephite-Lamanite divide, leaving one named Lamanite woman and one named Nephite woman in the entire Book of Mormon. This small representation follows two patterns that give us a key insight into relations between the sexes among the Nephites and the Lamanites. One pattern is quantity. It is telling that even though the vast majority of The Book of Mormon is about the Nephites and written by Nephites, the number of named women is equal between the two societies. Indeed, if we include an analysis of unnamed women, more unnamed Lamanite women (or groups of women) are referenced than Nephite women. The second observable pattern is the place these women appear to occupy in their respective societies. It is noteworthy that the only Nephite woman to be listed by name is a harlot. Certainly a harlot is not a fair representative of all Nephite women, but the existence of prostitution among the Nephites is a bad sign for relations between the sexes in that society.

In Jacob 3:5-7, Jacob makes the astonishing claim that the Lamanites would be preserved because of their better treatment of and regard for women.

“Behold, the Lamanites your brethren, whom ye hate because of their filthiness and the cursing which hath come upon their skins, are more righteous than you; for they have not forgotten the commandment of the Lord, which was given unto our father - that they should have save it were one wife, and concubines they should have none, and there should not be whoredoms committed among them. And now this commandment they observe to keep; wherefore, because of this observance, in keeping this commandment, the Lord God will not destroy them, but will be merciful unto them; and one day they shall become a blessed people. Behold, their husbands love their wives, and their wives love their husbands; and their husbands and their wives love their children; and their unbelief and their hatred towards you is because of the iniquity of their fathers; wherefore, how much better are you than they, in the sight of your great Creator?

This phrasing is particularly striking because it comes after Jacob excoriates Nephite men for their treatment of women, particularly for their practice of polygamy. God had clearly articulated the commandment against polygamy to all Lehites: “...ye know that these commandments were given to our father, Lehi…(Jacob 2:34)” The Nephites’ deliberate–and apparently very swift–violation of this commandment was more offensive to God than the lack of belief or observance of the Law of Moses among the Lamanites. “Behold, ye have done greater iniquities than the Lamanites, our brethren (Jacob 2: 35).” And Jacob notes, “...the Lamanites, which are not filthy like unto you… (Jacob 3:3)” Clearly God takes the relationship between men and women very seriously. As Valerie Hudson, Donna Lee Bowen, and Lynne Nielsen have meticulously demonstrated in their book The First Political Order, the treatment of women is integral to the wellbeing of any society. The Lamanites and the Nephites were not immune to this law of politics. The Nephites may have had the gospel, the culture, and the technology, but the Lamanites were more successful in the most fundamental political relationship of all, at the heart of every civilization. As a result of this difference, the Lamanites were preserved, and the Nephites ultimately fell. We believe the textual evidence in the Book of Mormon supports Jacob’s claim (and ours) that the Lamanites had an advantage over the Nephites in regards to relations between men and women and that this was key–the key–to their preservation.


Named and Unnamed Women

While only one Nephite and one Lamanite are mentioned by name in the Book of Mormon, there are a handful of other unnamed women that provide additional insight into the gender dynamics of Nephite and Lamanite societies.

Nephite Women

Nephi’s sisters

2 Nephi 5:6 is the only explicit indication in the Book of Mormon that Lehi and Sariah had daughters. Our entire understanding of the composition of Lehi and Sariah’s family comes from Nephi. Why would he not mention his sisters anywhere else? Is it really possible they played no role in the long family drama that started with the exodus from Jerusalem? Perhaps they did not appear in the text because Nephi himself did not view women as important enough to take notice of?

Isabel

As mentioned previously, Isabel is the only named Nephite woman in the Book of Mormon. Alma 39:3 states that Alma chastised his son Corianton for abandoning his missionary duties and going “over into the land of Siron among the borders of the Lamanites, after the harlot Isabel.” We assume that Isabel was a Nephite because the text does not say that Corianton went across the border into Lamanite territory, but that he went into the area that borders the Lamanites. Prostitution is a clear indicator that a society has damaged gender dynamics, though we certainly cannot condemn Nephite male-female relations based on a single reference. Nevertheless, it is striking that Isabel the prostitute was mentioned by name–as if she was well known–and no other women made the naming cut - not Nephi’s sisters, not Nephi’s wife, and not Alma’s wife.

Morianton’s maid servant

The last Nephite woman mentioned (though unnamed) in the entire Book of Mormon, which covers a thousand years of Nephite civilization, is Morianton’s maid servant. Remember that Morianton is a dissident Nephite whom the Nephites have sent Moroni to capture. However, it is a woman who is his eventual downfall: “Morianton, being a man of much passion, therefore he was angry with one of his maidservants, and he fell upon her and beat her much. And it came to pass that she fled, and came over to the camp of Moroni, and told Moroni all things concerning the matter, and also concerning their intentions to flee into the land northward (Alma 50: 30-31).” Thus, th final Nephite woman mentioned in the entire record was a servant who suffered serious violence at the hand of a Nephite man. It seems clear that this story is not mentioned because violence against women was a shock in Nephite society. Morianton’s maid was mentioned because of the unforeseen role she played in giving Moroni a strategic advantage over Morianton.


Lamanite Women

Laman and Lemuel’s daughters

Towards the end of his life, Lehi blesses his posterity, including Laman and Lemuel’s sons and daughters (2 Nephi 4). None of the Nephite sons or daughters are noted in the Book of Mormon as having been blessed. This could be because Laman and Lemuel rejected the blessing and the gospel, so Lehi took extra care to speak to their children. An alternative explanation is that Laman and Lemuel requested that their children–including their daughters–receive blessings.

Abducted Daughters of Lamanites

Later in Book of Mormon history, Mosiah 20: 1 describes a place in “Shemlon where the daughters of the Lamanites did gather themselves together to sing, and to dance, and to make themselves merry.” This large gathering place is a societal feature among the Lamanites that is specifically intended for women. Nothing like it is ever mentioned in Nephite society. Mosiah 20 mentions this place because the tragic events there lead to a war between the people of King Noah and the Lamanites. The banished (and still married) Nephite priests of King Noah discovered this gathering place while wandering in the wilderness. “...they laid and watched them; And when there were but few of them gathered together to dance, they came forth out of their secret places and took them and carried them into the wilderness, yea, twenty and four of the daughters of the Lamanites they carried into the wilderness (4-5).” Nephite men, even of high ecclesiastical standing, committing acts of sexual violence against Lamanite women is a documented pattern in the Book of Mormon that will be discussed in greater detail below.

Daughters of King Lamoni

Soon after meeting Ammon (Alma 17), King Lamoni offers to marry him to one of his daughters. Ammon was a son of King Mosiah, which made his union with a daughter of Lamoni a desirable political arrangement. No daughters appear to have been involved in this decision. Lamanite society was certainly no egalitarian utopia, at least not for the daughters of nobles for whom arranged marriage seemed predestined.

Queen of Ishmael

We know that Lamoni and his wife had both sons and daughters (Alma 18: 43). And since at least one of their daughters was old enough to be offered in marriage to Ammon, it’s reasonable to assume that one of their sons would have been old enough to rule in the place of his father. Yet, when King Lamoni is rendered unconscious, it is the queen and not the oldest son who seems to be in charge. She “commands” Ammon to come to her and directs the servants regarding what should happen to Lamoni’s body (Alma 19:5). She clearly has a significant degree of political power that is never recorded for women in Nephite society, though the Book of Mormon focuses primarily on Nephite society and records its political upheavals extensively.

Abish

Abish was a Lamanite servant woman with relatively little power. Alma 19 tells us that Abish had been “converted unto the Lord for many years, on account of a remarkable vision of her father (16).” After both Lamoni and the Queen had fallen to the earth unconscious, Abish runs from home to home telling the people what had happened. Why is Abish mentioned in this chapter? She is one of six named women in the entire record, yet her role she plays in the larger Ammon-Lamanite drama is relatively small.

Queen of the Lamanites (Lamoni’s Mother)

Like the queen of Ishmael, the queen of the Lamanites (Lamoni’s mother) is clearly in charge when her husband is incapacitated upon his conversion to the gospel (Alma 22). She commands her servants to kill Aaron (19) and to call the people to come and kill Aaron (21). When Aaron sees her determination (v. 22), he brings the king back to consciousness, clearly wanting to get the queen (and her significant influence on her people) on his side. Again, it is remarkable that the queens of the Lamanites were so active in the missionary stories of Mosiah’s sons.

Queen of Lamanites (Amalikiah’s future wife)

After Amalikiah has the Lamanite king killed and the chief opposition leader poisoned (Alma 47), he becomes the commander of the Lamanite army and holds absolute military authority. Yet it is notable that he still feels the need to send an embassy to the Queen of the Lamanites, which shows that she holds a degree of political power. She asks him to spare the city, showing that she speaks for the people of the city. She then ‘desires’ Amalikiah to come to her, and he feels the need to convince her of his version of events. Only after convincing the queen of his version of events and marrying her is Amalickiah acknowledged as the legitimate King of the Lamanites.

Mothers of the Stripling Warriors

While the mothers of the stripling warriors became political Nephites, they were culturally Lamanites. No Nephite (excluding Nephi) in the entire Book of Mormon ever mentions his mother. The stripling warriors, who were raised by Lamanite women, explicitly mention their mothers’ counsel that God would deliver them if they did not doubt (Alma 56:47). “We do not doubt our mothers knew it (vs. 48).”

For those keeping score, there are three Nephite women or groups of women specifically referenced in The Book of Mormon: Nephi’s anonymous sisters, a named harlot, and an unnamed physically abused maidservant. The vast majority of The Book of Mormon is from the perspective of Nephites and about Nephites, and yet in the entire narrative only these three are mentioned. In stark contrast, in the comparatively much smaller window provided into Lamanite society by the Nephite writings comprising the Book of Mormon, eight women or groups of women are specifically referenced. All of them demonstrate varying degrees of political, social, or familial power. A closer reading of the role of women in the Book of Mormon forces us to move beyond the oversimplified dichotomy of the Nephites as the good guys and the Lamanites as the bad guys.


Violence against women

Physical violence against women is prevalent throughout the Book of Mormon. There are also instances of sexual violence, which is always instigated by either the Nephites or the Gadianton Robbers. Our first recorded incident of sexual violence is the capture of the twenty four daughters of the Lamanites by the priests of King Noah, mentioned previously. These women had children with the Nephite priests of King Noah and convinced their fellow Lamanites not to kill their husbands. The next incident occurs when the Nephites in Ammonihah specifically target believing women and children for execution by fire (Alma 14: 8-10). The believing men of Ammonihah were cast out and some were stoned. Later, as mentioned previously, a maid servant is beaten by the Nephite Morianton (Alma 50:30) and flees to the camp of Moroni. The Lamanites in this era committed acts of violence against women as well. For example, the Lamanites are recorded as killing “every living soul” in Ammonihah (Alma 16:9).

While all of the above instances of violence are committed by Nephites against women, the Lamanites routinely take men, women, and children prisoner during the great war, as is recorded throughout the war chapters in Alma. Starting in Helaman, the lines between Nephite and Lamanite society begin to blur. Men from both societies join the Gadianton Robbers and those remaining eventually unite together to fight the robbers. Unsurprisingly, the Gadianton Robbers commit sexual violence against women. They “did carry away others captive into the wilderness, yea, and more especially their women and their children (Helaman 11:33).”

This was a violent age, but there are certain distinctions between how the Nephites and Lamanites acted in wartime. Chapter 48 of Alma records that the Nephites were reluctant to go to war with the Lamanites. “Nevertheless, they could not suffer to lay down their lives, that their wives and their children should be massacred by the barbarous cruelty of those who were once their brethren, yea, and had dissented from their church, and had left them and had gone to destroy them by joining the Lamanites (v. 24).” Note that the Nephites are afraid for the safety of their wives and children, but not necessarily because of the threat from native Lamanites. They are specifically afraid of the barbarity and cruelty of the Nephite dissenters. Later on in Alma 60:17, Moroni speaks of Lamanites “murdering our people with the sword, yea, our women and our children, and also carrying them away captive, causing them that they should suffer all manner of afflictions.” This passage speaks of Lamanites in general terms, meaning both Nephite dissenters (who had established military and political dominance among the Lamanites) and native Lamanites.

The distinction between Nephite and Lamanite violence becomes most egregiously apparent during Mormon’s time. During this final genocidal conflict, the Lamanites sacrifice Nephite women and children to idols and later subject them to the forced cannibalization of their husbands and fathers (Moroni 9:8). As horrifying as these acts were, Mormon states that “it doth not exceed that of our people in Moriantum.” Mormon then details gruesome acts of sexual violence committed by the Nephite against the daughters of the Lamanites. “And after they had done this thing, they did murder them in a most cruel manner, torturing their bodies even unto death; and after they have done this, they devour their flesh like unto wild beasts (v.10).” Altogether, the Book of Mormon contains three explicit accounts of sexual violence. One was committed during the Gadianton period when lines between Nephites and Lamanites were blurred. The other two were committed by Nephites against Lamanite women. In all the records of the wars between Nephites and Lamanites, there is not a single account of sexual violence perpetrated by native Lamanites against women. This is particularly surprising given the significant cultural bias against Lamanites harbored by Nephite record keepers. The Lamanites’ undying hatred, cultural inferiority, sins, and atrocities are recorded in detail throughout the text, yet no sexual violence perpetrated by native Lamanites is included. Even if absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, this is remarkable.


Family Relationships

Starting very soon after the Lamanite-Nephite divide, Jacob goes through great pains to show that Nephite familial relations have become dangerously distorted by Nephite men as a result of concubinage and polygamy (Jacob 2). As written previously, Jacob condemns these men, saying they “have done greater iniquities than the Lamanites, our brethren. Ye have broken the hearts of your tender wives, and lost the confidence of your children (v.35).” In contrast, the Lamanite “husbands love their wives, and their wives love their husbands; and their husbands and their wives love their children (Jacob 3:7).” The Book of Mormon emphasizes that the traditions of the fathers are passed onto the children, whether erroneous or true. The Lamanites inherited a hatred of the Nephites and a rejection of the gospel. The Nephites, for their part, seem to have inherited a problem in their gender relations, as demonstrated in their repeated devolutions into polygamy, concubinage, and sexual violence. These devolutions are often tied to unrighteous religious authorities, indicating that religion may have been used to justify these errors. For example, the Nephite King Noah follows the tradition of his fathers by having many wives and concubines. When the Lamanites attack, King Noah commands the men to abandon their families and flee into the forest. Many of King Noah’s male subjects refused this order and used their “fair daughters” who “delighted” the Lamanite warriors as a shield against violence. Meanwhile, the priests of Noah were some of the most egregious examples of poor family relations in The Book of Mormon. They were guilty of “spending time with harlots”, abandoning their wives, committing adultery and rape when they abduct the daughters of the Lamanites, and then used those coerced wives and children as a defensive shield against the anger of the Lamanites. While these examples of Nephite familial relationships admittedly come from a small and particularly wicked sample, it is telling that we have so few counter-examples. Other than a proliferation of father-son relationships, which are described in detail and formed the basis of Nephite society, no other specific family connections are ever specifically mentioned in the records of the Nephites. Wives and children are exclusively referred to in possessive terms. Often, women are simply listed among other possessions of Nephite men. For example, Alma 43:9 lists women after lands and houses, Alma 43:5 lists women after homes and liberties. Alma 48:10 lists women after liberties and lands, and Alma 63:6 lists women after provisions. One important counterexample is detailed in Mosiah 21:17, when King Limhi takes care that the people provide for the large number of widows in the land. Here King Limhi institutes a corrective for what the the years of disastrous gender relations under King Noah have wrought among them

The family relationships detailed among the Lamanites - which, again, form a much smaller proportion of the Nephite record - are both more numerous and more positive. Where the Nephite people of King Noah use their daughters as shields against aggression, the Lamanites put themselves in danger by attacking the people of King Limhi when their daughters are abducted. When the Lamanites arrived in the land of Helam, the record specifically states that their wives and children traveled as well to keep the families together. It’s a small, easily overlooked insight into positive family relationships among the Lamanites. When King Lamoni is rendered unconscious, “his wife, and his sons, and his daughters mourned over him, after the manner of the Lamanites, greatly lamenting his loss (Alma 18:43).” Again, it is telling that the brief glimpses afforded into Lamanite society show a people whose “husbands love their wives, and their wives love their husbands; and their husbands and their wives love their children.” We see virtually no equivalent in the Nephites’ record of their own civilization.


By The Numbers

In preparation for writing this article, we combed through the entire Book of Mormon highlighting all references to women, admittedly a job that might have been better suited for AI. Below are some of the numerical highlights:


Conclusion

What little we read of women in The Book of Mormon shows that they clearly enjoyed more prominence and power in Lamanite society compared to Nephite society. We also find evidence that Jacob’s description of close, loving families among the Lamanites in contrast to Nephite society, was accurate. We also find women being targeted for organized sexual violence by Nephite men in a way that is absent in the record for Lamanite men. This raises the question of how this stark contrast came to exist in the first place. Jacob 2 & 3 shows that this did not happen gradually. Nephite gender dynamics fall off the rails very soon after the Nephite-Lamanite divide. We propose two potential causes, fully admitting that we are diving headfirst into the realm of speculation.

1. Nephi himself had distorted views of women, perhaps shaped by an upbringing among the Jews in Jerusalem, which then disseminated throughout Nephite culture.

Many of Nephi’s references to women are not positive. His symbolic depiction of the great abominable church is female, he frequently notes the complaints of his mother and the daughters of Ishmael (potentially including his own wife), and he does not mention his own sisters until towards the end of the narrative, and then only once and in passing. For all their faults (and they are numerous), Laman and Lemuel (and the sons of Ishmael) seem to have a better track record in terms of setting traditions for male-female relations that left a more positive historical legacy. While their endless murmurings do not reflect well on Laman and Lemuel, we have much more sympathy for their complaint that their wives “have toiled being big with child; and they have borne children in the wilderness and suffered all things.” That isn’t a small or petty complaint; they apparently actually had real empathy for the women in their lives. Additionally, the fact that their daughters were included in Lehi’s blessing might possibly speak to their view of women’s place in family and society.

2. Nephites and Lamanites were influenced by different native cultures

It is very likely that the Nephites and Lamanites interacted and intermarried with groups who were in the Americas before them. Certainly we are told that the Nephites mixed with the Mulekites in Zarahemla, who may have held more regressive views of women given their descent from the corrupt elites of ancient Israel. It’s possible that both the Nephites and the Lamanites adopted the gender dynamics of the societies they mixed with, and it just so happened the Lamanites mixed with a society with less negative gender relations.

In either case, Jacob’s words are well validated throughout the Book of Mormon. The text gives numerous examples of positive Lamanite familial dynamics, ranging from demonstrations of familial affection to clear evidence of female presence and power in their civilization. The Nephites, on the other hand, repeatedly break the commandment of God to Lehi against concubinage and polygamy, and also apparently countenance prostitution. Women are entirely absent from Nephite religious, political, and military establishments. And their own historians record multiple accounts of sexual violence committed by Nephite men against Lamanite women.

No civilization is perfect. However, we believe it is significant and instructive for our day that the Lamanites were preserved by God - despite all their sins - because their “their husbands love their wives, and their wives love their husbands…” God cares–really cares–about the relationship between men and women. The Lehite civilization was given a chance to start anew and not do as their ancestors had done relative to the relationship between men and women (Jacob 2). The Lamanites seized that opportunity and were preserved. The Nephites never understood–or they refused to understand–that the relationship between men and women in their society was the great key on which their survival depended, and so perished.



Full Citation for this Article: Sam Johnston & Savannah Johnston (2024) "Women in the Book of Mormon," SquareTwo, Vol. 17 No. 1 (Spring 2024), http://squaretwo.org/Sq2ArticleJohnstonBOMWomen.html, accessed <give access date>.

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