Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Spring 1973
Abstract
The telephone rang before my alarm clock could sound its bell. "Hello, have you seen the morning paper? The cover story on your class in women's studies has just been released!" announced my excited secretary. A second call extended an invitation to be an immediate guest on a party-line hookup with Two-way Radio, and before lunch an additional interview had been taped for airing the following morning. This startling reaction opened the way for a hectic two weeks. During this time I would be referred to as a heretic and a corrupter of youth, and my husband would be accused of abnegating his priestly authority. (Ecclesiastical offices in our church are held by lay members.) What lit the proverbial fire in the kitchen was my public statement that it was a frustrating experience to be a woman in Utah; that our religious subculture put blinders on women and effectively bound her to the home. If women were allowed to grow individually, I commented, it wouldn't come as such a crushing blow when she discovered in later years that she was not the perfect mother.