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Show TTMagr DESERET NEWS, WEDNESDAY, Man DearAbby Theater Living JUNE 22, 1977 Do-- lt TV Today c Weddings Comics What's Doing Music Underneath the sun bon nets: Brains, talent and courage have past ... Woman "The Voice of Womankind." Utahs Statewide Meeting, will be Friday and Saturday at the Salt Palace. Registration begins at 7 a.m., and participants must be registered to vote. Preliminary sessions start at 8:30 a.m. Elections will be the first order of business. Workshop sessions continue event. A comthroughout the two-da- y plete schedule of events, times and locations will be included inside each registration packet. been neglectful of the future will deal more generously with Womankind. Emmeline B. Wells, 1881. By Rose Mary Pedersen Deseret News staff writer Everybody has heard about the men who won the West, but who has heard about the women? Not very many people, according to members of a Women in Utah History Task Force. And they think its high time females got their just dues. The 20 who comprise the task force are now busily preparing a workshop session for Utah's Statewide Womens Meeting, to be held this weekend at the Salt Palace. (The historical session is planned for 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Friday; 10 a.m. to noon, Saturday.) Research has taken committee members months at the Utah State Historical Society and in university and LDS Church archival collections. "Weve found that Utahs females played a starring role in almost everything every facet of frontier life, says Kathryn Mac-Kachairperson of the committee and a Ph.D. candidte in history at the University of Utah. Unfortunately, though, ladies werent given as much credit as men over the years by the majority of historians. "I am sure things will be different in the future, because we now are getting a greater number of qualified females in the history field w'ho see things from a different perspective. Kathryn Mac Kay also hopes that her committees research project will help to correct the misconception that men were the only ones making history when the West was young. Not only is the group organizing a workshop, but also members have written literary sketches about feminine contributions in a number of areas Utah family life, religion, the economy, the professions, politics, arts and letters. And theyre putting together a slide show with pictures and commentary. y, ' ' - v u - .I - ill m , ' f ; -- v v f tr' , , ,, - K &i m sS M. r S I V- - LJ ai t 'v && 1 entire package will provide the of the Beehive State's exhibit and presentation at a national women's convention in Houston, Tex., Nov. Before the Houston conference, though, comes Utahs statewide meeting. The two-da- y event, which probably will attract thousands of participants, is being planned by Utah's International Women's Year Coordinating Committee and is an outgrowth of the International Womens Year Conference held in Mexico City in 1975. Similiar meetings will be held in every state of the union by the end of July, and will culminate in the national convention. The purpose: to explore women's concerns and interests and come up with an overall plan of action. Kathryn MacKay's workshop on history (it's partially funded by grants from the Utah Endowment for the Humanities and the National Commission for the Observance of Injernational W'omens Year) is among 21 workshops that participants in Utahs meeting will be able to attend. Other workshops will cover such lifestopics as minority women abortion employment the Equal tyles Rights Amendment and many others. Featured at the history session will be guest speakers who will explain various aspects of research; the slideshow presentation that will be taken to Houston; open discussions led by noted authorities in the field of western history. Discussion leaders include: Leonard Arrington, LDS Church historian; Louise Knauer, visiting professor of womens history at the University of Utah; Dr. Charles Peterson, professor of history at Utah State University, and Dr. Beverly Beeton, assistant to the vice president of academic affairs at the U. of U. Dr. Beeton, who has taught history classes and often gives lectures, is the author of several articles on Utah women. Her special interests are along the lines of suffrage. But, really, she finds every facet of frontier life intriguing. When you consider the women wh oplayed an important part in Utah history, you must focus on the Mormons, Dr. Beeton notes. Mormonism was the predominant religion of the time, the foundation on which Utah society was built. Whats more, LDS women were unique, in the U. of U. historians opinion. Rugged, devout, capable and, in many ways, leaders in the march toward womens rights and equality. From the very beginning, they worked at their husbands sides to build culture and civilization in the infant State of Deseret. Records show that three females came with the advance company of Mormon pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley in July of 1847. An additional 60 women marched with the Mormon Battalion from Fort Leavenworth, Kan., to Santa Fe, N. M., and spent the winter of 1846-4- 7 at Pueblo, Colo., before entering Zion. By the end of 1847, almost as many lemaies as males had arrived in the Beehive a statistic that distinguished the State territory from all other settlements in the West. It didnt take the ladies long to make their voices heard in every corner of the Salt Lake Valley, either. They were wives and mothers first and foremost in accordance with the churchs teachings, Dr. Beeton explains. But practical necessity made it mandatory for them to be much more. When husbands were called away on missions, the ladies had to take over rearing the children, running the farms and businesses, making the decisions. Polygamist wives, who didnt have their husbands around all of the time, had to learn to fend for themselves in many ways, too. In order to make the desert blossom as a rose, it was also necessary for every available person to do his or her share of work in the community. Early on, Brigham Young encouraged females to study medicine so they could help their sisters. While men toiled in the fields at heavy work, ladies took over positions as The ''Although the historians of the ; iL J iMr - r Hynda Rudd, top, Kathryn MacKay and Maureen Terashima Harmston research contributions of women in Utah's history for meeting. 'heart" v JM P-- A ; j , !'. .YVV -- Zina Young If 'A: y, rTT 7 t 'PWMr... I"' X. U.y-- J 1, Eliza R. Snow Dr. Ellis Shipp jSKSV''' i g Dr. Martha H. Cannon Above Susa Young Gates Emmeline B. Wells are shown some of the prominent women who contributed to Utah history. At right. Dr. Beverly Beeton, U. of U. historian, who is on women's history task force. f' ,.ni 2 u. ' 1 telegraphers, educators, boarding house operators, store clerks. The Relief Society, which had been organized by parlimentary procedures back in 1842 in Nauvoo, 111., became the pivotal point for all charitable activities. One of the most outstanding contributions of the womens group: the founding of the earliest facility for obstetrical care in Utah, the Deseret Hospital. (The board of directors and staff of practicing physicians both were largely female.) In fact, notes Dr. Beeton, "one of the earliest, and one of the first became phrases often associated with Utah women. According to records, they were the first in the nation to exercise their franchise and vote for city, county and territorial officers. (The bill that granted this right was signed into law in 1870 many years before suffrage was granted to women in most stales of the union.) The Beehive States women also were among the first to serve as jurors, mayors, lawyers and state legislators. They were prominent in midwifery, nursing, the arts, public hygiene instruction, and the list goes on and communications J V) ;. -X Suffrage Association in Utah. Emma McVicker, who was one of the first regents at the institution that eventually became the University of Utah. Zina Young, a prominent midwife. of women practiced this art in pioneer Utah.) (Dozens Emmeline B. Wells, who for 40 years edited The Woman's Exponent, and spoke out eloquently for womens rights. Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon, Utahs first woman state senator, and the first woman state senator in American history. (She also was a practicing physician and, interestingly enough, won her legislative seat by soundly defeating her husband!) Susa Young Gates, daughter of Brigham Young. (She was a prolific writer and ardent crusader for womans suffrage.) Eliza R. Snow, the lady who has often been called Zions Poetess. The Shipp sisters, Ellis and Margaret, who became doctors. Emily S. Richards, who organized the "Early Utah was very significant on the national scene, and the women the state produced still are significant today, Dr. Beeton points out. "Underneath those sunbonnets were and plenty of courage. brains, talent on! To mention all the women who have assured themselves places in the Historical Hall of Fame would be impossible. Just a few : The family formed the beginning of Utahs history Members of a Women in Utah History task force have compiled a series of sketches about women in Utah history. The sketches, along with a special slide show prepared by the committee, will be presented in Houston, Tex., at a special national womens convention in November. Some of the sketches, dealing with such subjects as arts and letters, polities, family life will be published in the Today Section of the Deseret News this week. They will also provide a basis for discussion at workshop sessions to be held during Utah's Statewide Women's meeting Friday and Saturday at the Salt Palace. Much of the history of women in Utah is the history of families in Utah. This is not because of assumptions that women have always or should always function only within the family, but rather that women have exercised power and have been a force in Utah history because of their dominant role within the family. Recent scholarship has challenged our traditional ideas about history as only the chronology of wars, economic changes or politics events in which women have been highly visible. Today, scholars are realizing that basic changes in society usually come not from big events but from within the family. And within the family, women have much influence. The first families in Utah were those of the Native Americans. The economic, political and social units of Native American cultures were always oragnized around an extended family unit. Family was the center of Indian life and loyalty to it was the fabric of existence. J. H. Simpson, who explored Utah in 1859, was a very old impressed by a Gosiute grandmother: woman, bent over with infirmities. . . . Although the old woman was famished, it was very touching to see her deal out her bread, first to the little child at her side, and then only after the others had come up and got their share, to take the small balance for herself. Among the Navajo Indians, families were organized around the mother, grandmother and, sometimes, the older sisters. Children inherited through the mothers clan. In a Ute camp it was the mother who determined where the f amily was to set up its brush hut or skin tepee in accordance with available food and water. She made the woven almost every item in the familys possession bark and tanned hide clothing, the water jugs and berry baskets, the rabbit blankets, clay kettles, the parfleches and pouches, even their shelter. When the Mormons settled on Utah Indian lands, they came as family units. Three wives, Harriett Page Young, Clarissa Decker Young and Ellen Sanders Kimball, were with the original pioneer band of 1847. Families were sent to colonize throughout Utah territory. Much of colonizing effort was made by women. On the frontier, with each family as a separate economic unit, women worked hard to keep their families fed, sheltered, clothed and schooled. Because of religious tenets of Mormonimsm, many w omen were left alone with their children to assume the management of homestead and farm while their husbands were away from home on missions or other church assignments, or attending to plural wives located elsewhere. The Mormon practice of polygamy created unique family units. Having to share a husband, raising children by more than one mother and learning to work were but some of the problems, and with sister-wive- s the advantages to polygamy. many would say There were other families who came to Utah. The James family of free Blacks came to Utah in 1947. Jane Manning James became the matriarch of Utah's early Black community, and when she died in 1908, LDS President Joseph F. Smith spoke at her funeral, acknowledging her wide influence. At the turn of the century with the boom in mining and other industry in Utah came thousands of immigrants from Asia and southern Europe. Many of these were single men who created family units around the few married women who became mother and sister to them all. A Greek woman recalls: We boarded 40 men. They came in the morning for breakfast and we filled their lunch buckets. In the evening they came for a big meal. We washed their clothes, going to the river far from the house to get water . Four male relatives lived with us. In Carbon County the Latuda Japanese camp was managed by Eiji Iwamoto and his wife, Suga. This samurai daughter awoke at 4:30 in the morning to light a coal stove, prepare breakfast for the boarders, and fill their lunch buckets. When the miners returned home they bathed in a large wooden tub in the back yard bathhouse, for which Suga drew the water. It was difficult for the immigrant families to function within another culture. The old country mores clashed with prevailing Utah values. The boardinghouses, the extended families w hich were a circle of protection began to change. Arranged marriage contracts gave way to American-styl- e unions. Immigrant boys courted Mormon girls and married them. The old cultures thus enriched the state. NEXT: WOMEN IN UTAH POLITICS. . And although the majority of Mormon men did not practice polygamy, it served as the focus of sentiment. Polygamy was described as being degrading to women and destructive to the family. In an era of Victorian prudery, the women bore the brunt of such criticism and many suffered the consequences of the and later efforts to end the practice, first by by the LDS Church itself. anti-Morm- . |