The Power of Motherhood: Leah Widtsoe's Writings on Women's Roles, Influence, and the Priesthood Ashley Marie Laneri Department of Religious Education, BYU Master of ArtsThis thesis analyzes Leah Widtsoe's writings in the 1930s. Her primary emphasis was on motherhood. Widtsoe encouraged women to realize the importance of their role as mothers and the positive results a good mother can have on generations to come. Each chapter examines how Widtsoe used motherhood to help women understand their role in the Church and their role in society. The first chapter outlines Widtsoe's personal life and analyzes why motherhood was a central part of her writings. The second chapter focuses on how Widtsoe used motherhood as a construct, or in other words, a model, to motivate women and to help them understand their purpose in the Relief Society program in the Church and in the world. The third chapter focuses on the priesthood and motherhood model which Widtsoe helped originate. She used motherhood as a way to help women understand their relationship with priesthood power. Lastly, this thesis examines the contradictions, inconsistencies and patterns of Widtsoe's writings on motherhood.This study finds that Widtsoe used motherhood as a model to empower women and help them understand their relationship with priesthood power and their role in the Church. Additionally, she taught that what women did in the home had a great impact on society.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Montana, 2007. / Title from title screen. Description based on contents viewed Oct. 10, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 42).

It is often left unquestioned that women in the Hebrew Bible desired children. Though this is highly probable, many scholars make the assumption that all women necessarily wanted children. Universalizing the desire for children reduces complex characters to stand-ins for a supposed motif. This also essentializes the role of a female character to that of child-bearer, when actually these women have many different roles. Furthermore, many scholars make the claim that having children is the only way for a woman to improve her status in ancient Near Eastern societies. Yet women did not always receive a change in status because of childbirth. Therefore, the reasons why women desire children are quite varied. / Religion

This dissertation studies a local manifestation of ecclesiastical reform in the medieval county of Savoy: the twelfth-century transformation of secular canons into Augustinian regular canons at the church of Sts. Peter and Ursus in the alpine town of Aosta (now Italy). I argue that textual sources, material culture, and the practice of place together express how the newly reformed canons established their identity, shaped their material environment, and managed their relationship with the unreformed secular canons at the cathedral. The pattern of regularization in Aosta—instigated by a new bishop influenced by ideas of canonical reform—is only one among several models for implementing reform in medieval Savoy. This study asserts the importance of this medieval county as a center for reforming efforts among a regional network of churchmen, laymen, and noblemen, including the count of Savoy, Amadeus III (d. 1148). After a prologue and introduction, chapter 1 draws on traditional textual evidence to recount the history of reform in medieval Savoy. Chapters 2 through 4 focus on the twelfth-century sculpted capitals in the cloister built to accommodate the common life of the new regular canons. Several of the historiated capitals portray the biblical siblings, Martha and Mary, and Leah and Rachel, as material metaphors that reflect and reinforce the active and contemplative lives of the Augustinian canons. Other capitals represent the regular canons’ assertion of their precedence over the cathedral canons and suggest tensions between the two communities. The final chapter examines thirteenth-century conflicts over bell-ringing and ecclesiastical processions in the urban topography of Aosta to illustrate how the regular and secular canons continued to negotiate their relationship. Appendices include an English translation of a vita of St. Ursus (BHL 8453). The dissertation as a whole reconstructs the places and material culture of medieval Aosta to convey the complexities of religious and institutional life during a time of reform and beyond. / text