The Divine Roles of Men and Women

We have had it drilled into our minds that we need to have equality, that we are all the same, and that you are wrong to think otherwise. Now when it comes to men and women there are things that we should be equal in, but what we truly need to understand is that equal doesn’t mean the same. Let me explain.

Equality means that you have equal opportunities. We want women to be able to get an education just as much as we want men to. We want women to be respected just as much as men are. But in this fight for equality the world has actually tried to make us the same but have also in a way tried to make women superior to men. But we know this is wrong. We are taught in the church that men and women have distinct divine roles, and should work side by side (be equal). It wasn’t surprising to see that studies done to show differences aligned with what we are taught in The Family: A Proclamation to the World. Studies have shown that even as young kids boys and girls are different. Girls are more likely to do types of play where they are able to be nurturers (play house and be mothers). They are also more likely to go for toys such as dolls and dress up. Boys on the other hand are more likely to do types of play that physical and aggressive. They tend to go more for toys such as guns and action figures.

But how does what they tend to do as children emulate the roles they are meant to take on? Just like how little girls like playing with dolls by taking care of them, women have the role of nurturing. The boys learning to be aggressive and competitive prepares them for the role of taking charge of presiding, providing for, and protecting their family. We need to embrace these different roles that men and women have, because each has something special to offer.

One way that we are diminishing those roles is by making women in the workplace a priority over being a stay at home mom. We have fought so hard to be able to let women get higher education and become scientists, doctors, and engineers, that it is often looked down upon to be a stay at home mom. Somehow in the process of empowering women to ‘be who they want to be’ we have actually degraded them. Since we have the opportunity to go on to be doctors, scientists, and engineers, we are almost expected to strive to be on top. In some ways the world wants women to take on those executive jobs, to prove their equality to men. We need to stop seeing those who choose to be mothers as those that don’t reach their full potential, but rather help people understand that being a stay at home mom by caring and nurturing their children is just as equally important and vital as if they were to take on the job of going to work and providing for the family financially.

As Elder Christofferson, an apostle for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, once said in general conference, “In Blurring feminine and masculine differences, we lose the distinct, complementary gifts of women and men that together produce a greater whole.” In other words we need both male and female to reach our full potential. We were made to better one another through our different roles. Neither one is more important than the other, and as we see each of our roles as important then we are truly equal.