Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- The Church of Jesus Christ released a scholarly history of its Young Women organization, titled "Carry On: The Latter-day Saint Young Women Organization, 1870-2024."
- The book explores the organization's 150-year history and its global cultural evolution.
- Authors emphasize its significance in women's history and its collaborative lessons for all.
SALT LAKE CITY — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officially released its first scholarly history of the Young Women organization on Tuesday.
The book, "Carry On: The Latter-day Saint Young Women Organization, 1870-2024," gives a detailed account of the organization's 150-year history through the experiences of young women around the world. While many of the church's written histories focus on the teachings and influence of prophets and other leaders, this new work examines the influence of young women on religious practices and how the organization has evolved.
The Young Women's Organization is the Church of Jesus Christ's program for girls between 12 and 18 years old.
"The Young Women organization helps young women make and keep sacred covenants and deepen their conversion to Jesus Christ and his gospel. The purpose of a Young Women class is to help young women work together to participate in God's work of salvation and exaltation. In their classes, young women serve others, fulfill covenant responsibilities, build unity and learn and live doctrine," according to the church's general handbook.
Young Women General President Emily Belle Freeman played a part in reviewing the book before publication and offering writers her insights on the organization since she became president in 2023. Even though the program has changed throughout the years, she said some of the lessons taught by early leaders of the Young Women are still being used today.
In 1890, the church created a council of young adult women between 20 and 30 years old to help advise the organization's leaders on how to help the young women and create a vision for the program. President Freeman decided to create a similar council when she became president, which has influenced updates to the program in recent years.
While the organization began in Utah in the early years of the church's founding, it was important to President Freeman and the historian authors that the book represents the various cultural and historical differences the program has seen since its creation. Despite these differences, she said there is a general desire from young women to define their identities as individuals and as members of the Young Women organization.
"I think for me, an overarching question that was consistent from the very beginning is, 'Who am I' and, 'What do I have to offer to this generation and how will I do it?' Being able to watch how this organization has helped young women through time discover who they are and whose they are, and the great work that God has for them to do and who he knows they can become is something that has been answered through the program of the Young Women since its beginning," said President Freeman.
"Carry On" was collectively written by church historians Lisa Olsen Tait, Amber C. Taylor and James Goldberg for the Church Historian's Press. The authors used a combination of sources in the Church History Library to write the book, including autobiographies, archived meeting minutes, oral histories and more. The project has taken nearly 10 years to complete due to the abundance of records the historians had to sift through to get a complete picture of the organization's history. Tait explained that the book is an important step in laying the groundwork for future research on women's history in the church as it joins a collection of similar publications.
"Women's history is one of the pillars of our work here in the Church History Department," she said. "We have consciously, deliberately and intensively approached women's history as one of the basic things that we want to do, and an important emphasis for the church generally. So, 'Carry On' enters the field and joins this impressive and growing work of women's history that we have been working on now for many years."
Goldberg, being the only male author on the project, emphasized that all people can benefit from learning the history the book contains because it allows a greater understanding of how organizations can work together to accomplish a common goal.
"Sometimes, people assume that women's history is mostly for women. That's just not the case. There is so much that men can learn from understanding this history from spending time with this book. In our community, men are going to spend a lot of time in cooperation and collaboration with the Young Women organization, and it can be important for them to have an understanding. ... We hope historical work can expand our memory, expand our empathy and help men connect."
"Carry On" is available for purchase on Amazon and at Deseret Book. More information on the publication and excerpts are available on the Church Historian's Press website.
Photos
Show All 4 Photos
