Women HAD the priesthood and could use it outside the temple #lds #women #reliefsociety

The Priesthood Authority Women Once Held: What the Historical Record Reveals

For generations, LDS Church members have grown up with the understanding that women do not hold the priesthood. It's presented as doctrine, settled and eternal. Yet a careful examination of the historical record reveals a more complex picture: women in the early and mid-twentieth-century Church actually exercised priesthood authority in ways largely forgotten by contemporary members. Understanding this historical reality, that women had the priesthood and used it outside the temple, challenges common assumptions about gender and religious authority in Mormonism and raises important questions about institutional memory and doctrinal change.

This gap between official teaching and documented practice matters because it affects how members understand their faith's history, how women understand their own spiritual authority, and how the Church communicates about its own evolution on fundamental questions.

The Documented Historical Practice

According to research shared on the Mormon Stories Podcast and corroborated by LDS historical archives, women in the early-to-mid twentieth century Church possessed and exercised legitimate priesthood authority. This wasn't fringe practice or personal interpretation, it was regular, documented, and Church-sanctioned activity.

The specific priesthood functions women performed included: Administering healing blessings: Women would anoint other women with oil and provide blessings of healing, functioning identically to how men performed the same rite Blessing babies: Women participated in father's blessings at the birth of children, laying hands on the infant alongside the father Anointing in other ordinances: Women anointed other women as part of temple-related preparation and care Giving priesthood blessings to women: Women blessed other women with authority recognized by the Church institution