There is a reason The Washington Post called 2024 “the Year of the Mormon Woman.” You don’t have to look far to see a significant spike in media attention — from Netflix to X to Hulu. You also don’t have to look far to see the negative distortion: from portraying oppressed and abused sister missionaries in the Hollywood horror movie “Heretic” to the drama and dysfunction in “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.”
All of this sells better, of course, if it appeals to the art of tabloid and reinforces myths and misperceptions.
At best, it seems, Latter-day Saint women are portrayed as somewhat weird, unhappy, oppressed women in emotionally distant marriages with little meaning, purpose or decision making in our lives. The image may seem unrecognizable to those of us who are Latter-day Saints. But why the fascination and distortion? What IS going on with Latter-day Saint women?
Pew research recently made it possible to look more carefully at Latter-day Saint women — including both their experience with faith and their overall well-being. Using a nationally representative sample within the United States, Pew surveyed aspects of religious life previously unexplored. These data offer some insight into how Latter-day Saint women’s lives actually are — compared with these national portrayals. In a closer look at some of the data, here is what we learned:
First, Latter-day Saint women are significantly more likely than any other religious group to say that religion is very important in their lives. They are also more religious in terms of daily prayer and frequent church attendance, with rates at or above 80%. The one exception is that Latter-day Saint mothers and Muslim mothers are equal in the percentage who pray daily.
The importance of religious faith appears to be linked to a meaningful outcome. Latter-day Saint women are significantly more likely to report that they consistently feel a deep sense of spiritual peace and wellbeing. For Latter-day Saint mothers, this percentage is as high as 77% — significantly higher than all other religions except for Muslim mothers at 75%.
But this is not only true for Latter-day Saint mothers.
Sixty-eight percent of single Latter-day Saint women indicate that they experience a deep sense of spiritual peace and well-being on a weekly basis, significantly higher than single women of almost all other religions.
On the other hand, only 6% of Latter-day Saint single women say they seldom or never experience deep spiritual peace, significantly lower than most other religious groups.
Latter-day Saint women also have the highest rate of being very happy (35%). In fact, only 5% of married Latter-day women in the sample reported being “not too happy,” significantly lower than that of other religious groups.
The religiousness of husbands appears to make a difference. For Latter-day Saint wives who said religion is “very important” to their spouse, the rates of being “very happy” are as high as 42%.
Latter-day Saint women and Latter-day Saint mothers also have the highest percentage rating their family lives as excellent (27% and 30%, respectively). On the other end of the spectrum, Latter-day Saint women were less likely to rate their family life as fair or poor (9% and 7%, respectively) compared to other women.
Some may argue that Latter-day Saint women are doing better, because those who are not doing well disaffiliate. But Latter-day Saints actually have lower rates of disaffiliation than most Christian denominations.
Findings showing the positive impact of religious involvement are not new. As Harvard’s Human Flourishing project, led by Tyler VanderWeele, summarized: “Participation in religious services is associated with numerous aspects of human flourishing including happiness and life satisfaction, mental and physical health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, and close social relationships.”
Why? As they conclude, “It may be the confluence of the religious values and practices, reinforced by social ties and norms, that give religious communities their powerful effects on so many aspects of human flourishing.” This may be particularly true of Latter-day Saint communities who draw deeply on religion and whose religion provides multiple avenues to create social relationships.
Our own large Wheatley Institute study found that women who combined weekly church attendance with active participation in religious practices at home were twice as likely as less-religious women and five times as likely as nonreligious women to report frequently feeling that their lives have meaning and purpose. They were also significantly more likely to report that they have a high level of life happiness compared to less or nonreligious women.
The same patterns showed up in marriage relationships. Highly religious men and women reported the highest levels of relationship quality, emotional closeness and sexual satisfaction compared to other groups. They also reported significantly higher levels of shared decision making, fewer money problems, and more frequent patterns of forgiveness, commitment, and kindness than their less-religious peers.
Unfortunately, the “Year of the Mormon Woman” has been a year of slanted stereotypes, missing altogether the real experiences of the majority of Latter-day Saint women. In reality, Latter-day Saint women rise to the top in measures of well-being, meaning and deep spiritual fulfillment. And once again, religious belief and adherence is linked to a profound, positive influence.
Yet, as we can see from the Pew findings, not all religious women are thriving. In fact, 11% of Latter-day Saint women said they are “not too happy with their lives,” and 9% rated their family lives as “fair or poor.” We need to create space within our congregations for all to find understanding and strength to address the unique challenges in our lives. That means, as President Russell M. Nelson has described, there is no place for being “sidelined, disrespected, or misjudged” in learning how to help one another better.
At the same time, we can be clear about the strengths we experience through our religious faith. Those strengths are real, even as there is work we can do to help all women to experience those strengths more fully.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of the graphic comparing women’s sense of well-being mislabeled the numbers for mothers and all women. The graphic has been updated.