Woman's Exponent

The Woman's Exponent (A Utah Ladies' Journal) was a periodical published from 1872 until 1914 in Salt Lake City with the stated aims of defending and inculcating right principles, and sharing useful knowledge, and to "discuss every subject interesting and valuable to women."{{cite book |title=The First Fifty Years of Relief Society |publisher=The Church Historian's Press |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |page=3.21 |url=https://www.churchhistorianspress.org/the-first-fifty-years-of-relief-society/part-3/3-21?lang=eng |access-date=4 May 2020 |chapter=Woman’s Exponent. A Utah Ladies’ Journal, June 1, 1872}} Its goals have been summarized by later commentators as uplifting and strengthening women of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church){{sfn|Bennion|1976|p=226}} and educating those not of the faith about the women of the Church. The prospectus of The Woman's Exponent cited grievances with the portrayal of Utah women in the press as a reason for the paper's creation, asserting: "Who are so well able to speak for the women of Utah as the women of Utah themselves? 'It is better to represent ourselves than to be misrepresented by others!{{'"}}{{sfn|Maughan|1872|p=}}

Though not an official LDS Church publication, the Exponent was owned, operated and edited by LDS Church members in a private capacity. The periodical was closely tied to the Church's women's organizations, the Female Relief Societies, unified as the Relief Society.{{cite web |last1=Thomas |first1=Shirley W. |title=Woman's Exponent |url=https://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Woman%27s_Exponent |website=Encyclopedia of Mormonism |publisher=Brigham Young University |access-date=4 May 2020}} It was approved by the General Authorities of the Church, and often published news of Church events and essays relating to doctrine,{{sfn|Bennion|1976|pp=224,237}} but was editorially independent.

Throughout the time of its publication, the newspaper, as it was generally described, covered many topics and featured conflicting points of view.{{sfn|Petersen|2014|p=173-174}} It was a strong voice in support of woman's suffrage. It also actively supported plural marriage, which was a religious practice of the Church at the time. Home, family, and the overall role of women were also frequent topics.{{sfn|Bennion|1976|p=239}} The Exponent both expressed that the "woman's sphere" in the home was a noble construct of society and encouraged women to expand beyond it; education for women was often urged to the audience.{{sfn|Bennion|1976|pp=224,237}} Lucinda Lee Dalton, an early Mormon feminist, was a frequent contributor.{{cite thesis |last=Bench |first=Sheree |date=2002 |title="Woman Arise!": Political Work in the Writings of Lu Dalton |type=M.A.|publisher=Brigham Young University |oclc=52790774 |url=http://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/4518/ |access-date=29 January 2016}} The Exponent also published excerpts from Elizabeth Cady Stanton's The Woman's Bible and passages on the Mormon doctrine of Heavenly Mother.{{sfn|Petersen|2014|p=140-141}} In addition to these religious, social, and political topics, the Exponent included poems and stories, tidbits of humor or wisdom, and current news.{{sfn|Bennion|1976|pp=229–230}} Recipes and other housekeeping tips and notes on dress were also published.{{sfn|Bennion|1976|pp=224,237}} To promote a more financially-independent Utah, the Exponent "constantly exhorted women to consume only locally made products."{{sfn|Wallis|2003|p=316}} Reports from meetings of Relief Society bodies and other auxiliary organizations, such as young women’s and primary groups, were often included.{{sfn|Bennion|1993|pp= 111-130}} Though it was a private publication, women of the Relief Society were actively encouraged to subscribe, as well as contribute to the paper.{{sfn|Bennion|1976|p=224}}

The newspaper was generally issued semi-monthly at first{{sfn|Bennion|1976|pp=224,237}} and later monthly, on quarto paper in three columns. Each edition was eight pages long.{{sfn|Maughan|1872|p=}} The Exponent was described as "well filled with reading matter."{{Cite news|date=1872-06-07|title=Woman's Exponent|work=Salt Lake Herald-Republican|url=https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=11553189&q=the+woman%27s+exponent&sort=rel|access-date=2020-08-20}} Its circulation was estimated by the Pacific States Newspaper Directory to be 4,000 in 1888, and its readership likely exceeded that number; the Exponent was used in women's meetings and exchanged with papers outside of Utah.{{sfn|Watson|1991|p=166-167}} It was credited with considerable influence in Utah, and was quoted in other journals. The back page of the newspaper was reserved for advertisements, which included ads from the President of the Church encouraging women to open their own bank accounts. Other ads were for clothing, silkworms, and classes in midwifery.{{cite news |last1=Allen |first1=Christie |title=Curious about Utah's frontier women? Browse BYU's new database of women's newspaper ads |url=https://news.byu.edu/intellect/curious-about-utahs-frontier-women-browse-byus-new-database-of-womens-newspaper-ads |access-date=22 July 2021 |work=Y News |publisher=Brigham Young University |date=20 July 2021 |language=en}}

The editor of the Salt Lake Herald, Edward L. Sloan, originally intended to create a woman's column in the Herald itself. When the staff refused to support his idea, and having heard of the idea of a journal for women circulating in the Relief Society, Sloan decided to start the Exponent as a separate publication.{{sfn|Watson|1991|p=166-167}} He recruited Louisa Lula Greene as editor, and she accepted the position after she secured the approval of her great-uncle,{{sfn|Bennion|1981|p=2}} Brigham Young, the president of the LDS Church,{{sfn|Bennion|1976|pp=224,237}} who assigned it to her as a mission. Greene moved to Salt Lake City in April 1872, and originally worked from a room in the house of another great-uncle, but later moved to a purpose-built office with living quarters. The first issue was published on June 1, 1872.{{sfn|Kohler|2016|p=154}}

File:Emmeline B. Wells Writing.jpg

Emmeline B. Wells, who would later become general president of the Relief Society, joined Greene as co-editor in the 1 December 1875 issue. They are both listed as editors on page 100 of vol. 4 no. 13;{{sfn|Richards|Wells|1875}} The two worked together to edit the magazine until Greene decided to take some time for her family in July 1877. She is last listed as editor on page 28 of vol. 6 no. 4;{{sfn|Richards|Wells|1877}} Wells was later joined by her daughter, Annie Wells Cannon, as associate editor, in June 1905. Her name first appears on page 4 of vol. 34 no. 1.{{sfn|Wells|1905}} Both continued to serve as the publication's editors until it folded.{{Cite web|title=Suffrage and Relief Society|url=https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/training/library/latter-day-saint-womens-suffrage-research-guide/suffrage-and-relief-society|access-date=2020-08-20|website=history.churchofjesuschrist.org}}

The periodical faced increasing financial pressures from the late 1800s or early 1900s, and Wells unsuccessfully lobbied the Relief Society General Board to adopt the newspaper as its official publication. The paper was forced to close in February 1914.{{sfn|Madsen|2006}} That month, The Salt Lake Tribune recorded that the Exponent was "to give way to what is hoped to be a larger and more modern [publication], but as yet nothing has been done."{{Cite news|date=1914-02-26|title=Woman's Exponent Out of Existence|work=The Salt Lake Tribune|url=https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=14463053&q=annie+cannon+wells+editor&sort=rel|access-date=2020-08-20}} The Relief Society Magazine, a separate magazine and an official publication of the LDS Church, began in January 1915.

{{See also|Exponent II}}

Described by its production team as a "spiritual descendant" of the Woman's Exponent, a new independent publication, Exponent II, was launched by a women's group in the Cambridge area of Massachusetts in 1974. A quarterly periodical, it is now the longest-running independent publication for Latter-day Saint women.{{cite book |last1=Brooks |first1=Joanna |last2=Steenblik |first2=Rachel Hunt |last3=Wheelwright |first3=Hannah |title=Mormon Feminism: Essential Writings |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780190248055 |page= 40|edition=1st}}

{{Portal|Latter-day Saints}}

• List of Latter Day Saint periodicals

• {{Cite journal|last=Bennion|first=Sherilyn C.|date=1981|title=Lula Greene Richards: Utah's First Woman Editor|url=https://byustudies.byu.edu/content/lula-greene-richards-utahs-first-woman-editor|journal=BYU Studies|volume=21|pages=1–14}}
• {{citation |last= Bennion |first= Sherilyn Cox. |url= https://byustudies.byu.edu/content/sisters-under-skin-utahs-mormon-and-non-mormon-women-and-their-publications |title= Sisters under the Skin: Utah's Mormon and Non-Mormon Women and Their Publications |journal= BYU Studies |volume= 33 |issue= 1 |year= 1993 |pages= 111–130}}
• {{citation |first= Sherilyn Cox |last= Bennion |title= The Woman's Exponent: Forty-two Years of Speaking for Women |journal= Utah Historical Quarterly |volume= 44 |issue= 3 |date= Summer 1976|pages= 222–239 |doi= 10.2307/45059692 |jstor= 45059692 |s2cid= 254448048 }}
• {{Cite journal|last=Bushman|first=Claudia L.|date=1978|title=A Wider Sisterhood|journal=Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought|volume=11|issue=1|pages=96–99|jstor=45224639}}
• {{Cite journal|last=Kohler|first=Susan Whitaker|date=2016|title=Discovering the Woman's Exponent|journal=Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought|volume=49|issue=2|pages=153–156|doi=10.5406/dialjmormthou.49.2.0153 |jstor=10.5406/dialjmormthou.49.2.0153|s2cid=217971109 |doi-access=free}}
• {{Cite book|last=Madsen|first=Carol Cornwall|title=An Advocate for Women: The Public Life of Emmeline B. Wells, 1870-1920|publisher=Brigham Young University|year=2006|isbn=9780842526159|location=Provo, Utah}}
• {{Cite web|date=1872|editor-last=Maughan|editor-first=Mary Ann Weston|title=Prospectus of Woman's Exponent A Utah Ladies Journal|url=http://exhibits.usu.edu/items/show/14233|via=Utah State University Digital Exhibits}}
• {{Cite journal|last=Petersen|first=Boyd Jay|date=2014|title="Redeemed from the Curse Placed upon Her": Dialogic Discourse on Eve in the Woman's Exponent|journal=Journal of Mormon History|publisher=University of Illinois Press|volume=40|issue=1|pages=135–174|doi=10.2307/24243874 |jstor=24243874|s2cid=142174980 }}
• {{cite web

|last1=Richards

|first1= L. Greene

|last2=Wells

|first2=Emmeline B.

|title=The Woman's Exponent 1875-12-01 vol. 4 no. 13

|url=https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/WomansExp/id/4486

|date=1875

|access-date=10 September 2018

}}

• {{cite web

|last1=Richards

|first1= L. Greene

|last2=Wells

|first2=Emmeline B.

|title=The Woman's Exponent 1877-07-15 vol. 6 no. 4

|url=https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/WomansExp/id/1554

|date=1877

|access-date=10 September 2018

}}

• {{citation |last= Thomas |first= Shirley W. |year= 1992 |contribution= Woman's Exponent |title= Encyclopedia of Mormonism |editor-last= Ludlow |editor-first= Daniel H.|editor-link= Daniel H. Ludlow |location= New York |publisher= Macmillan Publishing |page= 477 |contribution-url= http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Woman%27s_Exponent |isbn= 0-02-879602-0 |oclc= 24502140}}
• {{Cite journal|last=Wallis|first=Eileen V.|date=2003|title=The Women's Cooperative Movement in Utah, 1869-1915|journal=Utah Historical Quarterly|publisher=University of Illinois Press|volume=71|issue=4|pages=315–331|doi=10.2307/45062808 |jstor=45062808|s2cid=254436638 }}
• {{cite book|last1=Watson|first1=Martha|title=A Voice of Their Own: The Woman Suffrage Press, 1840-1910|chapter=The Woman's Exponent, 1872-1914: Champion for The Rights of the Women of Zion, and the Rights of the Women of All Nations|date=1991|publisher=University of Alabama Press|location=Tuscaloosa|isbn=9780817305260|pages=165–182}}
• {{cite web

|last=Wells

|first=Emmeline B.

|title=The Woman's Exponent 1905-06 vol. 34 no. 1

|url=https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/WomansExp/id/32164

|access-date=10 September 2018

|date=1905

}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/WomansExp Woman's Exponent] (PDF scans) courtesy of the L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.
• [https://exhibits.lib.utah.edu/s/womanexponent Woman's Exponent Digital Exhibit], University of Utah and Brigham Young University
• [https://exponent-advertisements.byu.edu/browse.php Database of advertisements] in the Women's Exponent
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20180908132306/https://www.the-exponent.com/|website=The Exponent Blog] The Exponent Blogsite
• [https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/we/ Searchable transcript of Woman's Exponent]

{{LDSChurchpubs}}

Category:Publications established in 1872

Category:1872 establishments in Utah Territory

Category:1872 in Christianity

Category:The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints periodicals

Category:Defunct feminist magazines published in the United States

Category:Relief Society

Category:Women's suffrage in Utah

Category:Defunct newspapers published in Utah

Category:Publications disestablished in 1914

Category:History of women in Utah

Category:Mormonism and women