Gender Roles

Neill F. Marriott, "What Shall We Do", April 2016 General Conference
“Mothers literally make room in their bodies to nurture an unborn baby—and hopefully a place in their hearts as they raise them—but nurturing is not limited to bearing children. Eve was called a ‘mother’ before she had children.4 I believe that ‘to mother’ means ‘to give life.’ Think of the many ways you give life. It could mean giving emotional life to the hopeless or spiritual life to the doubter. With the help of the Holy Ghost, we can create an emotionally healing place for the discriminated against, the rejected, and the stranger. In these tender yet powerful ways, we build the kingdom of God. Sisters, all of us came to earth with these life-giving, nurturing, maternal gifts because that is God’s plan.”

A Theodore Tuttle, The Things That Matter Most, Ensign December 1971
“The world is full of foolish schemes. They contravene and hinder the purposes of the Lord. Some seek to change the God-given roles of the sexes. Some invite mothers to leave the home to work. Others entice fathers to find recreation away from their families. These questionable practices weaken the home!"

L Tom Perry, Finding Lasting Peace and Building Eternal Families, October 2014 General Conference “Fathers are personally involved in leading family prayers, daily scripture reading, and weekly family home evenings.

“Fathers build family traditions by being involved in helping plan vacation trips and outings that will involve all of the family members. Memories of these special times together will never be forgotten by their children.

“Fathers hold one-on-one visits with their children and teach them gospel principles.

“Fathers teach sons and daughters the value of work and help them establish worthy goals in their own lives.

“Fathers set an example of faithful gospel service.”


Gordon B Hinckley, Standing for Something: 10 Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes [2000], 152
“We cannot begin to measure or calculate the influence of women who, in their own ways, build stable family life and nurture for everlasting good the generations of the future. The decisions made by the women of this generation will be eternal in their consequences. May I suggest that the mothers of today have no greater opportunity and no more serious challenge than to do all they can to strengthen the [home]” .

Sister Carole M Stephens, First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency, Do We Know What We Have?, General Conference October 2013
"We all need each other. Sons of God need daughters of God, and daughters of God need sons of God.
"We have different gifts and different strengths. First Corinthians chapter 12 emphasizes the need for sons and daughters of God, each one of us, to fulfill our individual roles and responsibilities according to the Lord’s plan, that all may benefit.11 "Sons of God, do you know who you are? Do you know what you have? Are you worthy to exercise the priesthood and receive the power and blessings of the priesthood? Do you embrace your roles and responsibilities to strengthen homes as fathers, grandfathers, sons, brothers, and uncles? Do you show respect for women, womanhood, and motherhood? "Daughters of God, do we know who we are? Do we know what we have? Are we worthy to receive the power and blessings of the priesthood? Do we receive the gifts given to us with gratitude, grace, and dignity? Do we embrace our roles and responsibilities to strengthen homes as mothers, grandmothers, daughters, sisters, and aunts? Do we show respect for men, manhood, and fatherhood?"

Elder D Todd Christofferson - Apostle, Brethren, We Have Work to Do, General Conference October 2012
“In their zeal to promote opportunity for women, something we applaud, there are those who denigrate men and their contributions. They seem to think of life as a competition between male and female—that one must dominate the other, and now it’s the women’s turn."
...
"Some men and young men have taken the negative signals as an excuse to avoid responsibility and never really grow up."


Women
Gordon B. Hinckley, “Women of the Church,” Ensign, Nov. 1996, 69
“There are some women … who have to work to provide for the needs of their families. To you I say, do the very best you can. I hope that if you are employed full-time you are doing it to ensure that basic needs are met and not simply to indulge a taste for an elaborate home, fancy cars, and other luxuries. The greatest job that any mother will ever do will be in nurturing, teaching, lifting, encouraging, and rearing her children in righteousness and truth. None other can adequately take her place.”


Bishop H Burke Peterson, "Mother, Catch the Vision of Your Call", April 1974 General Conference
"Now there are some mothers with school-age children who are the breadwinners of their family and they must work; they are the exception. Fathers and mothers, before you decide you need a second income and that mother must go to work out of the home, may I plead with you: first go to the Lord in prayer and receive his divine approbation. Be sure he says yes. Mothers with children and teenagers at home, before you go out of your homes to work, please count the cost as carefully as you count the profit. Earning a few dollars more for luxuries cloaked in the masquerade of necessity—or a so-called opportunity for self-development of talents in the business world, a chance to get away from the mundane responsibilities of the home—these are all satanic substitutes for clear thinking. They are counterfeit thoughts that subvert the responsibilities of motherhood."

Elder Quentin L Cook, Lamentations of Jeremiah: Beware of Bondage, General Conference October 2013
Now, let me say unequivocally that I am thrilled with the educational and other opportunities that are available to women. I treasure the fact that the backbreaking work and domestic drudgery required of women has been reduced in much of the world because of modern conveniences and that women are making such magnificent contributions in every field of endeavor. But if we allow our culture to reduce the special relationship that children have with mothers and grandmothers and others who nurture them, we will come to regret it.

The Family: A Proclamation to the World

"Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children."

President Gordon B Hinckley, "To the Women of the Church", October 2003 General Women's Conference
"You do not need some of the extravagances that working outside the home might bring."

Men

The Family: A Proclamation to the World

"By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families."