The Proclamation does help in some families because there’s a lot of violence in the family. I’ve seen a lot of people – men – who realize that they have a call with their families. So they feel guilty towards their family. In some ways it does help. When we think of Mexican families, we actually have a lot of single women at church and on the outside. Lots of families with gay people. If you have a typical family – mom, dad, kids, then it’s ok, you are truly happy. But for some it doesn’t help because it reinforces gender roles. The idea that the dad presides over the home, that contributes to domestic violence happening. He presides so he has the right and duty to solve that problem.
So male presiding justifies men using violence on women. He’s the guy in the family, the strong one and the provider. It’s also common with Catholics here.
Mainstream Mormons would say that women at church are mothers. For me, I’m a loser, since I am thirty-three and single and not a mother, and what am I doing with my life since I keep on studying, what’s wrong with me? In church, there are a lot of narratives for single women. One is, “We’re sorry you have to build your family alone, but God is with you and God is happy with you and you have your kids.” They talk about it a little bit, but not that much since you need a father to go to the temple to get sealed.