I feel that women face the challenge of not speaking out…. In my African point of view, in our culture, how we are brought up, women cannot say as much, especially when you are married…. So, that’s still a challenge. It is still there and we can be abused physically or emotionally and we just keep quiet, saying, “Oh, this is life.” Like in my ward we have had lots of programs of counseling. We would have those problems and we would go and have counseling, and that’s when you understand. Mostly it’s women who have been abused either physically or emotionally. And emotionally is a dangerous one because most of the time we don’t realize that it’s there. But it is. So that is a challenge even in the church—speaking out. We don’t. Some women speak out in ward councils, and some do not. It depends. What I’ve seen is the young girls that have gone on missions, those are the ones that I hear speaking out. If you are a Relief Society president and you have been on a mission, then you will speak up.
Some personalities won’t change, but, mostly, they’ll speak out. They learn to speak on their missions. I think that women need to learn [this], that is our main problem. It is our background but we are learning. So something in Relief Society, if it is an elderly person, it doesn’t matter whether black or white, women are still quiet. That is a challenge.
But a mission is only one way. On a mission, your mind is opened up, so it is. I’m sure it is. It’s still there for the elderly generation and for those who continue to bring up their children the way that we were brought up. It will take a long time, but, eventually, it will go. But it is still there. We all learn.