BYU professors shared the stories and impacts of Utah and BYU women to celebrate Women’s History Month.
“History is ‘his’tory. It’s seldom ‘her’story,” Mary Jane Woodger, professor of Church History and Doctrine, said.
Woodger has conducted extensive research on the lives of Elaine Anderson Cannon and Leah Widtsoe, two prominent women in Church history. She said both these women have not been researched heavily in the past.
“As my BYU students can study these incredible women, then they can also learn great skills from them that can bless their lives,” Woodger said.
Elaine Anderson Cannon
Elaine Anderson Cannon served as the Young Women General President from 1978 to 1984 during the women’s liberation movement which sought equality between men and women, according to a BYU publication by Woodger. Cannon was the first Young Women president to have an occupation outside of the home, juggling her responsibilities of motherhood, employment and the Church.
“She (was) there during an incredible time when women needed a role model that was a little bit different, and she filled that void in an amazing way,” Woodger said.
Woodger said she was a young woman when Cannon served as general president. During her tenure, Cannon advocated to put women on the rostrum during General Conference — including the Primary, Young Women and Relief Society general presidencies.
“She felt that was important, that they would be visible,” Woodger said.
Cannon was the first woman to speak in General Conference in more than 40 years during the April 1984 conference.
“I know it's hard for your generation to imagine, but we didn't hear from our female leaders in General Conference,” Woodger said.
After 1984, women regularly spoke in general conference, according to Church History.
“(Cannon) was just bigger than life,” Woodger said. “She had such charisma, and she had such a wonderful sense of humor that when she spoke, you just connected with her.”
Cannon persistently advocated for spiritual Sunday instruction for Young Women to Church leaders. According to Woodger’s publication, Young Women lessons had previously been concerned with teaching homemaking skills.
“I had to save these girls,” Cannon recorded in her journal on September 1, 1979, the day she found out her proposal had been approved by the First Presidency.
Leah Widtsoe
Leah Widtsoe was the wife of an apostle and the granddaughter of Brigham Young, according to a BYU publication by Woodger. Part of Woodger’s educational and professional background dealt with home economics, which was the subject of many of Widtsoe’s impactful contributions in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
“She (was) the first to say, ‘We need to study the women's sphere and this thing called “housework,” and we need to make it easier for women,’” Woodger said. “She said, ‘We've got to find better ways to do that so that women can make a contribution outside of the home.’”
Widtsoe’s parents were divorced, contributing to her difficult childhood. However, according to Woodger’s publication, this led to her desire for future generations to have a better childhood and upbringing.
Widtsoe acknowledged women working in agriculture often felt overworked — even more than the men — because of their added responsibilities of child-rearing.
“We have no comprehension of what it was like to run a home in the early 1900s,” Woodger said.
While she could not vote, Widtsoe wrote letters to officials about women’s needs, according to Woodger’s publication. Widtsoe worked with U.S. Senator Reed Smoot on legislation that sent $10,000 to each state for home economics research.
“It is no more than right that our government should provide means to experiment for the betterment of home conditions and a better race of men,” Widtsoe wrote to prominent women’s leaders in 1911.
Widtsoe even advocated for boys to be trained in parenthood just as girls were, according to Widtsoe’s publication. She also became a published author and gave many lectures on home economics, nutrition and family science.
According to Woodger’s research proposal for her publication, Widtsoe’s history and contributions were meant to positively influence the next generation of educators, aid learners in cultivating their full educational potential and show the significance of education in developing productive families.
Jane Manning James
Carter Charles, assistant professor in the BYU French and Italian department, said Jane Manning James, a free Black woman who lived during the restoration of the Church, inspired him. She joined the Church with her family in the 1840s, according to Church History Topics. She walked 800 miles to join the Saints in Nauvoo, Illinois, where she became acquainted with Joseph and Emma Smith.
James traveled with the pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley and was given permission to participate in baptisms for her deceased family members during a time when Black Church members were often not allowed to participate in temple ordinances.
She frequently contacted Church leaders to obtain permission to receive her endowment and be sealed. One of these letters, written in 1890 to Joseph F. Smith, can be found on the Church’s website.
Because of this perseverance, Church leaders allowed her to be sealed into Joseph Smith’s family by proxy as a servant in 1894. She faced many obstacles on her journey concerning the color of her skin, but she never wavered in her faith.
“She embodies resilience, perseverance, faith,” Charles said. “She understood what it means to have a testimony of the Restoration, and despite the things that she faced and that she experienced in her identity, she would not move.”
Alice Merrill Horne
Heather Belnap, professor of art history and curatorial studies, identified Alice Merrill Horne as a notable Utah woman in the arts. Merrill Horne authored the “Art Bill” of 1899 that would establish the first art institute in the nation, according to Belnap.
As a member of the General Relief Society Board, Merrill Horne made it a priority to cultivate the arts in the Church, Belnap said in a publication about Merrill Horne.
“There is no reason why (Latter-day Saints) should not turn to the enriching of their own lives and those of their fellow men by carrying forth the latter-day message through so rich a medium as the various channels of art present,” Merrill Horne said in the 1923 Relief Society Magazine.
Merrill Horne authored the first art book published in Utah. According to Belnap, the connection between religion and the arts within the book posited that artists have been consecrated to create sacred artistic works to be worshipped.
“(The book) celebrated (women’s) accomplishments at home and abroad, and held them up as models of virtuous womanhood, thus encouraging the continuation of Mormon women’s engagement in the arts and the reification of women in the cultural sphere,” Belnap said.
Merrill Horne created art collections for churches and schools to promote art appreciation and assist artists during the Great Depression.
“(She) regularly came to the aid of struggling artists, writing letters of encouragement and organizing sales of their work,” Belnap said. “She would often approach Relief Society branches about raising money to buy a painting for their meetinghouse, and if this initiative failed, she would purchase the work and donate it to them.”
Belnap is currently working on creating a database with information on female artists, collectors, curators and art administrators who have worked in Utah that will be available in 2026. The project is supported by the BYU Redd Center for Western Studies and the Office of Digital Humanities.
“Women were — and still are today — responsible for making the state's art scene one of the strongest and most vibrant of the Intermountain West,” Belnap said.
How women have shaped BYU
Marlene Esplin, associate professor of interdisciplinary humanities, currently teaches a course on notable BYU women alongside English faculty Cristie Charles. This class is currently working to create a campus walking tour, “Women Who Helped Build BYU,” to feature women who assisted in shaping the institution and culture of BYU.
“Women have been a constant force for good in just about every field and discipline and university initiative at BYU,” Esplin said. “I hope students know that they have no shortage of wonderful women and men as role models.”
Along with Widtsoe, Esplin identified Jean Elizabeth Fossum May, Janie Thompson, Zitkála-Šá and Alice Louise Reynolds as some of these impactful women.
Jean Elizabeth Fossum May, a widow and a single parent, was the head resident at Stover Hall, one of the male housing buildings at Helaman Halls, Esplin said. She was beloved among the hall’s residents. In 1969, the year she passed away, these residents urged BYU President Ernest Wilkinson to name the newest Helaman Halls building “May Hall” in her honor.
Janie Thompson, a performer and professor in the School of Music, founded the Young Ambassadors and Living Legends (formerly Lamanite Generation) performance groups, Esplin said. She organized more than 2,000 performance shows during her time at BYU in the 1950s, according to a website her family developed to commemorate her life.
Zitkála-Šá, a writer, musician, suffragist and activist during the early 1900s, worked with BYU music professor and composer William Hanson to create “The Sun Dance Opera,” Esplin said. This opera, which combined European and Native American musical tropes, was the first opera written by a Native American. Some of her legacy can be found in the Harold B. Lee Library’s Special Collections.
Alice Louise Reynolds was the first female to be a full professor at BYU, Esplin said. She aided in the development of the BYU library and the gathering of more than 100,000 volumes for the library, according to Utah Women’s History. She advocated for women’s suffrage and educational opportunities for women on and off campus.