Update 1: As of February 11, 2022, it seems the Church has reversed this decision. They will be having Women’s Session during the April 2022 conference. I do still feel that there needs to be more women speaking in general sessions of Conference.
Update 2: The October 2022 General Conference sessions are to include five sessions. The Saturday evening session will be held as a general session, as opposed to a gendered session. See the Conclusions section for more discussion on this change.
There were a few errors in the data, so I fixed graphs and results to reflect the data more accurately. I also added data for sessions that hadn’t occurred at the time of the original post. Neither of these has affected the overall interpretation of the data.
Introduction
In June of 2021, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) announced changes to its semi-annual General Conference. Conference sessions would be limited to the four general sessions, rather than including a gendered fifth session. The reason given “is because all sessions of general conference are now available to anyone who desires to watch or listen.”
Many have felt that the number of women speaking in Conference has been inadequate. Eliminating one of the sessions—especially one that focuses primarily on women—would decrease the percentage of women that speak.
While historical data may not predict the future of Conference, I felt it would be helpful to look at the trends of women speaking in Conference.
Continue reading “Women in General Conference” →
