The institution
Who Speaks, Who Decides
Women lead three general organizations and sit on councils. By the Church’s own pages, men hold every presiding priesthood office, men gave more than nine of every ten listed items at the last four general conferences, and members are taught not to pray to the Mother in Heaven the Church teaches.
The point in one sentence
If you grew up in the Church, you were probably taught that women lead the Relief Society, Young Women and Primary, and that every person has a Mother in Heaven. By the Church’s own handbook (its rulebook for local leaders), essays and conference listings, that is true. Women lead organizations and sit on councils, and the handbook calls their leaders presiding officers. But every presiding priesthood office (such as apostle or bishop) is held by a man. The body that authorizes the spending of Church funds is made up of three bodies whose members are ordained men. Men gave more than nine of every ten listed items at the last four general conferences. And the Mother in Heaven the Church teaches is one members are taught not to pray to. Who presides, who authorizes the money, who speaks: on all three, the Church’s own pages put ordained men at the top.
Women speaking at general conference, October 2026
Each square is one listed item on the Church’s official conference pages. Lit squares were given by women.
3 of 38 listed items were given by women: Tamara W. Runia, Rosemary K. Chibota and Andrea Muñoz Spannaus.
Source: October 2026 session listings. Every listed item was counted (talks, the sustaining of Church officers and the closing remarks). Prayers and music are not listed as items and are not counted.
The structure women work inside
Start with what the Church builds for women, because it is real. The Relief Society, Young Women and Primary exist at every level of the Church, from the ward to the general presidencies in Salt Lake City. The handbook says the First Presidency “calls women and men to form the General Presidencies” of those organizations and of the Young Men and Sunday School. Women preside over those organizations: the handbook says the bishop “calls a woman to serve as the ward Relief Society president” (9.3.2.1), and the stake president does the same for the stake (9.5). The handbook calls these leaders presiding officers (4.2.4). Women sit on the ward council and the stake council (29.2.5, 29.3.7). That is real presiding, and this page says so at full strength; the claim below is about presiding priesthood offices.
Then read how the same handbook describes the offices above them. Chapter 5 says the First Presidency is “three Presiding High Priests” who “form a quorum of the Presidency of the Church,” and that “the Lord calls men through the President of the Church to be ordained as Apostles and to serve in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.” The Presiding Bishopric “consists of the Presiding Bishop and his two counselors,” and each “holds the office of bishop.” The Church’s essay on women and priesthood (one of its Gospel Topics essays, published on its website) says, in its own words, “men are ordained to priesthood offices,” and a footnote quotes President Oaks: “The Lord has directed that only men will be ordained to offices in the priesthood.”
What the Church says about women and priesthood authority
The Church’s answer to “where are the women?” is not that they have no authority. It is that they have priesthood authority without priesthood office. Here is that answer at full strength. Dallin H. Oaks, then an apostle and now the Church’s president, taught it in April 2014:
Dallin H. Oaks, “The Keys and Authority of the Priesthood,” April 2014
“We are not accustomed to speaking of women having the authority of the priesthood in their Church callings, but what other authority can it be? When a woman… is set apart to preach the gospel as a full-time missionary, she is given priesthood authority to perform a priesthood function. The same is true when a woman is set apart to function as an officer or teacher in a Church organization under the direction of one who holds the keys of the priesthood.”
In the same passage Oaks adds: “Whoever functions in an office or calling received from one who holds priesthood keys exercises priesthood authority in performing her or his assigned duties.” The same talk says “women and men are equal, with different responsibilities.” And: “Unlike priesthood keys and priesthood ordinations, the blessings of the priesthood are available to women and to men on the same terms. The gift of the Holy Ghost and the blessings of the temple are familiar illustrations of this truth.” And: “Ultimately, all keys of the priesthood are held by the Lord Jesus Christ, whose priesthood it is. He is the one who determines what keys are delegated to mortals and how those keys will be used.” The talk names its own exceptions: keys and ordinations.
Read the talkGospel Topics essay, “Joseph Smith’s Teachings About Priesthood, Temple, and Women”
“In these and other ways, women exercise priesthood authority even though they are not ordained to priesthood office. Such service and leadership would require ordination in many other religious traditions.”
A footnote to the essay quotes President Oaks: “The Lord has directed that only men will be ordained to offices in the priesthood,” and that presiding authorities “are not free to alter [this] divinely decreed pattern.” The essay also says women “participate in priesthood councils at the local and general levels.” Per Handbook 4.2.4, a woman who leads is given authority by one who holds priesthood keys or someone he has authorized.
Read the essayWomen are in the room. Ordained men are at the head of it.
Three measures the Church’s own pages can answer: who presides, who authorizes the money, who speaks.
What has changed, and what it touched
Each change expands what women may do inside the existing structure. None changes who holds keys.
Sources: Church News, August 2015; Ensign, November 2019; Newsroom, changes since 2018; First Presidency interview, October 2025; Sunday School update, March 18, 2026.
The exhibits
The General Handbook is the Church’s own rulebook for local leaders. On who leads, who decides and who spends, it is plain.
General Handbook 4.2.4, leadership
What it establishes: Women who lead are real leaders, but their authority is delegated by a priesthood keyholder or someone he has authorized.
Handbook chapter 4General Handbook 29.2.5, ward council
What it establishes: The Relief Society, Young Women and Primary presidents are members of the council, and each is “encouraged to share his or her thoughts and inspiration.” The handbook adds: “After a discussion, the bishop may either decide on a course of action or postpone a decision.” The decision still runs through the bishop.
Handbook chapter 29General Handbook 34.6.1 and 34.5.7, budgets
What it establishes: Organization leaders submit budget estimates; the bishop or stake president manages the budget. Every payment in a ward or stake needs the approval of a member of the bishopric or stake presidency, and the bishop or stake president must review it. Bishop and stake president are priesthood offices, which the essay says are filled by ordained men.
Handbook chapter 34Church Auditing Department report, April 2026 general conference (Jared B. Larson)
What it establishes: The Church’s own description of who authorizes spending; authorizing is distinct from line-by-line spending. D&C 120 (1838) assigns the disposition of tithes to a council “composed of the First Presidency of my Church, and of the bishop and his council, and by my high council,” and does not mention women. Handbook 34.3.1.1 says tithing is “used for the Lord’s purposes, as directed by” this council. Women sit on the general executive councils (2015), which are a different body; we found no Church page that places a woman on the Council on the Disposition of the Tithes.
Read the reportThe visual breakdown: who can serve where
Every row below comes from a Church page. The right-hand column says what that page says about who fills the body.
| Governing body | What it does (Church’s words) | Who can serve, per the Church’s pages |
|---|---|---|
| First Presidency | “three Presiding High Priests” who “form a quorum of the Presidency of the Church” (Handbook 5.1.1.1) | Priesthood office. Handbook 5.1.1.1 calls them “three Presiding High Priests,” and the essay says “men are ordained to priesthood offices.” |
| Quorum of the Twelve Apostles | “acts under the direction of the First Presidency to build up and regulate the Church in all nations” (5.1.1.1) | “In our day, the Lord calls men through the President of the Church to be ordained as Apostles and to serve in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.” |
| Presiding Bishopric | “consists of the Presiding Bishop and his two counselors” (5.1.1.3) | Each member “holds the office of bishop.” Ordained men. |
| Quorums of the Seventy | “The Presidency of the Seventy presides over these quorums.” (5.1.1.2) | Handbook 5.1.1.2 calls it “the office of Seventy in the Melchizedek Priesthood”; the essay says “men are ordained to priesthood offices.” |
| Council on the Disposition of the Tithes | “authorizes the expenditure of Church funds” (Auditing Department report) | Composed of the First Presidency, the Twelve and the Presiding Bishopric, whose members the pages above describe as ordained men. |
| General presidencies (Relief Society, Young Women, Primary) | Serve “under the direction of the First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and assigned General Authority Seventies” (5.1.2) | Women and men. The First Presidency “calls women and men to form the General Presidencies” of five organizations; the essay says women lead three of them (Relief Society, Young Women, Primary). Handbook 5.1.2 also says general officers may “serve as members of general Church councils and committees as assigned.” |
| Ward council | “does not make major decisions without the bishop” (29.2.5) | The bishopric, ward clerk and executive secretary, and the elders quorum, Relief Society, Young Women, Primary and Sunday School presidents. The bishop presides. |
| Ward and stake budget | The bishop or stake president “manages” it; payments need a bishopric or stake presidency member (34.6.1, 34.5.7) | Bishopric and stake presidency: priesthood offices, which the essay says are filled by ordained men. |
Share of listed conference items given by women
From the Church’s official session listings. Women gave 3 each time.
Source: October 2026, April 2026, October 2025, April 2025 session listings. Men gave the other 91 to 92 percent of listed items.
The number of women has been flat, and the total number of listed items has crept up around it. This is a share of listed items, not of speaking time or words. Women have also offered conference prayers (the first in April 2013); prayers are not counted here, and current prayer numbers were not checked. Conferences before 2025 were not counted, so this page makes no claim about the longer trend.
A Mother in Heaven
There is a second part to this. The Church teaches that every person has a Mother in Heaven. It is one of the most distinctive things Latter-day Saints believe. Here is what the Church says, in its own words.
Gospel Topics essay, “Mother in Heaven”
“The doctrine of a Heavenly Mother is a cherished and distinctive belief among Latter-day Saints.”
The essay affirms her as doctrine. The next sentence: “While there is no record of a formal revelation to Joseph Smith on this doctrine, some early Latter-day Saint women recalled that he personally taught them about a Mother in Heaven.” Elder Renlund (2022) calls the essay the summary of what is known.
Read the essayGospel Topics essay, “Mother in Heaven”
“As with many other truths of the gospel, our present knowledge about a Mother in Heaven is limited.”
The same essay: “Nevertheless, we have been given sufficient knowledge to appreciate the sacredness of this doctrine and to comprehend the divine pattern established for us as children of heavenly parents.” The essay presents this as sufficient knowledge to appreciate the doctrine’s sacredness; a believing reading is that the restraint is reverence.
Read the essayGospel Topics essay, “Mother in Heaven”
“Latter-day Saints direct their worship to Heavenly Father, in the name of Christ, and do not pray to Heavenly Mother.”
The essay gives the reason: “In this, they follow the pattern set by Jesus Christ, who taught His disciples to ‘always pray unto the Father in my name.’” It continues by quoting President Hinckley: “The fact that we do not pray to our Mother in Heaven in no way belittles or denigrates her.”
Read the essayEliza R. Snow, “My Father in Heaven,” 1845 (now the hymn “O My Father”)
What it establishes: Eliza R. Snow’s poem is, the essay says, “the most notable expression of the idea” and is now the hymn “O My Father.”
Read the essayThe Family: A Proclamation to the World, 1995
What it establishes: Heavenly parents, plural, in a 1995 statement read to the Church’s Relief Society.
Read the proclamationMembers do not pray to her
Sources: Hinckley, “Daughters of God,” October 1991; the essay; Renlund, April 2022.
To be fair to Elder Renlund, his “arrogant” line is about demanding revelation, not about believing in her or loving the doctrine. And the Church’s stated reason for the prayer counsel is a real one: Jesus taught his disciples to pray to the Father in his name, and Elder Renlund gives that reason in the same talk in which he says “I wish I knew more.”
Members who wrote about her
Some members who wrote and spoke about Heavenly Mother, among them Lynne Kanavel Whitesides, Janice Allred and Margaret Toscano, were later disciplined by the Church; one summary source says each was “disciplined in part for statements related to the Heavenly Mother” (Wikipedia, September Six). The Church does not publish its reasons for individual discipline, and we have not linked a primary source for the dates or details, so none are printed here. We found no record of anyone disciplined for praying to her.
What is true on the other side
- The changes are real. Witnessing ordinances, seats on executive councils, a Sunday School presidency: each is something women could not do before. The Church’s own president says “we have work left to do, but we are a lot better off than we were even a decade ago.”
- The Church says it is not its choice. Its position is that male ordination is revelation, not preference, and that its presiding authorities “are not free to alter [this] divinely decreed pattern” (words of President Oaks, quoted in a footnote to the essay). If you accept the premise, the structure follows.
- Councils are meant to be heard, the Church says. The First Presidency said in 2015 that the three presidents named to general councils would provide “a valuable dimension” to councils that “establish policy for the Church.” In October 2025 President Christofferson said: “[When] we bring both perspectives together, we get a better perspective. We get closer to the divine perspective.” The essay says women “participate in priesthood councils at the local and general levels.”
- The Church affirms her. We found no Church statement saying members may not believe in her or mention her. It teaches that she is real, and that little is revealed. If you accept that doctrine comes only by revelation, a Church that will not fill the gap with guesses is being consistent.
The common rebuttals
“Women hold priesthood authority, so they do take part in the decisions.”
Taken as the Church teaches it, this is true and the page does not dispute it. Oaks describes authority received when a woman is set apart “under the direction of one who holds the keys of the priesthood.” But the question here is narrower. The handbook and the Auditing Department report answer it in their own words: the ward council “does not make major decisions without the bishop,” the bishop manages the ward budget, and the body that authorizes the expenditure of Church funds is composed of the First Presidency, the Twelve and the Presiding Bishopric. Authority to do a task under direction is one thing. Authorizing the spending of Church funds is another. Women sit on ward, stake and general councils. A different body, made up of the First Presidency, the Twelve and the Presiding Bishopric, is named as authorizing the expenditure of Church funds.
“Counting conference talks proves nothing. Speaking is not deciding.”
Agreed, and that is why it is only one of three measures. The count is of what the Church itself lists, over four conferences in a row. Who presides and who authorizes spending come from the handbook and the Auditing Department report, not the count. The three agree.
“We do not pray to Heavenly Mother because Jesus taught us to pray to the Father. That is not silence, it is following Christ.”
That is the Church’s stated reason, and Hinckley and Renlund both give it. It explains the prayer counsel. It does not explain the rest of the record. The Church calls the doctrine “cherished,” and has taught it in some form since shortly after 1844 (the essay). The essay says knowledge of her “is limited,” and the most recent apostolic counsel we found is to be cautious and not demand revelation. Reverence and silence can look the same from outside. The record shows a doctrine called cherished, with little revealed, and members told not to pray to her.
Women are in the room. Men hold the keys and preside over the council, one of the two approvers on every payment is a bishopric or stake presidency member, and men gave more than nine of every ten listed conference items.
Each piece of that is in the Church’s own handbook or its own conference listings. So is the Mother the Church teaches, and the counsel not to pray to her.
What this means
The Church’s own pages say the following. Women lead the Relief Society, Young Women and Primary. They sit on ward and stake councils and, since 2015, have been added to the general executive councils. An apostle has taught that a woman set apart exercises priesthood authority. And the Church teaches that every person has a Mother in Heaven.
The same pages say the offices at the top are ordained men’s offices, that the ward council does not decide without the bishop, that the council authorizing Church spending is composed of three bodies whose members are ordained men, and that women gave 3 of 38 listed items in October 2026 and 3 of the 34 to 38 listed items at each of the last four conferences. They say the Mother in Heaven is real, that little is revealed, and that members do not pray to her.
Women lead organizations and sit on councils. Men hold every presiding priesthood office and gave more than nine of every ten listed conference items. And the Mother in Heaven the Church teaches is one members are taught not to pray to.
The Church’s answer is that this is revelation, not preference, and its leaders cannot change it. The only source the pages above give for that is the word of the same ordained men who hold the offices. Nothing a member can read independently shows that the pattern comes from God and not from the men who keep it.