Certainly one of the most sensitive topics discussed among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the place of women within the faith. 

It is certainly true that the plan of salvation as taught in mortality has emphasized the place of good men. Named female characters make up only 5–8.8% of named characters in the Bible. Restoration scripture does not add many named women. We have Abish, Eve, Isabel, Sarah, Sariah, and Mary in the Book of Mormon; Emma Smith and Vienna Jacque in the Doctrine & Covenants; and Adah, Egyptus, Emma Smith, Eve, Katharine Smith, Lucy Mack Smith, Milcah, Namamah, Sophornia Smith, Sarai, and Zillah in the Pearl of Great Price. One of the important doctrines of the Church is known as the Patriarchal Order (see #146 THE PATRIARCHAL ORDER). As far as we understand, all three members of the Godhead are male. Jesus selected 12 male apostles to lead His church in both the Old World and the New World. Examples could be added.

Among the pressing issues that have to do with women and the Church is that which deals with the priesthood and whether it is or will be given to women. There is a sense in which, in the words of Sister J. Annette Dennis of the General Relief Society Presidency, that “[t]here is no other religious organization in the world… that has so broadly given power and authority to women.”²⁰⁵ Women receive and exercise priesthood power and authority in at least 6 ways:

1. Through Priesthood Covenants and Ordinances: Latter-day Saint leaders have taught that women receive and exercise priesthood power when they make and keep sacred covenants. Women receive this priesthood power when they enter into covenants, particularly in temple ordinances, which President Nelson has called "a sacred endowment of priesthood power."

2. Through Callings in the Church: Women exercise priesthood authority when they serve in callings, particularly in leadership roles such as presidents of Relief Society, Young Women, and Primary. Women receive delegated priesthood authority when they are set apart for their callings, allowing them to perform their responsibilities with power.

3. Through Temple Ordinances and Service: Women participate in and officiate sacred ordinances in the temple under priesthood authority.

4. Through Personal Righteousness and Spiritual Gifts: Women have been encouraged to seek priesthood power through faith, prayer, and obedience. Women are not limited in their access to priesthood power; it is available to them as they exercise faith and keep their covenants.

5. Through Ministering and Family Responsibilities: Women exercise priesthood power as they bless and serve others in their families and communities.

Motherhood, ministering, and service in the Church are all ways in which women exercise priesthood power.

6. Through Participation in Councils and Leadership: Women serve in councils at every level of the Church, offering essential counsel and decision-making insights. Women’s participation in councils ensures that their voices are heard and that they exercise their influence in guiding the Church.

This, along with many other doctrines, can be part of the case for declaring, as Elder Jeffrey R. Holland did, that “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is more committed than any institution–any religious institution, that I know of– to the dignity, and standing, and worth, and merit, and glory of a woman in any way that I know to say it to you…In principle, I can simply say that we believe that the creation of a woman was the crowning, and final, and most glorified moment of human creation; that we start with light and dark, and land and sea, and we move through fish and fowl and beasts of the field, and we get to Adam and it’s still not good enough…The crowning creation and the glory of the human experience came with the creation of Eve.” ²⁰⁶

Some of the best work on this question has been written by Sheri Dew in her book Women and the Priesthood and by Barbara Morgan Gardner (a BYU professor of ancient scripture) in her book The Priesthood Power of Women: In the Temple, Church, and Family. Gardner has also published some work online in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship.²⁰⁷