Neylan answered...

I am passionate about strengthening the women in the Mormon Church and celebrating the role that we have within our organization. In fact, I founded and edit The Mormon Women Project, a website featuring interviews with Mormon women who have made interesting choices in their lives and can act as role models to others: http://www.mormonwomen.com.

As in many other organizations, members of our church have different responsibilities: some are given the responsibility to lead congregations, some the responsibility to lead families, some the responsibility to teach the youth and others to offer compassionate service to those in need. Similarly, the responsibility to use the Priesthood power is given to adult men in our organization. However, the blessings of the Priesthood are available to and felt by every member, man or woman. Every member can be healed through the Priesthood, blessed by it, and given special gifts through its power.

The power to use the Priesthood has sometimes been abused or misunderstood, which is why our detractors claim our women are being denied something that gives men power over us. Joseph Smith said, "We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.... No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned...." (Doctrine & Covenants121)

In my experience, the women of our church have lead in their own spheres so effectively that they rarely feel excluded from Priesthood operations. My own mother, a single mother of one child with a demanding career as a singer, was a beacon to LDS women of her generation of someone who could have a hugely positive influence through her music without a man at her side. I had numerous other examples of women in my youth who excelled in their chosen fields, including the field of motherhood, because of and not in spite of our church's reverence for women. Although much maligned in other faith traditions, Eve is a hero to the Mormons because, as we are taught in a verse from the Book of Mormon (2 Nephi 2:23), Adam and Eve couldn't have children in the Garden of Eden. It was Eve's monumental decision to eat the fruit and leave the Garden that made our existence possible. She knew what she was doing. She chose a tough life outside the Garden because she understood that's how mankind could progress.