LDS Church releases first of its kind book on Young Women’s organization

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is releasing a full-length history on the church’s Young Women’s organization. According to the Church, it will be the first of its kind.

Young Women’s originally started as the Young Ladies’ Department of the Cooperative Retrenchment Association by the second president of the LDS church, Brigham Young in 1869. The organization includes all girls baptized into the church that are 11 to 18 years of age.

According to the Church Newsroom, this is the first full-length history of the organization.

“This book is the first to address and contextualize the place of young women within the organization of the Church, tracing the growth of Young Women from a small group of Brigham Young’s daughters into today’s global organization,” the church said in a news release.

The church says this is part of the Church’s growing initiative to digitize and advance the body of work of Latter-day Saint women’s history and on women, religion, youth and childhood.

Lisa Olsen Tait, one of the authors of the book, called the book a “landmark publication.”

“Joining the department’s growing body of work on the Relief Society and the diaries and sermons of women over time, ‘Carry On’ deepens and extends our commitment to women’s history,” she said in a press release.

Tait says the book “provides a new perspective on Church history through lenses such as generational dynamics, female leadership, institutional development and cultural change.”

The book is set to follow leaders like current Young Women General President Emily Belle Freeman, Ruth May Fox and Ardeth G. Kapp in their efforts to shape the organizations that engage the young women in a growing global church.

The book is currently available on Amazon, and is on pre-order at Deseret Book along with other retail outlets this week.