Even before the 2008 raid on the Yearning for Zion (YFZ) ranch in Texas, Mormon fundamentalist polygamy was subject to exponentially increasing levels of mass media and pop culture focus. Media coverage exploded after the YFZ raid with accounts of the raid, lurid “tell-all” stories that detailed the extreme conditions of life in the YFZ polygamous community, and sympathetic public interest stories about families torn apart by the raid (Bringhurst & Foster, 2011). As demonstrated by YFZ coverage, media coverage of polygamous women has generally been framed with an “outsider” (or “etic”) and distinctly man perspective; “though women are clearly present, their voices are framed by men’s characterizations of the events they describe and by hints about how the audience should understand those events” (Gibson, 2010, p. 287). Television has capitalized on the media sensationalization of polygamy and resultant public interest in polygamy, normalizing it through shows like TLC’s Sister Wives and Seeking Sister Wife, sexualizing it in HBO’s Big Love, and reinforcing stereotypes in Lifetime Network’s Escaping Polygamy. These portrayals of polygamous women define and limit their role within a larger, patriarchal master narrative (Gibson, 2010). For the most part, television, whether through television shows or news reporting, has portrayed polygamy and polygamous women through a masculine lens; when included, women’s voices are told within a larger patriarchal narrative that views polygamous women as victims, “welfare queens,” or hypersexualized villains (Gibson, 2010).
In contrast, the memoirs of women who left Mormon polygamous communities as well as those written by women still living in polygamy give polygamous women a voice and present a more nuanced view of polygamy and the life experiences of polygamous women. Memoirs from women able to leave polygamous communities and families detail the horrors of living within fundamentalist polygamous societies, lives that left them unprepared mentally, physically, and emotionally for life outside the community. Because of a patriarchal culture and social roles that were limited to wife/mother/daughter, their life stories indicate that women within polygamous societies, especially those living in the restrictive communities such as the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), are often unprepared for life outside of the community (D’Onofrio, 2005; Duncan, 2008). For example, when FLDS women were allowed to work, with the permission of their husbands, they often could only work in church-owned businesses (Moore-Emmett, 2004) and would be forced to sign their paychecks to their husbands (Duncan, 2008). While FLDS polygamous societies are among the most restrictive, women leaving all modern Mormon polygamous communities and families have reported challenges living outside of the polygamous communities they were raised. They cite a non-formal academic background, non-transferable employment skills, and challenges with life skills such as budgeting, self-direction, and autonomy (including sexual autonomy) as contributing to the challenges of adjusting to society outside of polygamy (D’Onofrio, 2005).
Higher education has been described as a resource needed for women who were formerly members of polygamous societies to help them to be economically viable, give them the confidence they need to remain outside of polygamy, and help them assimilate to society (Jessop, 2007; Moore-Emmett, 2004; Wall, 2008). For women who leave polygamy, survival in society often depends on resources that can be provided by higher education. Outside of mass media, however, limited research exists on Mormon fundamentalist polygamy and the women who leave; existing research regarding former woman members of polygamous societies is deficient and almost exclusively framed from a man perspective. Because of that, wide-scale research regarding polygamous women within a feminist paradigm is necessary to understand their unique needs, perspectives, and struggles. This need is urgent for former woman members of polygamous societies whose survival in society may depend on the resources, specifically provided by higher education, that will help them to economically, socially, and emotionally survive (Byrd & MacDonald, 2005; Jessop, 2007).
Purpose of This Book
In this book, I describe the findings and implications of my research exploring the experiences of women who had left Mormon fundamentalist polygamy and who were or had struggled to adjust to life outside the polygamous communities they had been raised in. Framed through the lens of feminist standpoint theory, I explored life stories of three women who had left Mormon polygamy to understand their readiness for higher education. Following a life story approach to data collection and analysis, informed by research on postsecondary education readiness, I sought to understand how the implications of a polygamous life and childhood related to readiness for higher education. This study was premised on the belief that higher education provides women the opportunity to build a viable life economically and escape perpetual dependency on government assistance and social services by providing access to greater employment opportunities.
While immediately relevant to the regions where Mormon fundamentalist communities continue to persist and even thrive, it is my hope that these findings can also be relevant to postsecondary institutions across North America. Pro- and anti-polygamy rhetoric within the media has historically been magnified in Utah because of the presence of the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS Church) and the presence of the major fundamentalist Mormon polygamous sects (Moore-Emmett, 2004). Increased media coverage, recent governmental focus on prosecuting polygamy and related crimes, and dominant LDS religious affiliation of a majority of Utah citizens mean that Mormon fundamentalist polygamy is uniquely relevant to Utah academics and research. However, because there are Mormon fundamentalist communities throughout North America, including Montana, Texas, Missouri, Mexico, and southern Canada, and independent polygamist families across the United States, this research is relevant for higher education institutions located outside of Utah. This relevancy across North America creates urgency, as higher education must meet the needs of current and former members of polygamous communities.1
In this chapter, I discuss feminist standpoint theory as the theoretical framework that informed this study, life history data collection and analysis methods, prior research on readiness for higher education, discuss the limitations of the study, and provide an overview of each chapter of the book.
Feminist Theory
This study explores the experiences of former women members of polygamous societies through the framework of feminist standpoint theory (Harding, 1987; Hesse-Biber, 2014). Informing methods of data collection and analysis, feminist standpoint theory provided the theoretical foundation for this study as a way to explore how societies are gendered (Hartsock, 1987; Hesse-Biber, 2014). Feminist standpoint theory epistemologically privileges the standpoints of marginalized women. As such, their perceptions and retelling of their lives is prioritized because they are uniquely positioned to identify and describe the systems that marginalize(d) them (Smith, 2005). Standpoint theory accepts that, given the relevance of context, knowledge is often contradictory and complex; there is not a singular, essential woman experience. Knowledge is derived from the lived experiences of women which is contingent on sociohistorical context (Harding, 2004; Hesse-Biber, 2014).
A feminist standpoint theoretical lens is especially relevant to the current study exploring the experiences of women marginalized in polygamous communities and differently marginalized in mainstream society. Women leaving polygamy cannot be said to have one, singular experience independent of context, place, and identity. As their voices are often filtered through a masculine lens—both inside and outside of polygamous communities—feminist standpoint theory as the guiding theoretical framework privileges their voices in data collection, analysis, and reporting. Woman participant knowledge of their lives was dependent on the context of their lives inside and outside of polygamy. Using a life story method of data collection, participants were uniquely able to speak about their readiness for higher education and identify what they felt they needed to be successful in higher education.
More broadly, feminist theory also informs understanding of the current state of higher education as one situated within the current society power structure that privileges white, middle-class, man power, and knowledge (Elias & Merriam, 2005). Not only are women marginalized within the field of higher education, but so are persons of color and lower economic status; “this alienation … occurs when White, man, Western cultural norms of individuality, debate, and competitiveness, which are antithetical to the norms of many other cultures, dominate the classroom environment” (Baumgartner & Johnson-Bailey, 2008, p. 46). Values such as cooperation, passiveness, and informal forms of childhood education are often viewed as deficient within the man power/knowledge paradigm that is privileged in higher education settings (Baumgartner & Johnson-Bailey, 2008; Elias & Merriam, 2005). In this institutional climate, reinforced by higher education structures and discourses, women are viewed as deficient. Learning in higher education is a “historically specific mode of coming to know the world around you based on the ideological forms and appearances of capitalist social relations” (Carpenter, 2012, p. 30). According to feminist theory, success in higher education settings requires that women reject their knowledge as deficient and to relearn according to knowledge defined by a “capitalist, patriarchal, racist, heterosexist world” (Carpenter, 2012, p. 30).
In Wives’ Tales: Reflection on Research in Bountiful (2008), Campbell asserted the need for research through the theoretical framework of critical feminism that draws from the perspective of polygamous women whose voices have been silenced in the polygamous discourse. Research conducted regarding Mormon fundamentalist polygamy and polygamous women is deficient, and existing research and media coverage are generally framed with an “outsider” (or “etic”) and distinctly man’s perspective; “though women are clearly present, their voices are framed by men’s characterizations of the events they describe and by hints about how the audience should understand those events” (Gibson, 2010, p. 287). When viewed through a feminist lens, the woman polygamist role is limited to “nurturer”; to be valid, research needs to be conducted within authentic discourse from the perspective of each woman, to help them find their own voice outside of the dominant man paradigm (Merriam & Caffarella, 1999). Previous researc...