Which RS/YW/Primary Presidency Members Prefer Which Books of Scripture?

I blogged a few days ago about which books of scripture Quorum of 15 members cite more or less frequency in Conference. BethSmash asked to see results for women leaders.

Unfortunately, getting trends over time for the women leaders requires more work than I have the energy for right now. I would need to get not only distribution of citations by book of scripture for each person, but for each person in each year. Sorry, BethSmash! But I did get counts of citations for each person ignoring when the talk was given, and I’ve done the same adjustment I did for the Quorum of 15 members in the other post, adjusting for the prevailing citation norms at the times the people were in their callings. I’ve put these in this post, in case they’re of any interest.

I looked in the LDSSCI for citation counts for all members of a Relief Society, Young Women’s, or Primary General Presidency since the mid-1970s. I didn’t look back any further because if I remember right, women didn’t speak regularly in Conference before the 1980s, and there weren’t General Women’s meetings (which the LDSSCI includes) before the late 1970s.

Here are counts for all RS, YW, and Primary Presidency members who had at least 10 scripture citations in their talks (regardless of how many talks it took them to use that many references). There are 42 women who meet this criterion. I’ve put them in order by calling year.

 



There’s a lot more variability in the women than there are in the Quorum of 15 members in the other post. Note that I had to increase how far out the vertical axis goes quite a bit to accommodate the longest bars. But this result is primarily a function of their small sample size: none of these women have given enough talks (even counting RS and YW and General Women’s sessions, which LDSSCI does) to amass as many scripture citations as the Q15 members. And of course, with fewer talks and fewer citations, they have fewer chances to cover the range of possible scriptures they might cite. If you look at the counts in the tables below, it does appear that the women who have fewer total citations are more likely to have extreme values in the graphs.

One thing I thought it might be interesting to look at is a summary by organization. Note that for this graph, women who served with more than one organization (e.g., Julie B. Beck served in both the YW and RS General Presidencies) are counted for neither one; only women who served with just one organization are included.

This is a really interesting trend: General RS Presidencies cite scriptures pretty much like the average Conference speaker of their time, but YW Presidencies emphasize the Book of Mormon more (at the expense of the New Testament and D&C), and Primary Presidencies emphasize the Book of Mormon to an extreme amount (at the expense of all other books of scripture). I wonder if this means that in some sense we think of the Book of Mormon as the easiest for teens and children to grasp. Or maybe it has the most straightforward stories? I don’t know. I’m just guessing. I’d love to hear your theories in the comments.

Here is the raw data in case you’re interested in it.

Counts
Member	OT	NT	BoM	D&C	PGP	Total
Ardeth G. Kapp	3	6	6	5	0	20
Barbara B. Smith	14	23	8	12	2	59
Elaine A. Cannon	3	5	6	3	3	20
Dwan J. Young	1	6	14	4	1	26
Michaelene P. Grassli	0	4	19	3	5	31
Barbara W. Winder	7	12	21	17	2	59
Joy F. Evans	1	9	6	3	0	19
Joanne B. Doxey	1	2	7	9	1	20
Elaine L. Jack	13	23	40	30	3	109
Betty Jo N. Jepsen	3	9	13	1	0	26
Ruth B. Wright	0	4	8	1	0	13
Chieko N. Okazaki	10	20	9	8	0	47
Aileen H. Clyde	15	26	24	4	5	74
Janette C. Hales	1	5	14	3	0	23
Virginia H. Pearce	10	9	11	6	2	38
Patricia P. Pinegar	6	7	4	2	0	19
Bonnie D. Parkin	6	14	22	7	1	50
Anne G. Wirthlin	2	2	7	1	0	12
Susan L. Warner	0	2	9	1	3	15
Mary Ellen W. Smoot	10	10	13	6	2	41
Virginia U. Jensen	4	6	15	10	1	36
Sheri L. Dew	4	17	26	23	11	81
Margaret D. Nadauld	5	9	14	6	1	35
Carol B. Thomas	1	2	9	2	1	15
Sharon G. Larsen	8	5	13	6	2	34
Coleen K. Menlove	1	2	8	6	1	18
Sydney S. Reynolds	1	7	6	0	2	16
Kathleen H. Hughes	1	9	8	8	0	26
Anne C. Pingree	1	20	26	6	0	53
Susan W. Tanner	8	16	30	19	5	78
Julie B. Beck	12	27	41	53	15	148
Elaine S. Dalton	27	24	71	66	16	204
Cheryl C. Lant	1	0	11	3	0	15
Margaret S. Lifferth	0	4	6	0	0	10
Vicki F. Matsumori	2	1	18	6	0	27
Silvia H. Allred	9	17	10	10	4	50
Barbara Thompson	5	12	35	31	1	84
Mary N. Cook	5	11	15	4	6	41
Ann M. Dibb	20	6	22	8	5	61
Linda K. Burton	4	9	13	4	0	30
Carole M. Stephens	1	4	10	8	1	24
Linda S. Reeves	0	8	7	4	0	19

Here are the comparison percentage for each woman’s years in her calling.

Conference average percentages (all speakers)
Member	Enter	Exit	OT	NT	BoM	D&C	PGP
Ardeth G. Kapp	1972	1992	13%	33%	23%	26%	6%
Barbara B. Smith	1974	1984	14%	36%	17%	27%	6%
Elaine A. Cannon	1978	1984	13%	35%	18%	28%	5%
Dwan J. Young	1980	1988	12%	33%	25%	24%	5%
Michaelene P. Grassli	1980	1994	12%	31%	27%	25%	5%
Barbara W. Winder	1984	1990	12%	29%	32%	23%	5%
Joy F. Evans	1984	1990	12%	29%	32%	23%	5%
Joanne B. Doxey	1984	1990	12%	29%	32%	23%	5%
Elaine L. Jack	1987	1997	11%	29%	30%	24%	6%
Betty Jo N. Jepsen	1988	1994	12%	29%	30%	24%	5%
Ruth B. Wright	1988	1994	12%	29%	30%	24%	5%
Chieko N. Okazaki	1990	1997	12%	30%	29%	24%	5%
Aileen H. Clyde	1990	1997	12%	30%	29%	24%	5%
Janette C. Hales	1990	1997	12%	30%	29%	24%	5%
Virginia H. Pearce	1992	1997	11%	30%	29%	25%	6%
Patricia P. Pinegar	1992	1999	11%	30%	29%	24%	5%
Bonnie D. Parkin	1994	2007	10%	29%	30%	24%	6%
Anne G. Wirthlin	1994	1999	11%	32%	27%	24%	6%
Susan L. Warner	1994	1999	11%	32%	27%	24%	6%
Mary Ellen W. Smoot	1997	2002	11%	30%	31%	23%	5%
Virginia U. Jensen	1997	2002	11%	30%	31%	23%	5%
Sheri L. Dew	1997	2002	11%	30%	31%	23%	5%
Margaret D. Nadauld	1997	2002	11%	30%	31%	23%	5%
Carol B. Thomas	1997	2002	11%	30%	31%	23%	5%
Sharon G. Larsen	1997	2002	11%	30%	31%	23%	5%
Coleen K. Menlove	1999	2005	11%	28%	32%	24%	6%
Sydney S. Reynolds	1999	2005	11%	28%	32%	24%	6%
Kathleen H. Hughes	2002	2007	10%	27%	32%	25%	6%
Anne C. Pingree	2002	2007	10%	27%	32%	25%	6%
Susan W. Tanner	2002	2008	10%	27%	32%	25%	6%
Julie B. Beck	2002	2012	10%	27%	32%	25%	6%
Elaine S. Dalton	2002	2013	10%	27%	32%	25%	6%
Cheryl C. Lant	2005	2010	9%	26%	34%	25%	6%
Margaret S. Lifferth	2005	2010	9%	26%	34%	25%	6%
Vicki F. Matsumori	2005	2010	9%	26%	34%	25%	6%
Silvia H. Allred	2007	2012	9%	27%	33%	26%	5%
Barbara Thompson	2007	2012	9%	27%	33%	26%	5%
Mary N. Cook	2008	2013	9%	28%	32%	26%	5%
Ann M. Dibb	2008	2013	9%	28%	32%	26%	5%
Linda K. Burton	2012	—	8%	31%	30%	26%	4%
Carole M. Stephens	2012	—	8%	31%	30%	26%	4%
Linda S. Reeves	2012	—	8%	31%	30%	26%	4%

Note that the women who served in more than one presidency (sometimes in different organizations, e.g., RS and YW) have more than one entry year and more than one exit year. I’ve listed their first entry year and their last exit year.