Many thanks to listener Amanda Gunderson for her work in transcribing this episode!
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SF: I was in ward council meetings when Elder Ballard said, “You know, we want the voices of women, but not too much.”
CW: Right. Get us back on track…and then stop.
SF: Yes. I was in an actual ward council meeting in my ward when a bishop warned the Relief Society president that she was in danger of violating Elder Ballard’s counsel to ward councils.
SH: Ouch.
SF: And so we’re constantly doing what I call good girl math, which is internal, this internal cost benefit calculation. Okay, I wanna speak up about this thing. Is it worth it? Is it too much? Am I being too demanding?
CW: Hello, I’m Cynthia Winward.
SH: And I’m Susan Hinkley
CW: This is At Last She Said It. We are women of faith discussing complicated things, and the title of today’s episode is Creation Begins With Speaking Up, a conversation with Sarah Fisk. Welcome, Sarah.
SH: Hi, Sarah.
SF: I’m so excited to be here. Thank you.
CW: Well, we’re excited to have you, especially about this topic.
But before we jump into that meaty topic, Sarah, do you wanna just give us a quick bio of who you are and what brings you to this conversation about speaking up?
SF: I’d love to. I am a woman who had to learn, first and foremost, how to speak up in a lot of situations that I was never taught how to express what I wanted.
In fact, I was actively, like a lot of the women listening, probably all of them, taught that I wasn’t supposed to have needs or have wants that inconvenienced anyone else, that were burdensome to anyone else, that cost anyone else anything. I was supposed to be good. I was supposed to be happy and grateful, and I, while I enjoy being a lot of those things, I also am, like all of you, complex and have feelings about the fact that I got married and had a bunch of kids that I wasn’t necessarily always prepared how to mother in the best way and that I grew up with rules and roles kind of given to me that I didn’t fully agree to or take on or know what would cost me.
