The Church Handbook of Instructions is supposedly off-limits to all members of the Church (especially Vol. 1, which is reserved for priesthood leaders), but women are less likely than men to be able to consult it. Still, it impacts their lives in numerous ways, especially in terms of policies and procedures about which they are not informed and into which they had no input but which they can unknowingly trespass. This paper will compare the 2006 CHI with its 1999 counterpart, especially modifications and changes. It will also explore the larger context of hierarch and member in which, presumably, most of the active roles are assigned to the hierarch and most of the passive roles to the member. What assumptions are made about gender roles that, though not expressed in specific policies, still affect the view of women and men differentially in the Handbook?

Lavina Fielding Anderson