MSP contributes to a BusinessWeek article

I issued a call for volunteers to speak with a reporter a while back about a story she was working on. Several MSP readers and regulars stepped up and spoke with the reporter. The article is now complete and just went live on BusinessWeek’s website: God’s MBAs: Why Mormon Missions Produce Leaders. While I think the story could have been much more critical than it is, there is a little bit of an attempt to suggest that all may not be well inside Mormondom (on pages 5 and 6). Thanks to those who contributed!

And, thoughts about the story? What did the reporter get right? What did she get wrong? Thoughts on the tone?

2 thoughts on “MSP contributes to a BusinessWeek article”

chanson says:

June 9, 2011 at 9:35 pm

Scholar of Mormonism Melissa Proctor also notes, “A Mormon woman who has post-graduate education is less likely to attend church,” perhaps because “an advanced degree does not contribute to an LDS woman’s status within the church,” whereas the church tends to fill its top positions with professionally successful men.

Very true. Almost all of the high-profile leadership positions are completely closed to women, and it creates a situation where women can plug into the social hierarchy only as appendages to a husband’s status. So, while a man with financial success and/or professional prestige is immediately steered to the Mormon leadership track, and equivalent Mormon woman is a kind of mysterious square peg that nobody quite knows what to do with.
chanson says:

June 11, 2011 at 10:00 pm

Each elder or sister spends every moment of every day in tandem with another, sleeping and rising at the same time in a shared room. That companion isn’t always American and doesn’t necessarily speak English.

That’s kind of an interesting way of putting it. Specifically, there’s an unspoken assumption that Mormon missionaries are Americans. I guess most of them are…

Also, the tales of Mitt Romney’s mission were interesting. The theme to that story appears to be “wealth and privilege begets wealth and privilege”…?