How Mormonism Breaks Down Women’s Resistance: Mormon Discussions Podcast

What happens when women are taught to prioritize obedience, belonging, and external authority over their own thoughts, feelings, and intuition?

Dr. Julie de Azevedo recently joined Bill Reel, Jana Spangler, and Teresa Hobbs on Mormon Discussions for a conversation about the psychological and social forces that can shape women’s experiences within Mormonism and other high-demand religions.

The conversation explores why intelligent, thoughtful women may find themselves staying silent when something doesn’t feel right, publicly supporting beliefs or practices they privately question, or struggling to trust themselves when their own experiences conflict with what they’ve been taught.

The panel examines several psychological concepts that can help make sense of these experiences, including pluralistic ignorance, preference falsification, cognitive dissonance, identity fusion, and learned helplessness.

But the conversation goes beyond defining psychological terms. Dr. Julie de Azevedo and the panel explore how these dynamics can intersect with gender roles, religious authority, relationships, identity, and the need to belong.

What happens when questioning a belief could affect a marriage, family relationships, friendships, or an entire community? How do you distinguish between what you actually believe and what you’ve learned you should believe? And what does it take to begin trusting your own thoughts, feelings, and experiences?

There are no simple answers. The relationship between faith, identity, family, and personal agency is complex—and it can look different for every woman.

Watch the full conversation to hear Dr. Julie de Azevedo, Bill Reel, Jana Spangler, and Teresa Hobbs explore the psychology behind belief, belonging, obedience, and self-trust.