Susa Young Gates
Encyclopedia
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
advocate in Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
.
Susa Young was born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory
Utah Territory
The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah....
to Lucy Bigelow, LDS Church president Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...
's twenty-second wife. She entered the University of Deseret at age 13 and became the editor of the student newspaper. In 1872, she married Alma B. Dunford and had two children, but the couple divorced in 1877 while he was serving an LDS Church mission. One of these children was Leah Dunford, who later became the wife of John A. Widtsoe
John A. Widtsoe
John Andreas Widtsoe was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1921 until his death. Widtsoe was also a noted author, scientist, and academician.-Early life:...
.
In 1878, Young entered Brigham Young Academy in Provo, Utah
Provo, Utah
Provo is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Utah, located about south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front. Provo is the county seat of Utah County and lies between the cities of Orem to the north and Springville to the south...
, where she founded the music department. In 1880, she married Jacob F. Gates. She had 13 children with him, seven of which did not survive to adulthood. Her son Bailey Dunford, from her first marriage, also died young. One of her daughters was Emma Lucy Gates Bowen
Emma Lucy Gates Bowen
Emma Lucy Gates Bowen was an American opera singer and later the wife of Albert E. Bowen a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . She was often referred to as Lucy Gates and after her marriage as Lucy Gates Bowen or just Lucy Bowen.Emma...
.
Gates and her husband served as church missionaries
Missionary (LDS Church)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the most active modern practitioners of missionary work, with over 52,000 full-time missionaries worldwide, as of the end of 2010...
to the Sandwich Islands
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
in the late 1880s. In 1889, she founded the Young Woman's Journal
Young Woman's Journal
Young Woman's Journal was an official publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints between 1897 and 1929. It was an official periodical of the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association, then the LDS Church's organization for adolescent females.Young Woman's Journal was founded...
, a periodical targeted to adolescent Latter-day Saint females. In 1897, the church's Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association adopted the Young Women's Journal as its official organ. Gates stepped down as editor of the Journal in 1900, but continued to contribute occasionally until it ceased publication in 1929.
Around the turn of the century, Gates was ill for three years after suffering a psychological and physical breakdown. However, she eventually returned to health.
In 1915, Gates founded Relief Society Magazine
Relief Society Magazine
Relief Society Magazine was the official publication of the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1915 to 1970. It succeeded the earlier Woman's Exponent, which was begun in 1872. The magazine was an important publishing outlet for Utah women, and was run by women...
a periodical targeted at adult Latter-day Saint women. The magazine became the official publication of the church's Relief Society
Relief Society
The Relief Society is a philanthropic and educational women's organization and an official auxiliary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . It was founded in 1842 in Nauvoo, Illinois, USA and has approximately 6 million members in over 170 countries and territories...
and Gates edited it until 1922. Gates also wrote nine books, including a biography of her father, two novels, a history of women in the LDS Church, and a 1911 history of the YLMIA.
Gates was active in promoting women's rights
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
and women's suffrage
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
. She was a founding organizer National Household Economics Organization, served as a delegate and speaker to five congresses of the International Council of Women
International Council of Women
The International Council of Women was the first women's organization to work across national boundaries for the common cause of advocating human rights for women. In March and April 1888, women leaders came together in Washington D.C...
and was a delegate and officer of the National Council of Women. Gates was also the primary organizer of the Utah chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution
Daughters of the American Revolution
The Daughters of the American Revolution is a lineage-based membership organization for women who are descended from a person involved in United States' independence....
, Daughters of the Utah Pioneers
Daughters of the Utah Pioneers
The International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers is a women's organization dedicated to preserving the history of the original settlers of the geographic area covered by the State of Deseret and Utah Territory, including Mormon pioneers...
, and the National Woman's Press Club. She attended several Republican National Convention
Republican National Convention
The Republican National Convention is the presidential nominating convention of the Republican Party of the United States. Convened by the Republican National Committee, the stated purpose of the convocation is to nominate an official candidate in an upcoming U.S...
s. Gates was also a member of the Board of Regents of Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University is a private university located in Provo, Utah. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and is the United States' largest religious university and third-largest private university.Approximately 98% of the university's 34,000 students...
and Utah State Agricultural College.
In her later years, Gates was active in genealogy
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
and LDS Church temple
Temple (LDS Church)
In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , a temple is a building dedicated to be a House of the Lord, and they are considered by Church members to be the most sacred structures on earth. Upon completion, temples are usually open to the public for a short period of time...
work. For a time she was the head of the Research Department and Library of the Genealogical Society of Utah
Genealogical Society of Utah
The Genealogical Society of Utah , established in 1894, does business as FamilySearch International, which is the genealogical arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
. She managed the genealogy departments in the Deseret News and Inter Mountain Republican and edited and wrote columns for both papers.
Gates died in Salt Lake City at the age of 77.