The Young Women organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has influenced millions of women across the globe since its founding more than 150 years ago. Carry On: The Latter-day Saint Young Women Organization, 1870–2024 offers the first extended scholarly history of this organization.

Carry On traces the development of Young Women—originally called the Young Ladies’ Department of the Ladies’ Cooperative Retrenchment Association—from a small association founded among Brigham Young’s daughters into today’s global organization. Chronicling the organization’s continuous commitment to religious foundations and purposes amid changing cultural circumstances, the book draws mostly from the rich sources preserved in the archive of the Church History Library in Salt Lake City, including autobiographies, oral histories, correspondence, local and general meeting minutes, church magazines, a variety of curriculum materials, and other records. Personal stories complement the historical narrative, vividly illustrating how the organization has influenced the lives of individual Latter-day Saint young women in successive generations.

As membership in the organization has expanded from one Latter-day Saint household to tens of thousands of congregations around the world, sixteen general presidents, along with their counselors and boards and hosts of local leaders, have worked to balance competing needs. Leaders’ impulse toward retrenchment from outside influence has often been offset by a determination to both draw from and contribute to the good things of the world. Likewise, the need to teach practical skills and engage young women in a lively program while also cultivating firm spiritual testimonies prompted leaders to develop a practice of teaching the gospel through activities. Achievement programs like Bee-Hive Girls, Golden Gleaners, and Personal Progress allowed leaders to address these differing priorities, and a robust camping program provided young women a retreat from mundane concerns as they participated in constructive outdoor experiences and sought deeper connection with God and his creation.

This history documents how Young Women leaders navigated rapidly changing social and cultural currents and varying conceptions of womanhood and femininity and how they increasingly sought to create programs that would be relevant for young women across the globe. No matter the era, the place, or the circumstances, leaders throughout the organization’s history have displayed a steadfast commitment to shepherding the young women in their care and strengthening their discipleship within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Carry On offers an essential contribution to the growing body of scholarship on Latter-day Saint women’s history and to studies of women and religion and youth and childhood more generally.

Lisa Olsen Tait, Amber C. Taylor, and James Goldberg are historians for the Church History Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The late Kate Holbrook (1972–2022) was the managing historian for women’s history in the Church History Department.

The Church Historian’s Press is an imprint of the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The mission of the press is to publish accurate, transparent, and authoritative works on the history of the church.