In My Husband's Nine Wives, Mormon Elizabeth Joseph makes an argument for why she feels the alternative marriage and family constellation of plural marriage is as beneficial for women, if not more so, as it is for men. Joseph argues that in contemporary society the intense pressures and demands of being a career woman, a wife and a mother almost beg for an alternative to traditional monogamous family and marriage constellations, ôcompelling social reasons make the life style attractive to the modern career womanö (Joseph, 1991, p. 147).
Joseph explains how the unique arrangement among wives, children and husband benefit both sexes and the children. She argues that if it were not for her daughter, London, having another wife to help nurture and raise her, London would not receive as good of child care. She argues that the arrangement frees men in a way that the normal social constraints of monogamy do not allow. As she writes; ôIt offers men the chance to escape from the traditional, confining roles that often isolate them from the surrounding worldö (Joseph, 1991, p. 148).
For women, the arrangement allows them to have a full-time career and still have time to raise children, care for the home, and still share comfort and intimacy with a male loved one. The arrangement of this alternative life style seems to encompass a great deal of equity and fairness as well as diminishing feelings of possessiveness or jealousy that one might think would be involved in a life style where nine women share comfort and intimacy û and children û with one male. When the wives are occupied by career, one or more of them is available to lend companionship to the husband. The husband takes turn visiting each family and each set of wives and children in a fair manner, typically one evening per week as a special dinner event. The wives book appointments when they wish to spend private time with their husband, and it se
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