170 years ago today - Mar 18, 1842

[Masonry] In the Lodge Room, Joseph Smith gives instructions to the Relief Society concerning "the Elect Lady" which is the name of a degree in a French Adoptive Rite, which admitted women as early as 1774.

[Source: Homer, Michael, 'Similarity of Priesthood in Masonry':The Relationship Between Freemasonry and Mormonism, Dialogue, Vol. 27, No. 3]