A handful of major announcements for employees of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were made Wednesday in a memo distributed to church employees.

The LDS Church, which is one of the largest employers in Utah, made five major health and wellness changes for its employees in an effort to align its policies and benefits with other national businesses.

Church employees, including employees at Brigham Young University and other church-owned colleges, will now receive six weeks of paid maternity leave to “recover from childbirth.” Employees also now have one week of paid parental leave, which new mothers may stack on top of their maternity leave.

Additionally, major changes are coming to church employees’ dress codes. Women who were previously confined to skirts and dresses in their dress code may now wear pantsuits and dress slacks. Men can now wear “light-colored dress shirts” as opposed to white shirts 24/7.

Men may also now remove their suit jackets when the weather is too hot.

The dress code changes do not apply to church-sponsored schools like BYU, where the dress codes were less restrictive than at the Church Office Building or on Temple Square.

At least one group pushing for greater gender equality within in the church hailed the move, according to The Associated Press. Debra Jenson, executive board member of the Mormon women’s group Ordain Women, said she’s heard complaints for years from female church employees. She called the clothing change a small step toward breaking down rigid gender roles.

“Gendered dress expectations are one piece of a culture that views women as different or differently capable,” Jenson, of Ogden, told the AP. “So when we can break down those symbolic requirements it gets us closer to actual substantive change.”

Additional changes announced by the LDS Church focus on fitness and wellness. For church employees working on Temple Square, including in the Church Office Building, a new wellness center will be opened in October on the seventh floor of the Church Office Building. It will include cardio and weightlifting equipment, group fitness studios and exercise classes.

Wellness programs will also be available for all full-time employees, whether they work at Temple Square or not.

In late December, full-time employees will have “the peace of mind” of a short-term disability plan.

According to the memo, after seven days of being ill, injured or otherwise disabled, employees can receive two-thirds of their salary from day eight to day 45.

More information on the short-term disability plan will be available to employees during open enrollment in October.

The parental paid leave benefits will retroactively apply to employees starting April 18, when church leadership approved the changes, according to The Washington Post.

“I would hope that Latter-day Saints would be at the forefront in creating an environment in the workplace that is more receptive and accommodating to both men and women,” Elder Quentin L. Cook, one of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the church’s senior governing council, said in a statement.

Jana Riess, who writes about Mormonism for Religion News Service, told the Post that many LDS women raise their children at home but noted that attitudes about women and work have been shifting in recent years. She also observed the importance of family units in LDS culture and the fact that church elders are often older men and reflect different generational views on gender norms.

“The church is very slow to change, particularly on issues where it feels like the family might be threatened in any way,” Riess said. “For this kind of holdout of not offering maternity leave for some time, probably that reflects the church’s ideal that women should be at home if they have children.”

Conversely, Kathleen Flake, a professor of Mormon studies at the University of Virginia, told the Post that the LDS Church relies largely on volunteers and probably hasn’t needed to offer the same kinds of incentives as larger businesses.