It has been difficult for just about all sectors of American society to fully accept and integrate women as equals, but the clergy appears to have been the worst. Why have Christian institutions done such a bad job at fully recognizing and accepting the equal worth and abilities of half the human population?

In Who Shall Lead Them? The Future of Ministry in America, Larry A. Witham writes:

The rise of female ordinations in mainline Protestantism ... has ... produced a cycle effect: a cycle of victory and excitement followed by limits and disappointment. As the “visibility” of women in ministry has increased, churches can “feel that it is no longer necessary to get more women into lay and pastoral leadership positions,” said Barbara Brown Zikmund, ordained in the United Church of Christ in 1964.

Fewer women than expected have landed top clergy jobs — just 8 percent are senior pastors. While nearly half are sole pastors, they serve mostly small churches. As a result, perhaps, many “pioneer” women have left the ministry. Others detoured into “special ministries.” Thirty years after the revolution, complaints about “token levels” of female leadership are heard.

When the “pioneers” of women’s equality first pushed for equal representation in the clergy, the very idea of women’s equality was still controversial, debated, and in many cases flatly rejected. That they accomplished anything at all is a testament to their dedication. Once churches felt that they had achieved a sufficient level of token female representation, though, any perceived need to treat women as equals (however small) appears to have been fulfilled.

It’s only natural that this would produce disillusionment and despair among feminists, ultimately leading to many leaving the clergy and giving up on their dreams. The fact that a mere 8 percent of women are senior pastors is deplorable — it’s a far smaller number of “senior managers” than in probably any other industry. Religious leaders haven’t embraced and encouraged female participation in senior positions out of a belief that it is right or proper, so perhaps they can be prodded into doing so out of a sense of embarrassment.

Given just how awful the numbers are, it shouldn’t be too difficult to make various religious organizations, churches, and denominations look really bad. This is especially true if these so-called spiritual and values-based groups can be compared to materialistic corporations which have accomplished so much more and done so much better. How would it look if a company like IBM or Ford could be portrayed as a stronger defender and better supporter of justice and equality than, say, the Methodist or Presbyterian churches?

Shame can be a powerful emotion. Many who refuse to do the right thing, perhaps because it is inconvenient or even because they really don’t believe that it very important, will often jump quickly to do the right thing when they fear that their positive public image will suffer otherwise. We are social animals and, as such, place a high value on our public image — we want to be liked and we want others to think well of us. The same is true of large organizations which are, after all, collections of prideful people. Christian groups in America have had decades to do the right thing on their own; it’s long past time that some real pressure be put on them.

 

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