wfn.org | Despite advances, sexism remains within church

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May 31, 2000 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
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By United Methodist News Service

While women have met some goals for inclusion within the United Methodist
Church, feelings of exclusion and sexism remain, according to the chief
executives of the denomination's monitoring agency on women.

The issue today is how women are treated within the church and whether their
gifts are respected, said the Rev. Stephanie Anna Hixon of the United
Methodist Commission on the Status and Role of Women (COSROW), based in
Evanston, Ill.

Cecilia M. Long, who shares co-leadership of COSROW with Hixon, added, "Once
the blinders are pulled off, I think people will have to own up to the fact
that the church has not been consistent in the way it has worked with
women."

The denomination's top legislative body, General Conference, approved a
resolution on "Goals and Recommendations for Full Participation of All
Women" during its May meeting in Cleveland. The legislation updated a
resolution from 1972 that sought to overcome rigid gender roles, eliminate
discriminatory language and practices, and place women in decision-making
arenas within the church.

Women have become decision makers, but harassing behavior and institutional
sexism continue, according to Hixon. The new resolution on women's
participation directs COSROW to conduct more research "about basically the
pulse of the life of women," she said.

Significant studies, particularly through the United Methodist Board of
Higher Education and Ministry, already have been conducted on clergywomen.
They have found that even though women have had full clergy rights for 40
years, only about 13 percent of all ordained elders in the United States are
female. Of that number, only 13 percent are from racial-ethnic minorities.

Clergywomen with the same number of years of experience and the same type of
appointment make 9 percent less than their male counterparts, which also
reduces their pension. Because of a lack of support, rejection from
congregations or parishioners, and conflicts between family and pastoral
responsibilities, United Methodist clergywomen leave local church ministry
at a rate 10 percent faster than men.

COSROW executives see the need to collect more information on the
experiences of laywomen, particularly those who fall outside the
middle-class norm. Long expects to document more clearly the fact "that
women are feeling excluded."

In its 1999 quadrennial study of local church participation, COSROW found
that men still tended to be lay leaders instead of women, by a margin of 2
to 1. In the pulpit, 53 percent of the churches had had only one or no
laywomen as preachers during the past year, and 77 percent had no
clergywomen preaching. For lay liturgists, 35 percent used all or mostly
males, while 39 percent used all or mostly females.

Women also were least likely to participate in finance or missions
committees or serve on the board of trustees. Twenty percent of the
responding pastors said they didn't know which issues were important to the
women in the local church.

The General Conference resolution calls upon COSROW not only to collect data
but also to work with the appropriate agencies and institutions on the
problems and barriers faced by women in racial and ethnic groups in the
church. In addition, COSROW plans "to give local churches and annual
conference more guidance" about what the full participation of women means,
Long said.

During General Conference, the agency found that women had equitable
participation in committees and modeled different styles of leadership.
"Women were some of the strongest leaders that we had," Hixon noted.

Women also made their voices heard on the floor during plenary sessions. "It
became really clear that they spoke with a passion but also from a depth of
understanding of who the church is," Long added.

Both found that subject matter and the setting in which it was discussed
sometimes made a difference in participation. When the resolution on gun
control came up in the Church and Society Committee, "the percentage of
women's participation increased dramatically," Hixon pointed out. When the
legislation reached the floor, "it was mostly a male conversation" by those
opposing the resolution, which passed by a wide margin.

COSROW and the Women's Division of the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries co-sponsor an orientation for female delegates at each General
Conference. Long and Hixon think this year's orientation set women at ease
by introducing them to fellow delegates on legislative committees, helping
them figure out the rules and procedures, providing information on issues
like finances and the working of Judicial Council, and familiarizing them
with the nominating process for committee officers. "I think it gave them a
sense of who they were and why they were there," Long said.

In addition to the resolution on full participation of women, the 2000
General Conference passed legislation calling on the church to be
accountable to its commitment of solidarity with women, to eradicate sexual
harassment in church and society and help prevent violence against women;
and to continue to address sexual ethics within ministerial relationships.

Hixon called the separation of the issues of sexual harassment and sexual
ethics "very intentional." COSROW plans to organize cooperative teams within
the church to be involved in prevention, education, intervention and healing
regarding sexual misconduct of clergy and lay ministers. A national
convention for those teams is set for July 19-22, 2001, in Colorado Springs,
Colo.

The new resolution on sexual harassment sets the groundwork "for the church
understanding that sexual harassment can be understood in slightly different
ways," she said. In the United States, COSROW will deal with the issue in
more of a legal sense and will look carefully at the denomination's general
agencies and educational institutions to see that policies are "in line with
what the current laws and precedents are." In the global arena, sexual
harassment also refers to violence against women, and resources will be
available to address that.

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United Methodist News Service
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