wfn.org | Study: Female ministers face patriarchy, pettiness, other pressures

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

July 14, 1999 News media contact: Tim Tanton*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
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By Cathy Keen*
	
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (UMNS) --  Women have hit the stained-glass ceiling when
it comes to making it in the male-dominated field of the ministry, a new
University of Florida study finds.
	
"Clergywomen face the same conflicts as (other) professional women, those of
balancing work and family, social isolation and having to win acceptance
from peers and superiors," said Jesse Schultz, a University of Florida
sociology graduate student who did the study for her thesis. "But they also
must interpret Scriptures that are biased against women and struggle with a
traditional male model in their denominations."
	
The newly released study by Schultz, University of Florida sociology
professor Constance Shehan, and Marsha Wiggins Frame, a professor in the
department of counseling psychology and counselor education at the
University of Colorado in Denver, is based on a 1995 survey of 190 ordained
United Methodist clergywomen representing all geographic regions of the
United States. It will be published in the August issue of Sociological
Focus.
	
The study found that clergywomen extend the traditional female roles of
mothering or caregiving to their work with congregations as a way of
overcoming resistance to their occupying a traditionally male role, Schultz
said. Clergywomen filled their sermons with references to
raising children -- including their own -- and to "family" as a unifying
image, she said.
	
"Because the Scriptures are used as a firm argument that women have no place
as church leaders, clergywomen must take extra steps to be taken seriously
and earn trust," she said. The findings likely hold true for women in other
denominations, she added.
	
Unfortunately, this extra caring work, along with a stressful life that
includes moving an average of once every four years, results in high levels
of depression, the study found.
	
Sixty percent of the women said their sleep was restless, 56 percent said
they felt tearful, and more than one-third (35 percent) said they "could not
shake off the blues even with help from family or friends."
	
When asked to describe the greatest challenge of her job, one woman
answered, "Staying sane amidst the pettiness, the patriarchy and the
pressures of the ministry."
	
The ordained ministry remains one of the most male-dominated of all
professions, with women making up no more than 14 percent of the clergy in
any major religious denomination in the United States, Shehan said.
	
By far, the most commonly mentioned challenge clergywomen identified was
balancing work and family responsibilities, Shehan said. These women spent
an average of 53 hours per week on the job, yet two-thirds said they didn't
have enough time to get the job done, she said.
	
One 38-year-old woman said that what she wanted most to change about her
occupation was the expectation "that the pastor is on call 24 hours a day
and is owned by the church."
	
Another female minister admitted that while it seemed odd, having to work
Sundays often interfered with family life.
	
Traditionally, many church-related duties are performed by ministers' wives,
Shehan said. But when a woman is the minister, she typically has no backup
person at home and may be compelled to perform all of the "wifely" duties
herself, she said. Most of the survey respondents were married, and
one-third had dependent children at home.
	
Clergywomen who were not married or involved with someone lamented the lack
of time or privacy to establish personal relationships. "Very few men are
interested in dating a minister, except clergymen, who are too busy to give
me the time I need," said one 50-year-old divorcee.

The average clergywoman in the study was almost 45 years old and had spent
more than 11 years serving the United Methodist Church. The respondents
earned a mean annual salary of $29,668.

Despite the enormous stress the clergywomen reported, nearly all reported
that their work is interesting (89 percent) and important to them (93
percent). Three-quarters of them would choose a pastoral career again if
given the opportunity, according to Shehan.
	
However, she said, the demands on clergywomen may discourage others from
becoming pastors. 
	
"Until or unless the church-related duties traditionally performed by clergy
wives are assigned to paid church workers and clergy families are freed from
the trauma of repeated relocation," she said, "women will find it difficult
to heed the call to the ministry."
# # # 	
*Keen is a staff writer for the print section of the University of Florida
News and Public Affairs. This story was provided to UMNS by the Florida
edition of United Methodist Review.

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