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Dual devotions: African American clergywomen and work-family dilemmas

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Dual devotions: African American clergywomen and work-family dilemmas

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Content DUAL DEVOTIONS:
AFRICAN AMERICAN CLERGYWOMEN AND WORK-FAMILY DILEMMAS
by
Michelle Stewart-Thomas
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(SOCIOLOGY)
August 2006
Copyright 2006 Michelle Stewart-Thomas
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D ed ic a tio n
I dedicate this dissertation to my mother and father, two people who wanted
nothing less than the best for me and expected nothing less than the best from
me—always.
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A c k n o w l e d g e m e n ts
I am grateful, above all, to Jesus Christ who has helped me, sustained
me, comforted me, guided me, and inspired me throughout this dissertation
process. He has also provided me with the following: "other mothers" who
prayed for me; sisters who encouraged me; sister-friends who listened to my
ideas; seminary professors who taught me about women in religious leadership;
generous scholars like Christian Smith who allowed me to use his data; a
dissertation chair who showed me how to tell stories with numbers; a dissertation
committee that encouraged me to think deeper; and a loving husband who
listened attentively and enduringly to my ever-evolving ideas and made a valiant
effort to appear interested as I repeatedly discussed the minute details of this
project. To all of you I am grateful.
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T a b l e o f C o n te n ts
Dedication ii
Acknowledgements iii
List of Tables vi
List of Figures viii
Abstract ix
Introduction 1
Statement of the Problem 2
Purpose and Key Questions 4
Significance of the Research 6
Theoretical Framework 7
Organization of the Dissertation 9
Chapter 1: Marriage, Motherhood, and Ministry? Nineteenth Century 12
Black Preaching Women and the Dilemma of Navigating
and Justifying their Work-Family Choices
Introduction 12
Four Components to Balancing a Career and a Family 13
Techniques of Neutralization 39
Concluding Remarks 52
Chapter 2: A Woman's Place is in the Lead? Twentieth Century 54
Clergywomen and the Dilemma of Gaining Acceptance
Introduction 54
Late 19th / Early 20th Century 55
From Mid-Century to the Present 67
Present Day Challenges 72
Conclusion 76
Chapter 3: Who's the Boss? African American Clergywomen and 77
Leadership Dilemmas in the Church and Home
Introduction 77
Theological Framework 78
Review of the Literature 83
Methods 105
Results 112
Discussion 125
Conclusion 134
iv
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Chapter 4: (Unmarried) Women Need Not Apply? African American 135
Clergywomen and the Dilemma of Getting Placed and
Paid
Introduction 135
Literature Review 137
Data and Methods 157
Results 162
Discussion 175
Conclusion 181
Chapter 5: Can a Preaching "Sistah" Get Some Loving? African 182
American Clergywomen and the Dilemma of Getting
Married
Introduction 182
Literature Review 187
Data and Methods 197
Results 203
Discussion 221
Conclusion, Limitations and Further Research 228
Conclusion: What's Next? 230
Overview 230
Plans for Future Research 234
Bibliography 238
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L ist o f T a b les
Table 1: Percentage of Professional Degrees Awarded to Women, 1970 71
and 2002
Table 2: Means of Variables Used in the Analyses: 1996 Religious 113
Identity and Influence Survey
Table 3: Logistic Regression of Gender Ideology on Race and Gender: 116
1996 Religious Identity and Influence Survey
Table 4: Logistic Regression of Beliefs about Female Leadership on 119
Race and Gender: 1996 Religious Identity and Influence
Survey
Table 5: Logistic Regression of Beliefs about Male Headship on Race 122
and Gender: 1996 Religious Identity and Influence Survey
Table 6: Defining Male Headship in the Family: 1996 Religious Identity 124
and Influence Survey
Table 7: Means of Variables Used in the Analyses: 2000 Census, 5% 164
PUMS
Table 8: Logistic Regression of Clergy Employment in a Religious 167
Institution: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS
Table 9: OLS Regression of Clergy Salary on Gender and Selected 170
Characteristics: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS
Table 10: OLS Regression of Clergy Salary on Race and Selected 174
Characteristics: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS
Table 11: Descriptive Statistics for Variables Used in the Analyses: 2000 206
Census, 5% PUMS
Table 12: Logistic Regression of Never-Married Status on Clergy Gender 211
(African Americans Only): 2000 Census, 5% PUMS
Table 13: Logistic Regression of Never-Married Status on 214
Clergywomen's Race: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS
Table 14: Logistic Regression of Never-Married Status on African 217
American Women's Occupation: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS
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Table 15:
Logistic Regression of Never-Married Status on European
American Women's Occupation: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS
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L ist o f F ig u r e s
Figure 1: U.S. Marriage Rates per 1000 of the Population 184
Figure 2: Marital Status by Sex and Race, 1980 and 2004 186
Figure 3: Estimated Probability of Never-Married Status by Gender of 212
African American Clergy: 2000 Census, 5 PUMS
Figure 4: Estimated Probability of Never-Married Status by Race of 215
Female Clergy: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS
Figure 5: Estimated Probability of Never-Married Status by Occupational 218
Category of African American Women: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS
Figure 6: Estimated Probability of Never-Married Status by Occupational 221
Category of European American Women: 2000 Census, 5%
PUMS
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A b s tr a c t
In this quantitative study, I use data from the 1996 Religious Identity and
Influence Survey (Rll) in addition to the 2000 Census (a 5 percent Public Use
Microdata Sample) to explore three work-family dilemmas African American
clergywomen encounter—the dilemma of gaining acceptance as women in a
traditionally male-dominated occupation; the dilemma of being hired by a
congregation and paid an equitable salary given that congregations prefer to hire
married, male clergy; and the dilemma of getting married. The results from
logistic regression analyses reveal that the majority of highly religious African
American Protestants accept women as leaders in the church but still expect
men to be leaders in the home. Analyses of census data reveal that married
women have an advantage over divorced women in terms of placement into a
congregation, but divorced and never-married women earn higher salaries. While
never-married clergywomen have some advantages in the career market, they
are neither advantaged nor disadvantaged in the marriage market relative to
other professional women, i.e. African American clergywomen are no more or
less likely than African American female doctors, lawyers, or college professors
to be single, never-married. These findings reveal that the various dilemmas
facing African American clergywomen both parallel and diverge from the
challenges faced by numerous professional women who desire to have both a
career and a family yet must operate within environments that are not conducive
to them combining their dual devotions.
Keywords: African Americans; clergywomen; work-family conflict; religion
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In tr o d u c tio n
Since the 1970s, changes in attitudes, laws, and economies have
resulted in women of all races entering into previously male dominated
professions in unprecedented numbers. One occupation that has seen
exponential growth in female representation is that of the ministry. Although the
ministry is still a male-dominated profession with 85% of all U.S. clergy being
male, the number of women pursuing ministerial careers has increased more
than 950 percent, from 6,314 female clergy in 1970 (2.9% of all clergy) to 60,450
female clergy in 2004 (Carroll, Hargrove and Lummis 1981, 4; U.S. Census
Bureau 2006)
A demographic trend coinciding with women's pursuit of careers is a
decline in the rate of marriage. This decline in nuptiality has led some family
advocates and religious conservatives to blame feminists and working women for
the "breakdown" of the family (Popenoe 1993). This raises an interesting paradox
for women who pursue the ministry as a profession. Clergywomen are career
women, and like other career women, their occupational responsibilities preclude
them from being able to devote the majority of their time and energy to family
concerns, even the concern of mate selection. Unlike other career women,
however, clergywomen by and large are employed by religious institutions that
have a vested interest in seeing families maintained (Hertel 1995; Marler 1995;
Gesch 1995) and, as such, expect their clergy to represent the "traditional" family
structure (Lummis 2003). Given the uniquely paradoxical demands of career and
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family that clergywomen encounter, it is of interest to view how clergy status is
affecting marital outcomes and how marital status is affecting the career
outcomes of African American women who are leaders of faith communities.
S t a t e m e n t o f th e P r o b lem
Obstacles to "Having It All"
For professional women of all races, a major concern is whether or not
they will be able to "have it all" i.e. successfully combine a career and family.
Recent research on career attainment and family formation seems to suggest
that combining career and family is fraught with numerous obstacles (Blair-Loy
2005; Blair-Loy and DeHart 2003; Blau and Ehrenberg 1997; Spain and Bianchi
1996; Hochschild [1989] 2003). The challenges seem to be particularly daunting
for African American professional women (Chambers 2003; Collins 2000).
African American women are the least likely to be married or remarried
and the most likely to be divorced (U.S. Census 2006). The worsening
socioeconomic plight of African American men has been advanced to explain
declining marriage rates among African Americans (Wilson 1999, 1987; Staples
1999; James 1998; Testa and Krogh 1995). While men as a group earn more on
average than women in similar occupations, African American women are
graduating with college and professional degrees in greater numbers than their
male counterparts, thereby increasing their social standing (Hefner 2004; Cose
and Samuels 2003). Although college-educated African American women are
more likely to marry than less educated African American women (Goldstein and
Kenney 2001), the pool of eligibles is shrinking for both groups. For African
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American women who accept the cultural ideal of hypergamy, or "marrying up" in
the social class structure, marrying someone with less education and therefore
fewer job prospects is not a viable option (Brown and Kesselring 2003; Bulcroft
and Bulcroft 1993; South 1991). The resulting reality is that many African
American women will not "have it all"; instead, they will spend their lives alone
(Tucker and Mitchell-Kernan 1995; Cherlin 1992).
Although some African American clergywomen are voluntarily choosing to
temporarily postpone marriage or to forfeit the enterprise altogether (Coleman
2000), the majority of college educated African American women desire to
eventually marry (Hoffnung 2004; Davis et al. 2000; Tucker 2000). When a
woman desires to marry yet cannot find a suitable mate, her singleness is an
involuntary status (Stein 1981). Women who are involuntarily single often
experience frustration, depression, anxiety, loneliness, and reduced life
satisfaction as a result of their inability to find a mate (Tucker and Mitchell-
Kernan 1998). Along with the emotional costs, there are also occupational costs.
While singleness is often an asset to a woman in a secular profession attempting
to advance her career, singleness can be an occupational liability for women
clergy (Carpenter 2001). Within religious institutions, sometimes referred to as
"traditional family reserves" (Marler 1995), there is an implicit and often explicit
expectation that clergy will represent the "proper" family structure—heterosexual
marriage with children (Lummis 2003). However, clergywomen may be hard-
pressed to represent this nuclear family structure if men are intimidated by
women's status as clergy (Carpenter 2001), making them reluctant to form deep
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meaningful relationships with clergywomen that could potentially lead to marriage
(Zikmund et al. 1998).
Clergywomen not only face challenges in terms of finding someone to
love, they also face challenges in terms of finding some place to work.
Structurally, women clergy must deal with religious policies that limit or restrict
their opportunities for leadership (Chaves 1997; Nesbitt 1997). Attitudinally, they
must contend with congregants who disapprove of women being clergy (Smith
and Stevens 2003; Carpenter 2001; Schmidt 1996). Both of these obstacles limit
women's opportunities for placement and advancement in religious hierarchies.
For a religious organization to view a woman as unsuitable for ministry
simply because she is a woman, and for a man to view a woman as unsuitable
for marriage simply because she is a minister, underscore the persistence of
sexist attitudes in our culture. Many in contemporary U.S. society are ambivalent
or opposed to women having authority. Nowhere is this ambivalence and
resistance more evident than in the institutions of the family and religion.
P u r p o s e a n d K ey Q u e s tio n s
The purpose of this study is to assess how the lives of African American
clergywomen are influenced by what Hoffnung (2004) identifies as being the four
key components to balancing career and family: the career component, which is
affected by whether or not women choose traditional or non-traditional careers
and by how much time they devote to these careers; the attitude component,
which is affected by beliefs about women's roles and responsibilities in the home
and workplace; the marriage component, which is determined by when and
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whether or not women marry and/or stay married; and the motherhood
component which is affected by the timing and number of births. My rationale for
incorporating African American clergywomen as my population of interest is that
in doing so, I will be able to assess how race and religion intertwine with these
four components to influence women's personal and professional lives.
In sync with this purpose, I have formulated three empirical questions:
• Question 1: What is the current gender ideology of highly religious African
American Protestants concerning a woman's "proper place" in the church and
home? Is this gender ideology more or less conservative than that of highly
religious European American Protestants? Does this gender ideology vary
with respect to gender and view of the Bible?
• Question 2: How do marital status and family structure affect career
opportunities (i.e. placement and pay) for African American clergywomen?
• Question 3: How does race intersect with occupation to impact a woman's
marital status? Specifically, how do African American clergywomen's odds of
being single/never-married compare to that of 1) European American
clergywomen and 2) professional African American women in secular
occupations?
Because the empirical data on factors affecting African American
women's professional careers and personal relationships are woefully scant, I
approach these research questions with both determination and trepidation. The
determination stems from my unwavering conviction that a study on the public
and private lives of African American clergywomen will contribute immensely to
our understanding of race and gender relations in contemporary U.S. society.
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The trepidation stems from my recognition that in doing this research I will raise
more questions than can be fully answered with any currently existing data
sources. And yet, the act of raising questions can in and of itself be a purpose.
Therefore, a secondary purpose of this research is to recognize and then relay
the kinds of questions that need to be asked in order to facilitate additional
research on African American career women.
S ig n if ic a n c e o f t h e R e s ea r c h
While numerous studies have documented the obstacles professional
women have in attempting to combine a family and a career (Blair-Loy 2005;
Blair-Loy and DeHart 2003; Blau and Ehrenberg 1997; Spain and Bianchi 1996;
Hochschild [1989] 2003), no study to date has focused on the unique familial
challenges facing African American clergywomen. The studies that have been
undertaken which address the obstacles clergy face in balancing their
professional and personal lives have focused primarily clergymen, clergywomen,
and clergy couples who are European American or European (British) (Walrond-
Skinner 1998; Zikmund et al. 1998; Lee and Balswick 1989; Mace and Mace
1980). In addition, research on African American women and family issues has
tended to highlight pejorative aspects of black family life—welfare dependency,
teen pregnancy, and male irresponsibility. In contrast, this study seeks to
advance knowledge about the marital formation and career advancement of the
previously overlooked yet rapidly expanding population of professional African
American women employed as clergy. Accurate data about African American
clergywomen and their work-family dilemmas can be especially useful to family
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therapists who may be called upon by members of this population seeking
counseling.
A study of the work-family dilemmas facing African American
clergywomen is significant not just for the information it tells us about this specific
population. It is also significant because race, gender, and family continue to be
contested domains in U.S. culture, with the religious realm influencing both
legislation and ideation. Documenting and theorizing about how a societal
context of gendered and racialized inequality gives rise to distinctive marital
patterns and occupational outcomes can better inform current policy debates
concerning women's religious, professional, and familial roles. Research on
African American clergywomen can also give us insight into the ways in which
the institutions of family, religion, and work must be restructured so that men and
women can flourish within them.
T h e o r e t ic a l F r a m e w o r k
In this project, I operate from a black feminist perspective as outlined by
Collins (2000). From this perspective, the goal is to critically examine the social
context of African American women's lives in order to recognize and then reveal
the oppressive forces that restrict their opportunities. Operating within a black
feminist framework allows me to assess both beliefs (i.e. What gender ideology
do African Americans uphold concerning women's place in the church and
home?) as well as actual behaviors (i.e. Are African American clergywomen
marrying?). I look at both attitudes and behaviors because in accordance to black
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feminist theory, there is a dialogical relationship between thought and action, with
both thought and action influencing one another.
Black feminist theory privileges the experiences of African American
women. In contrast to feminist theory which often only speaks to the experiences
of European American middle class women, black feminist theory recognizes that
African American women must not only must contend with sexism, they must
also contend with racism and classism. For this reason, Collins refers to the
interconnections among systems of oppression as a "matrix of domination." This
does not mean, however, that oppression just operates on a structural level; it
also operates on an interpersonal level as well, which is why Douglas (1999)
avers that sexism, classism, colorism, and heterosexism are all forms of
"horizontal violence" that are detrimental to the stability of both the black church
and family.
Collins posits that black feminist theory responds to a fundamental
contradiction in U.S. society—democratic ideas in contradistinction to non-
democratic policies. That fundamental contradiction is present in black religious
institutions that preach a message of liberation yet often perpetrate a practice of
separation and devaluation on the basis of gender. From a black feminist
perspective, gender is understood as a socially constructed category rather than
an immutable biological fact. The social construction of gender creates artificial
differences that polarize (male is different from female; white is different from
black; heterosexual is different from homosexual). However, differences are not
just constructed, they are also ranked, and people with lower rank—African
American women—have unequal access to resources. Thus, an African
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American clergywoman's social location in the race, class, gender, and sexual
orientation hierarchy influences her life chances—chances for career
advancement and even chances for marriage.
O r g a n iz a t io n o f t h is D is s e r ta tio n
In the first chapter of this dissertation, I explore the obstacles late
eighteenth and early nineteenth century women faced in terms of trying to be
married, to be mothers, and to be ministers. A primary cause of the dilemmas
they encountered stemmed from the fact that many people did not believe that it
was "proper" for a woman to be a religious leader. Because of this, preaching
women had to be strategic in how they approached, justified, and fulfilled their
occupational and familial responsibilities. Using colorful examples from the
spiritual narratives of Elizabeth (last name unknown), Jarena Lee, Zilpha Elaw,
Rebecca Cox Jackson, and Julia Foote, I illustrate how preaching women utilized
various neutralizing techniques to justify their deviation from the racial and
gender conventions of their era.
In Chapter 2 I continue to provide historical information concerning
challenges clergywomen have faced in their struggle to gain legitimacy as
religious leaders. I document how changes in women's status in the larger culture
influence the opportunities that become available to clergywomen as the
twentieth century unfolds. I discuss the various roles religiously inspired African
American women have undertaken, including the well-known roles of missionary
and evangelist and the lesser-known role of Catholic nun. I discuss the cultural
significance of the timing of women's ordination and how ordination does not
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guarantee that a clergywoman will find acceptance and opportunities for paid
ministry. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the coping mechanisms
African American clergywomen adopt to deal with the present-day obstacles that
obstruct their career advancement.
With the historical background clearly laid in the first two chapters, I use
Chapter 3 to address my first empirical question: What is the current gender
ideology of highly religious African American Protestants concerning a woman's
"proper place" in the church and home? I use data from the 1996 Religious
Identity and Influence survey to ascertain whether highly religious Protestants
(HRP) are egalitarian or hierarchical in their views of appropriate positions for
women and men in the ecclesiastic and domestic realms. Assessing lay attitudes
is useful for helping us understand the current cultural context in which
clergywomen operate. I conclude the chapter with a discussion of how
clergywomen's professional and personal lives are affected by the beliefs of the
religious adherents they lead.
While Chapter 3 focuses on the factors affecting clergy in Protestant
churches, Chapter 4 is more inclusive, encompassing all women in the U.S. who
classify their occupational category as clergy. In this chapter I assess what affect
gender, race, marital status, and parental status have on African American
clergywomen's occupational outcomes. The two occupational outcomes I
highlight concern selection into a congregation and salary for services rendered.
Specifically, I determine whether modeling the idealized nuclear family increases
clergy's chances of working in a religious industry and increases how much they
are paid.
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The final chapter, Chapter 5, addresses whether or not choosing to
pursue a clergy career has any effect on women's likelihood of remaining single.
Like Chapter 4, Chapter 5 is based on an analysis of census data. To determine
whether or not there is something unique about an African American woman's
ministerial career that impacts marital outcomes, I compare African American
clergywomen's likelihood of being never-married to that of 1) other professional
African American women and 2) European American clergywomen.
Although each chapter in this dissertation is a self-contained unit that
addresses a specific dilemma and raises unique questions, I strive to present the
data in such a way that the interrelatedness of the issues is apparent.
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C h a p te r 1
Marriage, Motherhood, and Ministry?
Nineteenth Century Black Preaching Women and the Dilemma
of Navigating and Justifying their Work-Family Choices
In t r o d u c t io n
Many of today's college educated women want it all—a career, marriage,
and motherhood (Hoffnung 2004; Goldin 1997). Some believe that this struggle
to "have it all" is a late twentieth century phenomenon, but is it? In this chapter I
will document how five nineteenth century women grappled with many of the
same dilemmas that face twenty-first century women trying to balance a career
and a family. Using as my source the spiritual narratives1 of nineteenth century
Black preaching women, I will assess how women of the past were affected by
what Hoffnung (2004) has identified as the four components to navigating a
career and a family—the career component, the attitude component, the
1 "Spiritual narrative" and "spiritual autobiography" are terms used to describe
biographical accounts that highlight the narrator's religious experiences. In the course of
telling one's life story, births, deaths, marriages, and other mundane events are
presented as backdrops to the central theme of spirituality. For a discussion of the literary
significance of Black women's spiritual narratives, see Sue E. Houchins. 1988.
Introduction to Spiritual narratives: The Schomburg Library of nineteenth century Black
women writers, edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York and Oxford: Oxford University
Press. See also Chanta M. Haywood. 2003. Prophesying daughters: Black women
preachers and the word, 1823 - 1913. Columbia and London: University of Missouri
Press.
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marriage component and the motherhood component. 2 In the process of
documenting how the lives of Elizabeth (last name unknown, 1765? - 1866),
Jarena Lee (1783 - 1850?), Zilpha Elaw (1790 - 1846?), Rebecca Cox Jackson
(1795 - 1871), and Julia Foote (1823 - 1900) were affected by these four
components, I will delineate the ways in which these preaching women deviated
from the gender and racial norms of their era. I will conclude with an assessment
of the neutralizing techniques these women used to justify their unconventional
choices.
Fo u r C o m p o n e n t s to B a l a n c in g a C a r e e r a n d a Fa m il y
Nineteenth century Black preaching women's lives were affected by each
of the four career-family components outlined by Hoffnung (2004). The career
component: Despite the relational, emotional, and financial costs, these women
chose nontraditional careers and were fully devoted to them3. The attitude
2 In this chapter, I refer to these women as "women of African descent" or as "Black
women" rather than "African Americans" because at this time, Black people, whether
free
or enslaved, were not considered "Americans" as evidenced by the 1856 Dred Scott
Supreme Court decision, "4. A free negro of the African race, whose ancestors were
brought to this country and sold as slaves, is not a 'citizen' within the meaning of the
Constitution of the United States." See Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1856)
http://www. law. cornel I. edu/su pct/htm l/h istorics/USSC_CR_0060_0393_ZS. htm I
3 Even though the vocation of nineteenth century preaching women is not typically
referred to as a "career," I choose to employ this label because I perceive that their
ministerial duties more closely align with the concept of a career than that of a job. A job
is something that one does; it is often separate and distinct from who one is. In contrast,
a career is a vehicle though which an individual derives a sense of identity and purpose.
For nineteenth century preaching women, their primary benefit was not the remuneration
for the work they performed (especially since they were rarely paid!); the work itself is
what gave them a sense of fulfillment and enhanced their self-concept.
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component: As preaching women who defied gender and racial norms, they bore
the brunt of public disapproval for "stepping out of their place." The marriage
component Most of these preaching women were able to attain—but not
necessarily sustain—a marriage. And finally, the motherhood component These
traveling ministers were often forced to make hard choices when parental
responsibilities conflicted with ministry opportunities. I will discuss each of these
four work-family elements in more detail below.
The Career Component
The Christian ministry is, and has been for centuries, a male dominated
profession. Yet, ever since its inception, women have managed to carve out for
themselves a sacred space in which they could use their ministerial gifts.
Between the years 1790 and 1845 over 100 women preached the gospel;
approximately 10% of these women were of African descent (Brekus 1998).
Many nineteenth century preaching women could be labeled "evangelists"
or "itinerants" —preachers who traveled carrying the Christian message. Many
Black women preachers traveled from church meeting to camp meeting to house
meeting, preaching to both Black and White listeners. They frequently spoke in
independent black churches in cities like Boston, Baltimore, Detroit, New York,
and Philadelphia. When they were denied the pulpit because of their gender or
their race, they spoke in basements, in homes, in schools, in town halls, or in
open fields.
Unlike the majority of women of the day, these preaching women were
extremely mobile. Jarena Lee, "...feeling it better to wear out than rust out"
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reports that in one year she traveled (mostly by foot) 2,325 miles, and she
preached 178 sermons (Lee 1849, 51, 97). Zilpha Elaw traveled out of the
country, preaching over 1000 sermons over the course of about five years in
England (Elaw [1846] 1986, 158), while Elizabeth and Julia Foote both traveled
to Canada to preach (although not together).
Occupational Hazards
In many ways traveling out of the country was safer for these Black
women than traveling by foot, horseback, stagecoach, or steamboat within the
country, especially within the southern states. Black preaching women like
Jarena Lee and Zilpha Elaw who traveled South to preach to their bound
brothers and sisters risked being sexually abused, physically harassed,
kidnapped and sold into slavery, or imprisoned, especially if they attempted to
preach to enslaved persons without a White male present (Raboteau 1999).
Given the dangers associated with traveling South, it is not surprising that Elaw
felt apprehensive about her well-being, "When I arrived in the slave states, Satan
much worried and distressed my soul with the fear of being arrested and sold for
a slave, which their laws would have warranted, on account of my complexion
and features" (Elaw [1846] 1986, 91). Given these perils, it was most definitely
not safe for any woman, but especially not a Black woman, to travel alone or
even with a "sister preacher" as Jarena Lee liked to call her traveling companions
(Lee 1849, 63). With full knowledge of the dangers of doing so, Elizabeth not only
dared to travel to Virginia, a slave state, she also had the effrontery to speak out
against slavery while she was there! As a result, she was nearly imprisoned for
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her audacity (Elizabeth 1863, 17). Fortunately, none of the above mentioned
women was sold into slavery or imprisoned, but the risks to their life and liberty
were certainly real, and the fact that they made continued trips South speaks to
the depth of their convictions.
An Uncommon Life
The dedication to ministry was most certainly an uncommon pursuit for
women of this era. In the first half of the nineteenth century, most women of
African descent who lived in the South worked as unpaid agricultural laborers,
caretakers of White children, household servants, or bearers of the next
generation of workers (White 1999). Freedwomen, and freeborn women living in
the North, often supported themselves by working as seamstresses,
washerwomen, or domestics. More educated women might found schools or
orphanages for Black children (Lerner 1972).
Many nineteenth century preaching women engaged in traditional
women's work before embarking on their preaching career. For example,
Rebecca Cox Jackson, who was freeborn, was a seamstress and a caretaker for
her widowed brother's six children before she began her 10-year itinerate
ministry. Others worked intermittently in a traditional occupation in order to raise
money before continuing on their travels. Jarena Lee, Zilpha Elaw, and Elizabeth
started schools for Black children in an effort to acquire funds, while Zilpha Elaw
hired-out both herself and her daughter as domestics when she found herself in
debt.
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Preaching women had to be industrious in order to earn money because
as itinerate, female ministers they were not salaried and could not always count
of receiving donations and offerings. The financial standing of all itinerate
ministers was a precarious one, as evidenced by the fact that the issue of
securing financial support in the form of a "chartered fund" or "sinking fund" for
male "traveling preachers" was raised repeatedly by the African Methodist
Episcopal (AME) General Conference (Payne 1891, 56, 61, 122 -123).
Washing, cooking, sewing, teaching, and caring for children were
traditional fields of employment viewed as suitable for Black women; preaching,
traveling, and evangelizing were not. Given this gendered division of labor, how it
is that some women were able to cross over into the male domain of ministry? To
answer this question we must consider the impact of the First and Second Great
Awakenings on the temporary liberation of women's roles.
Religious Revivalism in the New World
In the middle decades of the eighteenth century, in what later became
known as the Great Awakening, a revivalistic fervor spread across the English
colonies. To counter the secularizing effects of the Enlightenment, Protestant
religious groups began to emphasize the importance of a personal spiritual
awakening, or rebirth, that was available to all who confessed of their sins—
regardless of race, gender, or economic standing. In these revivals, evidence of
spiritual conversion, not social standing, was the main criterion for membership in
the family of believers. To people of African descent, this new emphasis on
spiritual egalitarianism was indeed "good news" for it ran counter to a prevailing
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belief that Black people were not fully human and therefore did not have souls.
As a result, itinerate preachers often found people of African descent eager to
receive their evangelistic message.
While the Enlightenment emphasized reasoning, and orthodox
Protestantism emphasized ritualism, the leaders of the Great Awakening such as
Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and Gilbert Tennent emphasized spiritual
renewal and experiential piety. In this religious social movement, more weight
was given to emotionalism than intellectualism, and itinerates often preached
extemporaneously, using imagery and language that common people could
easily comprehend. Although many felt that it was only those who experienced
God's Holy inspiration, not human education, who were best qualified to preach
the gospel, not all agreed with this view. Disturbed by the way in which the Great
Awakening was encouraging excessive emotionalism, disrupting the religious
hierarchy, and downplaying the importance of theological training, Charles
Chauncy, (1705 - 1787) a Congregational minister, Harvard graduate, and anti
revivalist lamented that "...young persons, sometimes lads, or rather boys; nay,
women and girls, yea, Negroes, have taken upon them to do the business of
preachers" (Noll et al. 1983, 121).
The emphasis on religious piety was temporarily disrupted by the
American Revolution, but after the Treaty of Paris was ratified by Congress on
January 14, 1784, thus officially ending the War, there was another outpouring of
revivalism, known as the Second Great Awakening. During the Second Great
Awakening, a democratic, theological fervor once again spread across the
country, and a plethora of camp and prayer meetings sprung up across the
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nation. Because one of the byproducts of the War was a drastic decrease in
church membership— only five to ten percent of the adult population was a
member of a church in the 1790s—many perceived that the new Republic was in
desperate need of a revival (Noll 1992, 163). With religious bodies eager to
increase their membership rolls, and with male ministers in short supply, they
turned to women, and during the Second Great Awakening women began to find
new roles opening up for them, especially if they had a written endorsement from
a male minister sanctioning their preaching. Thus, it is not surprising that the
recorded years of many Black and White women's early preaching coincide with
the Second Great Awakening (1790 - 1845).
The Millenarian Movement
Women were also given more opportunities to preach as the Millenarian
Movement spread across the country. One Bible passage frequently quoted
justifying women's right to preach is from the book of Joel, which states that "in
the last days" God will pour out his spirit on both men and women, and both men
and women will prophesy.4 In the early 1840s many people believed that they
were indeed living in the "last days," and they were anxious to be ready when
Jesus returned. Their beliefs were strongly influenced by William Miller who
predicted that Jesus would return to earth and establish his 1000-year reign on
April 3, 1843. Some people who believed in this prediction prepared themselves
by selling their property and refusing to plant crops. Many were also more open
4 Joel 2:28-29
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to hearing from women preachers because they believed that when Christ came,
he would re-vamp the social order. The belief that in Christ's earthly kingdom "the
last shall be first and the first shall be last"5 made the Millerite Movement
especially appealing to some people of African descent.
Perhaps one of the most famous persons of African descent who
preached in the Millerite Movement was Isabella Baumfree, also known as
Sojourner Truth (1797 - 1883). According to her Narrative, on June 1, 1843,
Isabella changed her name to symbolize her new mission in life—traveling, or
sojourning, the country spreading God's truth (Truth 1850, 50 - 60). Truth was a
popular traveling evangelist who could move a crowd with her fiery preaching
and calm a mob with her inspired singing.
Truth was not one who was easily daunted, and when Miller's third
prediction for the end of the world failed yet again, thus marking the end of the
Second Great Awakening, she still continued to preach. However, her message
did not focus solely on heavenly salvation; it also focused on how salvation could
be obtained on earth for people of African descent and all women.
The Attitude Component
Despite the fact that the Second Great Awakening provided women
opportunities to preach, most people were still opposed to them doing so. For
those in nineteenth century America who accepted the notion that a "true
woman" was one who was "pious, pure, submissive, and domestic" (Welter
5 Matthew 19:30
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1966) the expression "female preacher" was a contradiction in terms. How could
a woman who was, according to religious and cultural tradition, created to serve
and to submit, take on a role that demanded that she lecture and lead? In early
nineteenth century America a particularly spiritually minded woman would
sometimes be allowed to pray, testify, or even exhort, but preach? That was a
privilege largely reserved for men.
The distinction between "prayer," "testimony," "exhortation" and
"preaching" was not always clear. In some denominations, a woman's words
would be received if she stood in the pews and shared her thoughts about a
matter, but if she stood behind the pulpit and said the exact same things, she
would be accused of "preaching" and of stepping outside of her place6. In the
African Methodist tradition, both exhorters and preachers could be licensed and
both were responsible for encouraging sinners to seek salvation, but, "...the
exhorter is never allowed to take a text" i.e. never allowed to exegete the
Scriptures. Daniel Payne, second bishop of the AME church as well as the
church historian, further explains the role of the exhorter: "It was also made the
duty of exhorters to employ their talents and time in the Sabbath-schools as
teachers; also to lead and manage the weekly prayer-meetings (Payne 1891,
121, 220). It was common during this era for spiritually minded women to hold
prayer meetings in their homes in which they would exhort sinners to repent, pray
6 In Ordaining Women, Chaves (1997) argues that these kinds of symbolic distinctions
between men's and women's roles in the church persist in the twentieth century because
there is a "loose coupling" between practices and policies. As a result, many unordained
women perform the exact same priestly functions as ordained men with the distinction
being 1) that women are not given a priestly title for their function or 2) that women are
given a title, but it is a title viewed as more appropriate for women.
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for the sick, sing hymns and spirituals, and testify of God's saving grace. Many
nineteenth century preaching women began their ministries in just this fashion.
Testifying at a home prayer meeting was one thing; preaching before a
large audience at a church or camp meeting was another. Thus, when nineteenth
century women, and in particular, nineteenth century Black women—women
whose humanity and purity were disparaged by many—articulated a call to the
ministry and then actively pursued that call, they were engaging in behavior that
could accurately be described as deviant.
Deviant Behavior
Sociologists define deviant behavior as any behavior that violates the
norms of a group or culture. The label "deviant" is not a moral one; it is a
descriptive one. What is considered "deviant behavior" depends on the time,
place, and culture in which the act occurs. In the first half of the nineteenth
century, much of the behavior of Black preaching women was considered
deviant.
One behavior for which they were harshly criticized is based in what they
did in their profession as preachers—they engaged in public speaking. For a
twenty-first century woman in the United States to speak before a public
assembly is not considered deviant behavior; for a nineteenth century woman to
speak before a "promiscuous audience"—an audience in which both men and
women were present—was a violation of deeply ingrained social and religious
norms concerning a woman's "proper place." Brekus (1998) explains that female
preachers, by nature of them being on "stage" in ways that no "respectable"
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woman would desire, were often compared to actresses and prostitutes. This
was especially problematic for Black women because they were already
stereotyped as being naturally licentious, and it was believed that their public
"exposure" might incite sexual and religious disorder (203 - 205).
What made public speaking problematic for all women was the fact that it
was indeed public and therefore within the male sphere. With the emergence of
the bourgeoisie, or middle class, in Europe and the United States in the latter
part of the eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth century, the
belief that women and men should operate in "separate spheres" became
prominent among middle and upper class White Americans. In what became
known as the "Cult of True Womanhood" or the "Cult of Domesticity" White
women were admonished in magazines such as Godey's Lady's Book to devote
their energies to the domain of the home. Although among most White
Americans, Black women were not considered "true women" and "laws...in most
states of the union classified] all Negro women and prostitutes together" (DuBois
[1931] 1971, 269), among people of African descent, especially among men who
controlled the emerging Black institution of the church, there was a belief that
Black women should be separate from and subordinate to Black men in the same
way that White women were expected to be separate from and submissive to
White men. Even though their economic and social realities did not make such
an existence possible for the majority of people of African descent, Black
newspapers, magazines, and religious tracts promulgated the notion that women
should concern themselves with taking care of their households and leave public
works to men. This viewpoint is expressed in the first issue of the AME weekly
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paper, The Christian Recorder, which was printed on July 1, 1852. In an editorial
entitled "On Licensing Women to Preach" J.W.C. Pennington argued against the
ordination of women, declaring that "Providence" had appropriated distinct
"spheres of labor" for men and women, and "the man, strong in body and mind, is
fitted by nature to execute what the weaker sex is incapacitated for, both
physically and mentally." He then went on to say that men, not women, were
suited for mechanical labor, service in the armed forces, mercantile employment,
learned professions, and, most importantly, the ministry (Pennington 1852).
"Let your women keep silence..."
Many Black and White Christians turned to biblical texts to substantiate
their views of separate spheres and the subordination of women. One frequently
quoted Scripture used to justify women's secondary status in the church and
home is found in 1 Corinthians 14: 34 - 35:
Let your women keep silence in the churches; for it is not permitted unto
them to speak, but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also
saith the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands
at home; for it is a shame for women to speak in the church (King James
Version).
A literal, non-contextualized interpretation of these verses provided justification
for the ownership of women—"your women," the suppression of women—"keep
silence," the disempowerment of women—"they are commanded," the exclusion
of women—"if they will learn," the dependency of women—"let them ask their
husbands," the separation of women—"at home," and the denigration of
women—"for it is a shame." Gender hierarchalists who applied this type of
androcentric hermeneutic of the text felt warranted in opposing women's public
ministries and in encouraging domesticity.
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Black preaching women were not just considered deviant and unnatural
because of where they spoke (in public places), they were also criticized for how
they spoke—loudly and, when the need arose, aggressively. At a time when a
lady was supposed to be "quite and demure" these women, by nature of their
office, had to speak in loud voices if they were to be heard over the throngs of
people that often flocked to hear them at camp meetings. In fact, Julia Foote's
"throat difficulties" that temporarily ended her preaching career in 1851 may have
been exacerbated by the fact that she had spent years projecting her voice
without the aid of microphones. (Foote 1886, 108).
Women not only spoke loudly when they were outside, they also spoke
loudly when they were inside, if they felt so moved. During a meeting in a
widow's house in which Elizabeth and other women assembled were praying
loudly and fervently, a watchman knocked on the door, demanding that they be
quiet. His interference, however, only incited her to speak even more
vehemently:
He...said to me, 'I was sent here to break up your meeting. Complaint has
been made to me that the people round here cannot sleep for the racket.'
I replied, 'A good racket is better than a bad racket. How do they rest
when the ungodly are dancing and fiddling till midnight? Why are they not
molested by the watchmen? And why should we be, for praising God our
maker?'
Perhaps it was surprise or shock at finding a Black woman who zealously defied
his command, but whatever the reason, Elizabeth reported that the watchman,
"turned pale and trembled, and begged my pardon..." (Elizabeth 1863, 11).
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Ecclesiastical Restrictions
Attitudes toward women preachers were most clearly reflected in
denominational restrictions that were placed upon them. The majority of
nineteenth century preaching women were affiliated with one of the branches of
Methodism. John Welsey, the founder of Methodism, was initially opposed to
female preachers; however, by the 1770s, after seeing the effectiveness of their
efforts during the First Great Awakening, he changed his views and openly
supported them. That support did not, however, include ordination (Brown 1983).
Early Methodism not only attracted women, it also had great appeal to
people of African descent, primarily because of it its emphasis on the equality of
believers regardless of race, its anti-slavery stance, its emotional appeal, its
adaptability to black culture, and its simplicity (McClain 1984). Richard Allen
contributes the Methodists' "plain and simple gospel" which even the "unlearned
can understand" for the success of Methodism among people of color (Allen
1833, 29). Methodism was not, however, an egalitarian oasis, and as it evolved
and became more institutionalized, both gendered and racialized discrimination
became more prevalent. This stirred Black men to found their own churches. In
1787 Richard Allen broke with the Methodist Episcopal Church and founded the
African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) in 1816 because he was tired of the
racist practices such as segregated seating imposed by the white denominational
structure. The AME Zion Church was established in 1820 by Peter Williams, Sr.
and James Varick who were upset about the white churches' unwillingness to
grant Black men ordination, and the Colored (now Christian) Methodist Episcopal
Church (CME) was founded in 1870 in Jackson, TN by forty-one Black men who
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desired to be independent of the White Methodist Episcopal Church, South which
continued to treat people of African descent in a degrading manner.
Although these founding Black fathers were quick to denounce the
discriminatory policies that limited their access to ecclesiastical power in white
denominations, upon founding black denominations, they did not hesitate in
instituting sexist policies that limited women, apparently ignoring the inherent
contradiction in their actions.7 When Jarena Lee, self-proclaimed "first female
preacher of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church" asked Richard Allen
for the opportunity to preach, he initially denied her request. Allen was not
opposed to women leading prayer meetings, but he did not believe that it was
theologically justified to allow a woman to preach. For eight years Jarena Lee
submitted to his will, but then one day when a visiting minister by the name of
Richard Williams "lost the spirit," she sprang from her seat and finished his
sermon. From that point on, Reverend Allen, now ordained Bishop Allen, allowed
her to preach; however, he still did not issue her an official license to do so (Lee
1849, 97, 17).
Most telling in this story is that it was men who had the power to
authorize a woman's preaching. For this and other reasons, Rebecca Cox
Jackson refused to be officially affiliated with any of the Methodist denominations
during her 10-year preaching career. Her lack of denominational ties frustrated
the Black male religious leaders because it made it more difficult for them to
7 For more on the origin of the major black denominations, see Lincoln and Mamiya 1990.
The black church in the African American experience. Durham and London: Duke
University Press.
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sanction her ministry. Technically unable to stop her, the denominational leaders
turned to their members and threatened to expel anyone who opened their
homes to her for a meeting. Church members who opened their homes to Julie
Foote and Elizabeth were also threatened with excommunication.
The treat of excommunication from the black church was most definitely
something to be feared and avoided. Even though Jim Crow Laws and the
notorious Black Codes were not officially instituted until after Reconstruction,
people of African descent in the North still suffered from racial discrimination and
segregation in worship services, housing, legislation, and transportation.
Because of this, the black church became for people of African descent the one
public place they could enter and be treated with humanity and dignity. For
example, the African Meeting House in Boston, the oldest extant black church,
was not simply a worship center. It also served as an educational facility for
children, a recruitment center during the Civil War, a lecture cite for abolitionists,
a planning center for William Lloyd Garrison's New England Anti-Slavery Society,
a headquarters for community meetings, and an artistic forum for musical and
literary events. To be cut off from the church meant to be disconnected from the
vital core of black culture and community.8
When Julia Foote was excommunicated from her church because she
refused to stop preaching when she was told to do so, she expressed her angst
about the injustice of her exclusion. As Andrews (1986) notes, it was with a
8 For more on the centrality of the black church in the lives of free people of color living in
the North, see Robert C. Hayden. 1983. Faith, culture, and leadership: A history of the
black church in Boston. Boston: Boston Branch NAACP.
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stroke of polemical genius that Foote subtly linked the Black male sexism in the
church with White racism in the larger society when she declared, "Even
ministers of Christ did not feel that women had any rights which they were bound
to respect" paralleling the words used by Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger
Taney in his Opinion of the Dred Scott Decision when he stated that the framers
of the Constitution considered the "negro" of an "inferior order" who "... had no
rights which the white man was bound to respect." (Foote 1886, 76; Taney 1857).
Despite restrictions placed upon them, Black women preached; however,
they did not preach with the benefit of licensure or ordination9. In 1844 Julia
Foote and other women petitioned the AME General Conference in an effort to
gain licensure. They were denied. Subsequent requests made in 1848 and 1852
were also denied. The first woman to be licensed to preach in the AME church
had to wait forty years, and even then, her ordination was not permanent.
Evangelist Sarah Ann Hughes (1860 - 1933) was ordained by Bishop Henry
McNeal Turner in 1885. However, pressure from other pastors caused him to
revoke her ordination two years later (Collier-Thomas 1998, 26 - 27).
9 Ordination is a status that is actively sought and intensely debated but rarely defined.
Among Christians, it is commonly stated that to be ordained is to be set apart for the
purpose of ministry. The problem with this explanation is that it does not capture the
nature of the resistance to women's ordination. The controversial effect of ordination is
not being "set apart" but rather being "set above." For this reason, I define ordination as
1) the process by which a person is imbued with ecclesiastical power and authority over
other believers and 2) the formal recognition of an individual as a leader of a religious
body with all of the rights, privileges, and responsibilities therein. Licensure is different
from full ordination in that to be licensed is to be officially authorized to fulfill a particular
priestly function, usually preaching, teaching, or exhorting. In the early AME church,
licensed individuals also had the right to vote at the General Conference. To deny
licensure to women was to disenfranchise them; to deny ordination to women was to
disempower them.
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Without full ordination, a preacher could not baptize individuals, marry
couples, or administer communion, nor could she expect to receive any type of
salary for her labors. Perhaps most limiting, however, was the fact that un
ordained preachers could not pastor a church; for this reason they settled for
being itinerates. Despite these limitations, nineteenth century Black women still
managed to find a way to be heard.
The Marriage Component
In the nineteenth century, there was a commonly held belief that allowing
women to be pastors would result in the neglect of their husbands and children.
(Tucker and Liefeld 1987, 279).1 0 Therefore, it is not surprising that most
nineteenth century White female preachers were single when they began their
careers (Brekus 1998). Single, young women were viewed as more suitable than
married women for an itinerate lifestyle because single women did not have
family responsibilities (223). In contrast to this norm, for many Black preaching
women, marriage preceded ministry. One notable exception is Elizabeth who
made no mention of a husband or children in her spiritual biography. However,
for women who did marry before beginning their preaching careers, they found
that because of the gender norms that compelled women to prioritize their
domestic duties, marriage imposed considerable constraints on the type of
1 0 This same argument continues to be used to restrict women's religious leadership
opportunities. See the section "Balancing Career and Family" in Catherine Wessinger,
ed. 1996. Religious institutions and women's leadership: New roles inside the
mainstream. South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 13, and Barbara Brown
Zikmund, Adair Lummis, Patricia Mei Yin Chang. 1998. Clergy women: An uphill calling.
Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press.
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ministries they could pursue and on the timing of their ministries. As a result,
these Black preaching women found it necessary to employ various strategies to
cope with the limitations that marriage impressed upon them. These strategies
included delaying their call, defying their husbands, and/or putting distance
between themselves and their mates.
A Call Delayed
Jarena Lee was a single woman when she felt called to the ministry.
However, in 1811, shortly after being told by Richard Allen that she could only
exhort, not preach, she chose to become a preacher's wife, instead of a preacher
in her own right. She was 28 years old when she married Joseph Lee, the pastor
of an African Methodist congregation in Snow Hill, a city about six miles from
Philadelphia. This sublimated role was not, however, satisfactory for Lee, and
she fell into a depression. Being separated from her Philadelphia prayer band
and other religious associates was a "great trial" to her and she became ill. She
only began to recover after she felt that God was impressing on her heart the
promise that she would not die before fulfilling her call to preach (Lee 1849, 14).
Had Jarena Lee been born in the twentieth century as opposed to the late
eighteenth century, she probably would not have had to choose between ministry
and marriage. Instead, she might have been able to combine them by serving as
the assistant pastor or co-pastor of a church with her husband, an option an
increasing number of African American clergywomen are choosing (Jones 1994).
However, given that Lee was not born in an era in which couple-led churches
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were gaining acceptance, her strategy was to forfeit her own ambitions and fortify
her husband's career.
It is significant to note that as a man, Joseph Lee's ministerial aspirations
were not denied, denigrated, or delayed. Within the African Methodist circle, he
did not have attitudinal barriers restricting his career aspirations, nor did he have
to choose between family and career. Joseph Lee's ability to successfully
combine his roles as minister, husband, and father were based in institutional
structures that privileged men at women's expense. When Jarena Lee forfeited
her calling and prioritized her husband's ministry, she was adhering to the gender
conventions of the era. Her personal fulfillment was of secondary importance (or
perhaps tertiary importance, if we rank caring for her children) to her
responsibilities as a wife and a mother. It was only after her husband died that
she fully dedicated herself to the ministry.
Defying and Distancing from Husbands
Unlike Jarena Lee, Julia Foote, Rebecca Cox Jackson, and Zilpha Elaw
all began their preaching careers as married women. Despite the gender norms
which prescribed women to be domestically focused, obedient followers of their
husbands, these women embarked upon careers that took them outside of their
homes and that created conflict within their marriages.
Like Jarena Lee, Julia Foote left her family, friends, and religious
associates upon her marriage in 1841 to a man by the name of George Foote;
they settled in Boston. However, rather than being distraught over the move, she
viewed her marriage as a "divine appointment" because although it appeared as
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though she was being led by her husband to this new place, "...it was not the
voice of man that had bidden me go out from...my kindred, but the voice of my
dear Lord." It was in Boston that she began teaching people about the
importance of sanctification, a controversial concept that was gaining popularity
among the Methodists. For promoting what some considered a "false doctrine"
she was criticized harshly, and her husband threatened to send her back home
or to the "crazy-house" if she did not stop. Despite her husband's wishes, she
continued her mission, and he finally accepted an offer to go away to sea for six
months, sending her half of his pay. With her husband away, she embarked upon
a preaching agenda. She noted in her biography that her theological and physical
separation from her husband was painful for her, but she took solace in the
biblical promise in Isaiah 54:5 that God would be her surrogate husband (Foote
1879, 51, 53, 59, 61).
While Julia Foote's husband threatened to send her to the "crazy-house,"
Rebecca Jackson's husband, Samuel, sometimes thought she was "agoing
crazy" because of her religious zealousness. That Jackson saw her marriage as
a hindrance to her spiritual mission in life is evidenced by her longings to be
single again after her sanctification experience. "I never had felt so happy in all
my life....and I thought if I had all the earth, I would give it, to be a single
woman." (Jackson 1981, 77).
Although Samuel Jackson is often portrayed as being completely
oppositional to Rebecca's ministry (Humez 1981), he was actually initially very
supportive of her, being one of two men who regularly attended the "covenant
meetings" that Rebecca co-led with a woman by the name of Mary Peterson.
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When Rebecca began to "open the Scriptures" in a "new way," her husband was
greatly moved by her preaching, "Samuel was aweeping, walking the floor,
clapping his hands and crying, 'Salvation to our God"' (Jackson 1981, 105). It
appears that his violent opposition to her religiosity primarily occurred after she
embraced the Shaker doctrine of celibacy and refused to be sexually active with
her husband. Thus, it appears that for Rebecca Jackson, it was not having a
career that caused a problem in her marriage; it was adopting a belief system
that classified all sexuality as carnality that created conflict between her and her
husband.
For Zilpha Elaw it was both her religious beliefs as well as her religious
career that caused problems in her marriage. Her husband, Joseph Elaw, whom
she married in 1810, was not a religious man, and about a year after their
marriage, he tried, unsuccessfully, to get her to renounce her religion. Although
Joseph Elaw did not try to stop what Zilpha Elaw called her "family or household
ministry" that she engaged in for five years, he drew the line at public preaching.
Perhaps anticipating that her husband would be a hindrance to her career, Elaw
initially kept her preaching a secret from him. He only realized that she had
embarked upon a preaching career when someone came to him and said, "'Josh,
your wife is a preacher.'" (Elaw [1846] 1986, 71, 83). He then told her to
discontinue her preaching and "proceed no further." Despite this direct command
from her husband, she continued in her evangelistic endeavors, thereby directly
challenging the patriarchal authority of her husband.
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The Motherhood Component
Children First?
For nineteenth century wives to defy their husbands was unthinkable; for
nineteenth century mothers to depart from their children was unforgivable. Yet,
this is exactly what some Black preaching mothers did. Both Zilpha Elaw and
Jarena Lee relied on friends and family to help them care for their children when
they were not present. Early in his life, Lee's sickly son James was left with her
friends and with her mother. Perhaps most surprisingly is the fact that when
James Lee was a teenager, the aged Bishop Richard Allen cared for him for two
and a half years while Jarena Lee was gone on a preaching excursion. Upon
Allen's death in 1832 (which Lee incorrectly records in her narrative as 1831) she
immediately placed her son with a French gentleman who apprenticed him in the
cabinet-making business (Lee 1849, 18 - 19, 61). Zilpha Elaw also apprenticed
her daughter to an unnamed person in the dress-making business in New York
before traveling on to New Haven, Connecticut (Elaw [1846] 1986, 103)
Despite the fact that they left their children for extended periods of time,
the decision to do so was not an easy one. Both Jarena Lee and Zilpha Elaw
agonized over leaving their children in the care of others while they traveled for
weeks, months, or even years on preaching expeditions. Yet, they both seemed
to believe that a choice had to be made between motherhood and ministry, and,
despite the pain associated with leaving their children, as faithful followers of
Christ, they believed that ministry must take precedence. Consumed with worry
over what would happen to her seven-year-old daughter if she were not present
to care for her, Zilpha Elaw prayed that God would "wean" her from the
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"excesses of nature's ties" that hindered her from being completely submissive to
God's will for her life. Apparently, her prayer was answered for she became so
focused on her ministry that while traveling between Philadelphia and New York
on a mission that would keep her away from home for seven months, she did not
stop even once to pay a visit to her daughter despite the fact that at one point
she passed within 300 yards of her home (Elaw [1846] 1986, 76, 90). Jarena
Lee also seemed to believe that it was only through God's supernatural
intervention that she was able to overcome her natural inclination to concern
herself with her son:
During that time I kept house with my little son, who was very sickly.
About this time I had a call to preach at a place about thirty miles distant,
among the Methodists, with whom I remained one week, and during the
whole time, not a thought of my little son came into my mind; it was hid
from me, lest I should have been diverted from the work I had to, to look
after my son (Lee 1849,18)1 1 .
Other Black preaching women also seemed to share the view that
children would be a diversion from the work they had to do. For Julia Foote,
being childless and separated from her seafarer husband for extended periods of
time freed her to evangelize. "Having no children, I had a good deal of leisure
after my husband's departure, so I visited many of the poor and forsaken ones,
reading and talking to them of Jesus, the Saviour." Foote did, however, have
experience in childcare, having cared for her four younger siblings while her
mother worked, a task that she described as "a thing which I did not at all relish."
1 1 Jarena Lee bore a total of six children, four of whom died, along with her husband,
within six years of her marriage. She writes, "I was now left alone in the world, with two
infant children, one of the age of about two years, and the other six months..." (Lee 1849,
14). However, throughout the rest of her narrative, only one child is mentioned, her son
James. Presumably, the other infant died.
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(Foote 1886, 62, 27). Rebecca Cox Jackson also had early childcare
experiences that might have influenced her later choices to remain childless.
While lamenting her inability to read, she described herself as "...the only child of
my mother that had not learning." (Jackson 1981, 107). Her educational
opportunities were impeded by the fact that she had to care for her younger half
siblings while her mother worked. Later, she spent years caring for her widowed
brother's children. For Rebecca Cox Jackson, adopting the doctrine of celibacy
even in marriage served a dual purpose; it served the manifest function of giving
her a sense of empowerment as she denied her flesh to feed her spirit, but it also
served the latent function of insuring that she would not become pregnant and
hindered by children.
For Elizabeth, who was born into slavery, the choice to have children or
not was not her own. However, because she did not mention either husband or
children in her nineteen-page memoir, it is most likely that she had neither. Freed
at the age of thirty by a Presbyterian who became convicted that slavery was
unjust, Elizabeth was still young enough to marry a freedman and have children
who would have then acquired her free status, but her life apparently did not
follow this course. Even if she had been a mother, she might not have had to
deal with the struggles associated with leaving an infant child, as her ministry did
not begin until she was forty-two years old (Elizabeth 1863, 9).
It is important to note that even if these Black preaching women had not
followed a ministerial path, they still would probably not have been able to solely
confine themselves to the domestic sphere, and it is highly likely that they would
have—at least occasionally—been separated from their children for extended
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periods of time. Because of economic necessity, many northern Black mothers
worked outside of their homes, especially if they were single or widowed. When
they were employed as live-in domestics, they placed their children in the care of
older siblings or relatives. Such was the case of Rebecca Cox who lived with her
grandmother for the first three to four years of her life while her mother worked to
support the family after her father's death (Jackson 1981, 71).
Even with both mother and father working, many Black families
experienced economic hardships, necessitating that children also become wage-
earners. It was not uncommon for young Black children in the North to be hired-
out to more affluent families to work as live-in paid servants (Coontz 1992, 11,
239). Beginning at age seven, Jarena Lee worked as a live-in maid for a man by
the name of Mr. Sharp who resided about sixty miles from her place of birth (Lee
1849, 3). From the age of ten to about the age of twelve, Julia Foote was hired-
out to a family by the name of Prime, at whose hands she received an
"undeserved whipping" (Foote 1886, 24). Zilpha Elaw also hired out herself and
her daughter to help pay for her deceased husband's funeral expenses, "After my
dear husband was buried...I...procured a situation of servitude for my little girl,
and another for myself, judging these the best means I could adopt for the
liquidation of my debts" (Elaw [1846] 1986, 85).
Although Black women and children often worked and were sometimes
separated, what distinguishes the work of these Black preaching women from
their non-preaching counterparts is the nature of the work. Black working women
who cleaned homes and cared for affluent children were still working within the
domestic sphere, just not their own. In contrast, Black preaching women rejected
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the traditionally defined domestic sphere and the responsibilities therein. Jarena
Lee, after leaving her son with friends, wrote, "I now began to think seriously of
breaking up housekeeping, and forsaking all to preach the everlasting Gospel"
(Lee 1849, 18). Black preaching women were considered deviant by many
middle class White Americans and Black men precisely because they "broke up
housekeeping" and left their husbands and their children to pursue non-feminine
endeavors. Not only that, but they also presumed to have the right and the
authority to instruct people, both Black and White, male and female, on how they
should live.
T e c h n iq u e s o f N e u tr a liza tio n
Because both formal and informal social controls have a profoundly
curbing impact on the behavior of people living in a society, how did nineteenth
century Black preaching women explain and justify their deviation from societal
expectations? What types of techniques did they use to neutralize any feelings of
guilt, shame, or insecurity they may have experienced as a result of violating
cultural norms regarding women, wives, and mothers prevalent in nineteenth
century America and abroad? To answer this question, I will apply David Matza
and Gresham Sykes' Neutralization Theory1 2 .
1 2 Although Matza and Sykes highlighted the behavior of adolescents to develop their
theory, their theoretical underpinnings are applicable beyond that population.
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Acceptance of the Norms
Matza and Sykes (1957) posit that a person's violation of the cultural
norms is not an indication that the person is immune to society's demand for
conformity. In fact, from a structural functionalist perspective, a society's ability to
function is dependent on the majority of people adhering to the norms, or rules,
of a society. Because there are not enough policing agents to enforce
conformity, people must be socialized to internalize the norms of their culture,
and in so doing, police themselves. The internalization of norms by the people of
a culture is a crucial component of social control. Did Black preaching women
internalize the norms of their society? In many ways, they did.
Conservative Gender Politics
With the exception of Sojourner Truth who became a women's rights
activist, most nineteenth century Black preaching women did not strive to re
establish the gender hierarchy present in secular society. Although they
defended their right to preach, they remained very conservative in their gender
politics. Zilpha Elaw proffered a scathing denouncement of women who were
striving for independence and self-control, stating that such strivings led to "...the
worst results both to religion and society." She went on to say this, "That woman
is dependent on and subject to man, is the dictate of nature.... These principles
lie at the foundation of the family and social systems and their violation is a very
immoral and guilty act" (Elaw [1846] 1986, 61 - 62). Other preaching women
also seemed to have, at least initially, internalized and accepted the cultural norm
of male leadership in the church and society. For example, Julia Foote
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confessed, "I had always been opposed to the preaching of women and had
spoken against it..." Even after Foote reconciled within herself that her preaching
was of God, she still did not insist upon her right to stand behind the pulpit—the
place symbolizing power. "I had never asked for his pulpit...I did not care where I
stood—any corner of the hall would do" (Foote 1886, 67, 75). Jarena Lee, after
being told by the bishop that there was no place for women preachers in their
denomination initially felt relieved, "This I was glad to hear" (Lee 1849, 11).
The religious hegemony was so great that nearly all of the women who
preached have recorded in their narratives that they struggled with feelings of
self-doubt. After being labeled an "enthusiast" and looked upon as a "speckled
bird" by White ministers, Elizabeth began to doubt her right to preach, "I began to
think I surely must be wrong." She was torn, however, because she wanted to
preach: "I felt at times that I must exercise in the ministry, but when I rose upon
my feet I felt ashamed, and so I went under a cloud for some time, and
endeavored to keep silence..." (Elizabeth 1863, 12-13).
Matza and Syke (1957) explain that because even those who deviate
have internalized the values and norms of the society in which they live, they
often experience shame, as did Elizabeth, and make attempts to avoid self blame
or the blame of others for their violation of those norms. Matza and Syke
describe five methods by which deviants attempt to "neutralize" their feelings of
guilt or blame: Denial of responsibility ("I couldn't help it!"); denial of injury ("No
one was hurt by my actions."); denial of the victim ("They got what they
deserved."); condemnation of the condemners ("The ones judging me are worse
than I."); and appeal to higher loyalties ("I had to be faithful to what was most
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important.").1 3 Nineteenth century Black preaching women incorporated each of
these techniques of neutralization in their narratives.
Denial of Responsibility: "God Called Me and I Had to Obey"
Deviants will propose that they are placed in certain positions by
circumstances beyond their control. They generally say something along these
lines, "I may have deviated, but it wasn't my fault!" Each of the five nineteenth
century Black women I have discussed utilized this technique of neutralization to
justify her entry into the ministry. They each claimed that a Force beyond their
control set them on the path that they took. Because they professed that the
ministry was not something that they chose, but rather something that was
chosen for them, they simultaneously abdicated responsibility and redirected
hostility onto the One skeptics would be the most hesitant to challenge—God.
Julia Foote wrote that God spoke to her directly, and against her protests,
told her that she was to preach, "Thee have I chosen to preach my Gospel
without delay,1 and I, in agony, cried out, 'Lord, I cannot do it!"' after which she
suffered from loss of appetite and insomnia, neither of which was resolved until
she consented to obey (Foote 1886, 66 - 67). In a similar vein, Jarena Lee
declared that she had no choice but to begin her deviant career because God
had given her a direct command: "Go preach the Gospel!" (Lee 1849, 10). Zilpha
Elaw, when called to England by an Inner Voice, tried to get out of it: "I often
1 3 Since the publication of Matza and Syke's neutralization theory, or drift theory, as it is
also called, others have proposed additional neutralizing techniques. For example, Minor
(1981) identifies two additional neutralization mechanisms—Defense of necessity ("I had
to deviate in order to survive") and metaphor of the ledger ("The good I've done
outweighs any bad I've done.")
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argued the matter before the Lord in prayer, pleading my ignorance, my sex, my
colour and my inability to minister the gospel ...but the Lord said, 'Say not, I
cannot speak; for thou shalt go to all to whom I send thee and what I command
thee, thou shalt speak (Jeremiah 1:7)"' (Elaw [1846] 1986, 137). Rebecca Cox
Jackson claimed that the "Lord raised a rod of correction" against her in the form
of sickness that led to temporary death when she refused to believe that God had
called her to be fully devoted to ministry (Jackson 1981, 110 - 114). Finally,
Elizabeth gives us the impression that, if left up to her, she would not have
chosen the ministry, especially since she did not feel qualified to preach, "As I
could read but little, I questioned within myself how it would be possible for me to
deliver the message....Whilst I thus struggled, ... the Lord showed me that it was
his will..." (Elizabeth 1863, 9 -1 0 ).
The Call
What is similar in each of these women's accounts is a call, a protest, and
a resignation to obey. In the early Methodist tradition, a true minister was not one
who had undergone years of theological training. Rather, a true minister was one
who had been called by God. In keeping with the holiness doctrine that was
gaining acceptance during this era, inspiration, not education, was considered
the mark of a true minister. Had education been the defining criterion, these
women would not have been qualified to preach. Elizabeth "could read but little,"
and Rebecca Cox Jackson was illiterate until she miraculously received the "gift
of reading" in her late 30s and was then able to read the Bible (Jackson 1981,
107 - 108). Many others had only a few months or a few years of schooling.
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Because no human could question God's choice, emphasizing their call
was a way in which Black women justified their entrance into the ministry. The
fact that they protested the call gave credence to their testimony that they had in
fact been called. Brekus (1998, 186) explains that according to Christian
convention, "only those humble few who disparaged themselves as too ignorant,
weak, or unworthy to serve God had truly been called."
Lacking traditional authority, these women relied on what Weber calls
charismatic authority to justify their right to preach (Weber [1915] 1947). To gain
charismatic authority, they documented their supernatural, otherworldly call to
ministry and their sanctification process. In their narratives they described a time
of communing with God's Holy Spirit in visions and dreams and visitations in
which he declared his plan for their lives. All five women asserted that God was
able to speak to them and through them because they had not only been saved,
they had also been sanctified. According to John Wesley, sanctification was the
final stage in the salvific process. A sanctified individual received what Wesley
called the "second blessing" or "spiritual perfection." Spiritual perfection was a
state of spiritual maturity in which believers' motives were viewed as pure and
their actions, though not perfect, were considered to be guided by God (Brown
1983). By claiming to have reached this level of spirituality, the women were
authenticating and substantiating not just their right to preach, but also their
responsibility to preach.
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Denial of Injury: "...and many were saved."
A second technique of neutralization utilized by deviants is that of the
denial of injury. People who employ this technique will insist that even if they did
deviate from the norms, no one was hurt by their actions. The example Matza
and Sykes (1957) give is that of a teenager who may "borrow" a car for a
"joyride" and upon being caught will insist that "no harm was done" even if he did
break the law in taking the car.
Nineteenth century Black women constantly faced disapproval by both
men and women—despite their insistence that they had been called by God. For
this reason, they spent a great deal of time in their spiritual biographies
explaining how their ministries not only did no harm to anyone, they were in fact,
a great benefit to many. Zilpha Elaw proclaimed, "...I am justified in saying, that
my God hath made my ministry a blessing to hundreds of persons; and many
who were living in sin and darkness before they saw my coloured face, have
risen up to praise the Lord..." (Elaw [1846] 1986, 158). Jarena Lee dedicated a
considerable portion of her biography detailing the number of miles she walked
and the number of sinners she led to the Lord. She also included numerous
accounts similar to the following of how people were blessed by her ministry.
After preaching in a hot, overcrowded Black church, she later received this
report: "They told me that sinners were converted, backsliders reclaimed,
mourners comforted, and believers built up in the most holy faith" (Lee 1849, 39).
While sinners may have been blessed by the work of these preaching
women, what about their children? If children belonged with their mothers, then
surely these women's absences from them must have had a deleterious effect on
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their offspring. Preaching mothers attempted to demonstrate that this was not the
case. Knowing that she would be harshly criticized for leaving James, her sickly
son, Jarena Lee tried to convince the readers of her narrative that her repeated,
extended absences from James were not detrimental to his well-being. She
made a point to inform the reader of the status of his health after her first
separation from him. After being gone for about a week preaching to the
Methodists she returned home and found that all was well "...no harm had come
to my child, although I left it very sick. Friends had taken care of it which was of
the Lord." (Lee 1849, 18). Nearly every time that she returned from a preaching
trip, one of her first tasks was to report that she found her son well cared for and
in good health. Zilpha Elaw, who also left her child for prolonged periods of time
in the care of others while she preached, went so far as to insinuate that her
pursuit of the ministry not only did not harm her daughter, but it actually resulted
in the greatest blessing her daughter could have experienced, for it was under
her mother's preaching that Elaw's daughter accepted the Christian message of
salvation (Elaw [1846] 1986, 103). Thus, as a mother, she was not only
responsible for her daughter being born; she was, more importantly, responsible
for her daughter being born again.
Preaching women did not deny the importance of their roles as mothers;
on the contrary, they emphasized the eternal significance of their roles as
spiritual mothers—mothers who, in spreading the gospel, gave birth to spiritual
children. Sojourner Truth often addressed her listeners as her little children, while
Zilpha Elaw described a woman who was converted under her preaching as "my
child in the gospel" (Elaw [1846] 1986, 106). As spiritual mothers, it was their
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responsibility to not only "give birth," but also to "feed" their children the word of
God. In order to do this, they had to do what "good mothers" willingly do—make
personal sacrifices in order to be available to those who needed them most.
Thus, Black preaching women did not reject motherhood; rather, they redefined
it, expanding the concept to encompass the entire human family, of which they,
as spiritual women ordained by God, were called to nurture.
Denial of the Victim: "God is my Vindicator!"
With this technique of neutralization, the person who is considered the
deviant transposes herself into the position of avenger, and any harm that comes
about to the so-called victim is viewed as rightfully deserved. Although nineteenth
century Black preaching women did not themselves retaliate against the
numerous people who attempted to thwart their ministries, they did supply
extensive examples in their narratives of how God intervened on their behalf.
When Jarena Lee traveled to Lancaster to preach, the proprietor would
not give her the church key and she was forced to speak in a home. Although
some people probably abetted the proprietor and saw him as being in the right
and Lee as being in the wrong, that is not the way she viewed the situation.
Indignant about being denied, she prayed for God to either soften the proprietor's
heart or "kill him out of the way." A few days later the proprietor relinquished the
key—from his death bed. According to Lee, the man was left in the hands of
God, and God, being the rightful judge, vindicated Lee (Lee 1849, 41).
Zilpha Elaw recounted a similar story about her husband. Elaw's husband
Joseph felt considerably "grieved" by her call to preach. He complained that
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amongst his peers, he was a "laughing-stock" because his wife was a public
speaker, and he tried to convince her to discontinue her ministry. She would not.
She continued her public speaking, and he soon became sick and died (Elaw
[1846] 1986, 84). Although she did not pray for God to "kill him out of the way" it
is interesting to note that she placed the account of his death immediately after
his protests about her preaching. This leaves the reader with the subliminal
message that God takes it seriously when people try to stop his messengers.
Apparently, Rebecca Cox Jackson's husband Samuel also had to be
spiritually disciplined. In a section provocatively entitled, "My Release From
Bondage" Rebecca Jackson recorded that on January 31, 1836 she informed her
husband that she would no longer serve him because she was committing to a
life of celibacy in which she would be completely committed to Christ. Samuel
Jackson was none too pleased with this decision and attempted to kill her,
"Samuel sought my life day and night." After his attempts on her life failed
repeatedly, he came to realize that she was under the protection and direction of
God, and it would be wrong of him to try to prevent her ministry. She quoted him
as saying the following:
Now, Rebecca, you may sleep at your own house, I will trouble you no
more. Go forth and do the will of God. I know that He has called you to do
a work and I have tried to hinder you until I have suffered everything but
death. Nobody but you knows what I have suffered in this house for trying
to stop you (Jackson 1981, 146).
Although Rebecca Jackson did not inform her readers as to the specific nature of
Samuel Jackson's suffering, it is sufficient that she let us know that those who
attempt to hinder the work of the Lord will pay a heavy price.
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Condemnation of the Condemners: "Who are You to Judge
Me?"
When faced with a situation in which they are being judged for their
deviant actions, deviants will sometimes attempt to turn the tables and point out
the faults of their judges. In so doing, they deflect the attention away from
themselves and expose the hypocrisy of their condemners. Nineteenth century
Black preaching women often utilized this neutralization technique.
Elizabeth employed this very technique when she spoke against the
church elders who complained about her, a woman, holding meetings,
"Individuals creep into the church that are unregenerate...they...make a great
deal of confusion in the church, and clog the true ministry (Elizabeth 1863, 15).
Elizabeth was implying that although she had been judged, it was the "creeping
elders" who were in need of being silenced, as theirs was not a "true ministry."
Male church leaders also tried to stop Rebecca Cox Jackson. When a
report was made that Jackson was "aholding class meetings and aleading the
men" the AME bishop Morris Brown came to investigate and presumably halt her
work. When asked after her meeting what he found to be amiss, Bishop Brown
confessed, '"Nothing. If ever the Holy Ghost was in any place, it was in that
meeting...Let her alone now."' By recording this incident, Jackson was illustrating
that even though "the bishop came to hear that he might accuse" he ended up
conceding that her ministry was true and admonishing the nay-sayers to be quiet,
"let her alone now" (Jackson 1981, 105 - 106).
Many times Black female preachers were charged with following their
own inclinations instead of being led by the Spirit of God. After Julia Foote's
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mother and her friend were rebuked harshly for mistakenly attempting to partake
in communion before all of the White parishioners were done, she pointed out
their prejudice and asked, "Were they led by the Holy Spirit?" Julia Foote not only
exposed racism in the church, she also exposed the sexist double-standards in
the church hierarchy. A woman was expected to prove the divinity of her call by
producing a miracle. This miracle would serve as her credential to preach.
Finding this expectation ridiculous, she retorted, "If it be necessary to prove one's
right to preach the Gospel, I ask of my brethren to show me their credential [i.e.
their miracle], or I can not believe in the propriety of their ministry" (Foote 1886,
11, 79, brackets mine ).
Jarena Lee supplied numerous accounts of how hecklers, both Black and
White, attempted to disrupt her meetings. But nearly every time, the accusers
became convicted and then converted to Christianity under her inspired
preaching. According to her narrative, the antagonists often came to her
weeping, asking for forgiveness, confessing that although they had intended to
condemn the "coloured woman preacher," they found themselves condemned—
by God.
Appeal to Higher Loyalties: "God's Will Takes Precedence"
At times a person may find herself faced with choosing between a
competing set of rules. Which rule takes precedence? For nineteenth century
Black women preachers, following God's will was of utmost importance, even if it
meant that they would face the censure of society. Despite cultural mores that
insisted a woman should obey her husband, Black preaching women at times
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directly defied their mates. Although Zilpha Elaw's husband was embarrassed by
her preaching and demanded that she "proceed no further" she made a decision
to oppose him on the basis that her first loyalty was to her God, not her husband:
I was very sorry to see him so much grieved by it; but my heavenly Father
had informed me that he had a great work for me to do; I could not
therefore descend down to the counsel of flesh and blood, but adhered
faithfully to my commission (Elaw [1846] 1986, 84).
Rebecca Cox Jackson also felt that her highest loyalty was to God and
not her brother, whom she respected like a father, or her husband, who was
concerned about her health. When both her brother and her husband protested
that her religious zeal for fasting, prayer, and church attendance were out of
balance, she became determined that no one should deter her from growing
spiritually, "I had started to go to the promised land and I wanted husband,
brother, and all the world to go with me, but my mind was made up to stop for
none." Her determination to not be hindered was so great that she was even
willing to directly defy her husband's prohibition of her attendance at a meeting in
inclement weather. She recorded him as saying, '"Rebecca, you ain't agoing'" to
which she stopped and asked herself, "'Whom do you serve, God or man?"'
Concluding that her higher loyalty was to God, she went (Jackson 1981, 86 - 87,
96 - 97).
Preaching women had to determine where their loyalties lay in their
home-life as well as in their church-life. Julia Foote described an encounter with
a Mr. Berman, the minister who instigated her excommunication. Because she
was a woman, he had forbidden her to preach or to hold meetings in her home.
His restriction placed her in a dilemma: should she follow his commands or
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God's? She chose the latter, and when he asked her if she was willing to comply
with the discipline of the church, she replied, "Not if the discipline prohibits me
from doing what God has bidden me to do; I fear God more than man" (Foote
1886, 206).
Elizabeth also saw God's authority as sovereign. She described an
encounter in which she was challenged about her right to preach: "...they asked
by what authority I spake and if I had been ordained? I answered, not by the
commission of men's hands: if the Lord had ordained me, I needed nothing
better" (Elizabeth 1863, 17). Thus, she refused to be silenced, even though she
did not have the credentials her denomination deemed important.
Concluding Remarks
Life for nineteenth century Black women preachers was hard. Not only did
they have to contend with the criticism of society for not prioritizing their homes,
their husbands, and their children, they also had to deal with their own feelings of
insecurity that resulted from violating internalized norms. Elizabeth summed up
their dilemma best when she wrote, "Without were fightings and within were
fears." In order to deal with both those internal and external challenges to their
behavior, behavior that was considered by many as deviant, they utilized
neutralizing techniques that reduced their cognitive dissonance. Their spiritual
narratives were a medium through which they could authenticate their call,
document their spiritual "births," demonstrate God's vindication of them, expose
the hypocrisy of their opponents, and exhibit their submissiveness to God's will.
Employing these neutralizing techniques strengthened them in the face of
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opposition and empowered them to proclaim, like Rebecca Cox Jackson, "...I felt
my daily justification before God, by obeying all that He required of me" (Jackson
1981, 87). The Apostle Paul may have written that women should keep silent in
the church, but despite Paul, despite church authority, despite husbands'
protests, despite their children's needs, and despite their own fears, these
women raised their voices and preached their message to the world.
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C hapter 2
A Woman's Place is in the Lead?
Twentieth Century Clergywomen and the Dilemma of Gaining
Acceptance
Introduction
In the first half of the nineteenth century, Black preaching women
struggled to fulfill their responsibilities as ministers, as married women, and as
mothers. Because many people believed that pulpit preaching was indecorous
for women, preaching women utilized various neutralizing techniques to justify
their entrance into the male domain of public ministry. Although initially few in
number, by the latter half of the nineteenth century there were approximately five
hundred women evangelists, three hundred and fifty Quaker preachers, and over
1000 Salvation Army officers. Yet, by 1888, there were still only about twenty
women pastors in the United States (Stanley 1996, 148; Tucker and Liefeld
1987, 279). Given that most doors to congregational leadership continued to
remain closed to women in the early twentieth century, how have women since
that time satisfied their desire to minister? In an effort to answer this question,
this chapter will focus on the gains—and setbacks—of Black preaching women,
from the early twentieth century to the present. I will examine the social and
cultural factors impacting the changing role of women in the larger society as well
as in the black church. I will pay special attention to the social and religious
movements that coincided with the advancement of Black women. I will also
discuss specific obstacles women in ministry have faced, historically and
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currently. Finally, I will explore the methods Black women clergy have used to
overcome these barriers.
Late 19th I E a rly 20th C entury
Black Women and Foreign Missions
One area of Christian service and ministry in which women's contributions
have been found to be indispensable has been that of foreign missions. The
revivals of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries prompted an interest in both
home and foreign missionary work. Between 1880 and 1920, during the height of
the missionary movement, the interest in foreign missions escalated in the United
States, and women who desired to have more opportunities to use their
leadership skills in a range of activities often went to the mission field. Within this
period, approximately eighty Black women traveled to Africa as missionaries
(Jacobs n.d.). As missionaries, women engaged in "masculine work" like
preaching, evangelizing, and church planting, as well as in "feminine work" like
nursing, teaching, cooking, and sewing.
Black missionaries went to a variety of countries including Haiti,
Barbados, the Bahamas, and the Virgin Islands, yet the destination that was
favored among U.S. Black missionaries was the continent of Africa. Henry
McNeal Turner, bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in
Georgia from 1880 - 1892, was a staunch supporter of missionary work in Africa
and a missionary himself. Like many Black missionaries of the time, he believed
that it was the "special duty" of Black missionaries to "civilize" and "Christianize"
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Africa. He aiso believed that the enslavement of people of African descent was
part of a divine plan to bring salvation to the "dark continent":
I do not believe that American slavery was a divine institution, but I do
believe it was a providential institution and that God intends to make it the
primal factor in the civilization and Christianization of that dark
continent... (Turner [1883] 1999, 293).
Jacobs (1982) argues that U.S. Black women also believed that missionary work
in African was their "special mission," with Black women having the specific task
of working to "uplift" the womanhood of females in the host countries. Evidently,
some Black missionaries had internalized aspects of Eurocentric ideas
concerning African inferiority.
Sponsoring Organizations
The AME Church and the National Baptist Convention (NBC) were the
two primary denominations sponsoring Black missionaries. However, as Nannie
Burroughs pointed out in 1900 in a speech entitled "How the Sisters Are
Hindered from Helping" sexism in the black churches impeded the optimal
utilization of human resources.1 4 Therefore, in an effort to mobilize their strength,
Black church women started their own organizations and missionary societies.
Women in the AME Church developed two missionary societies. The Women's
Parent Mite Missionary Society (WPMM) began in 1874. Class discrimination in
the WPMM encouraged southern AME women to form the Woman's Home and
1 4 Lincoln and Mamiya (1990, 284) speculate that Burroughs probably would have
become an ordained preacher if her denomination, the NBC, had allowed it. I concur and
add that many of the women I discuss in this chapter might have chosen a pastoral
career if they had not been restricted and discriminated against on the basis of their
gender.
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Foreign Missionary Society (WHFMS) in 1896 (Dodson 1996). Black Baptist
women, under the leadership of Nannie Burroughs, founded the National Baptist
Woman's Convention in 1900. The Women's Convention supported Christian
missions, both home and abroad, and educational activities.
The formation of separate women's societies in black denominations was
part of a larger move by U.S. church women for self-governance. White women
began organizing separate missionary societies in 1868, and by 1894 there were
approximately thirty-three women's foreign mission boards sponsoring roughly
1,000 female missionaries (Tucker and Liefeld 1987, 301). Because female
missionary societies were founded and funded by women for the primary
purpose of evangelizing women and children, women with leadership and
organizational skills found a socially acceptable outlet for their talents
(Heinemann 1996, 205).
The Marital Status of Missionary Women
Women went to the mission field as both married and single women.
Married women were both missionary wives (i.e. the wives of missionaries) and
wives who were missionaries (i.e. missionaries in their own right). Most married
Black women who went to the mission field went as wives who were also
missionaries. One indication that Black women were accepted as missionaries is
that the Black Foreign Mission Convention paid salaries to both husbands and
wives; however, the money was sent to just the husband (Blevins 1996, 166).
The contributions of wives who were missionaries often went unrecorded since
their husbands received not just the money but also most of the credit for work
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they accomplished. Never-the-less, there are records of the tasks undertaken by
married female missionaries. For example, between 1890 and 1941 the southern
Presbyterian Church sent a total of nine Black missionaries to the Congo, four of
whom were married women. These women were instrumental in developing
schools, raising orphans and kidnapped girls, and instructing females in Western
styles of cooking, dressing, and grooming. In addition, they frequently engaged in
religious teaching and led evangelistic services (Jacobs 1982).
Since the goals of the missionaries were two fold—spiritual conversion as
well as cultural conversion or "civilizing the natives,"—one of the advantages to
having wives on the mission field is that they provided a model of the Western
family to the indigenous people (Miller 2003, 62). A considerable disadvantage,
however, is that missionary wives (and missionaries who were wives) had an
extremely high mortality rate. In the United States, even under the best of
circumstances, women often died in childbirth, and the conditions on the mission
field were far from optimal. Many of the duties of missionaries were physically
stressful and medical resources were extremely scarce. The result is that many
women and their infant children often died prematurely (Tucker and Liefeld 1987,
296 - 299). Another disadvantage to married women is that they had to divide
their time between their domestic duties to their husbands and their missionary
responsibilities to the people they came to serve.
Although single women did not have the dilemma of dividing their time
between their ministerial and marital duties, they did have a dilemma—the
dilemma of getting married. Some women's missionary societies would only
sponsor female missionaries as long as they remained single. Others expected
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women missionaries to embrace celibacy and eschew marriage—for life. Women
who married within their first term of service would sometimes be required to
return any financial remuneration they had received (Tucker and Liefeld 1987,
304 - 305).
Single missionaries—whether male or female—were sometimes preferred
over married missionaries because single missionaries could be single-mindedly
devoted to their work without the distraction of family concerns. Single
missionaries were also more flexible about where they were sent. While a
married male minister might be reluctant to take his family to a particularly
remote site, a single female missionary might be willing to go because the
absence of U.S. men provided her with the opportunities to fulfill ecclesiastical
functions normally denied to women in the states.
The shortage of male missionaries not only provided women with greater
clerical power, it also contributed to women remaining single, even if they desired
marriage. In the early twentieth century, White female missionaries outnumbered
male missionaries in some places as much as 2:1 (Tucker and Liefeld 1987,
304). Although the sex ratio among Black missionaries was more evenly divided
with about half of missionaries who were sent to African between 1820 and 1980
being female, there were still more single female missionaries (about two thirds)
than married female missionaries (about one third) (Jacobs n.d.).
Organizational regulations and imbalanced sex ratios were not the only
reasons female missionaries were single; some female missionaries were single
because they were widowed. A woman could become widowed during her term
as a missionary (since death rates for men were also high), or she might become
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widowed before going to the mission field. The latter is the case of Amanda Berry
Smith (1837 - 1915). Smith, who was perhaps the most well known Black female
preacher / evangelist / international missionary of the late nineteenth century was
married twice and widowed twice before becoming fully engaged in her
evangelistic endeavors. Though a member of the AME Church, most of her
missionary work was done in conjunction with the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Between 1880 and 1892, Smith traveled to Europe, Asia, and Africa. Smith found
her missionary work to be fulfilling, and while in Monrovia, Liberia, she did not
long for home, "I never was homesick but about five minutes the whole eight
years I was in Africa..." (Smith 1893, 429). As to why she chose to work in Africa
she writes, "As Bishop Taylor had come to Africa to help my people by
establishing missions and schools, I felt it was my duty to do all I could to help..."
1 5 (Smith 1893, 384).
Black Women and Home Missions
Black women not only had an interest in foreign missions, they were also
greatly involved in home missions. A primary function of Black women's home
missions has been to help alleviate the suffering Black people have experienced
in the U.S. due to racism, segregation, poverty, and political disenfranchisement.
Although the Amendments known as the Civil War and Reconstruction
Amendments—the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the
U.S. Constitution—were passed between the years 1865 and 1870 outlawing
1 5 Bishop William Taylor was elected the Methodist Episcopal missionary bishop of Africa
in 1884.
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slavery and granting civil liberties and suffrage to U.S. male citizens, including
Black men, people of African descent still experienced a great deal of racial
oppression, especially in the former slave states. After Federal troops left the
South in 1877, the political gains that Black men had made were quickly stripped
away, and a backlash of racial hostility spewed forth causing Black men to
quickly move from feelings of triumph to feelings of terror. Logan (1954)
describes these distressing post-Reconstruction years as "the nadir of American
race relations." With the South's adoption of "Jim Crow" laws sanctioning
segregation in public facilities, Black people were quickly "put in their place."
Adding to the victimization was the rise in the number of lynchings of men,
women, and even children. In the 1890s the number of lynchings of African
Americans in southern states averaged three per week (Noll et al. 1983).
The Great Migration
Racial oppression coupled with economic hardships, compelled over 2.5
million Black people to leave the South and migrate to the North in hopes of a
better life. This mass exodus, known as the Great Migration, which took place
between the years 1880 and 1920 created unique challenges and opportunities
for black churches as they became flooded with migrants in need of spiritual
encouragement and practical assistance.1 6 Black women played a key role in
meeting the needs of northern bound immigrants. One particularly enterprising
1 6 For a first-hand account on how the Great Migration impacted northern black churches
given by an early twentieth century progressive clergyman, see Lacy Kirk Williams,
[1929] 1999. Effects of urbanization on religious life. In African American religious history:
A documentary witness, 2n d edition, edited by Milton C. Sernett, 372 - 375. Durham and
London: Duke University Press.
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woman was S. Mattie Fisher, one of the first officially trained Black social
workers. Fisher conducted a needs-assessment of the newly arrived migrants
and then helped establish community outreach programs in the Olivet First
Baptist Church of Chicago. These programs were so successful that Olivet, with
approximately twelve thousand members, became the largest Protestant church
in the U.S. in the 1930s (Sernett 1999, 368).1 7
Another leading woman was Nannie Burroughs. Concerned that male
preachers were preaching "too much Heaven and too little practical Christian
living" Burroughs set out to eradicate this imbalance (Burroughs [1920] 1999). A
primary goal of the National Baptist Women's Convention she helped found was
to meet the practical needs of education, employment, housing, and child-care
for working mothers. In 1909, the Women's Convention established the National
Training School for Women and Girls in Washington D.C. which became known
as "School of the 3 B's—the Bible, bath and broom: clean life, clean body, clean
home." One reason club women emphasized "clean living" is that they were
gravely concerned about upholding the "politics of respectability" which meant
presenting an image of black womanhood that ran counter to the debilitating
stereotypes prevalent about this group (Higginbotham 1993). Burroughs also
stressed the need for church women to organize "suffrage clubs" which would
encourage women to fight for their right to vote and "thrift clubs" which would
encourage sensible spending. Burroughs was advocating for the promotion of
1 7 For details on this needs-assessment, see S. Mattie Fisher and Mrs. Jessie Mapp.
1999. In African American religious history: A documentary witness, 2n d edition, edited by
Milton C. Sernett, 368 - 371. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
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suffrage and thrift clubs because she did not accept an ideology of separate
spheres that relegated women to the home. She and other "race women" as they
were sometimes called, believed in the necessity of women's private and public
involvement for the advancement of all Black people (Burroughs [1920] 1999).
The Woman's Era
Burroughs was not the only woman concerned with female
empowerment. Between 1880 and 1920 during what has been referred to as the
"woman's era,"1 8 both Black and White women were mobilizing to achieve their
civil liberties. However, Black club women of this era were not just concerned
with gaining suffrage. They were also concerned about eradicating numerous
injustices they encountered on the basis of their racial category—the inhumane
lynching of Black men and women1 9 , segregation in housing and transportation,
poor sanitation in the "black belts" of urban cities, substandard salaries for work
performed, and exclusion from social services that assisted White immigrants but
denied Black people. The primary slogan of Black church clubwomen was "Lifting
as We Climb." This slogan recognized that the fate of all Black people in America
was inextricably tied. Therefore, elite Black women undertook the responsibility
of advocating to meet the needs of the less fortunate.
1 8 In a speech at the predominantly white World's Congress of Representative Women in
May 1893, renowned Black poet and author Frances E. W. Harper characterized the late
nineteenth century as the "women's era" (Haywood 2003, 91).
1 9 For more on the lynching of Black people and on the personal and religious motivation
behind Ida B. Wells Barnett's anti-lynching campaign, see Patricia Schechter. 2001. Ida
B . Wells-Barnetts and American reform 1880 - 1930. Chapel Hill and London: University
of North Carolina Press.
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Of particular concern to Black women was the plight of Black children. To
meet the educational and housing needs of children, religiously inspired Black
women often founded schools and orphanages. When Evangelist and Missionary
Amanda Berry Smith returned to the U.S. from her overseas mission trips, she
opened an orphanage for Black girls in 1899. Though the Amanda Smith
Industrial School for Girls suffered from a severe shortage of funds, it managed
to stay open until it was destroyed by a fire in 1918.
Because the majority of people of African descent in the U.S. were (and
still are) Protestant, it is often easy to overlook the contributions of non-
Protestants. However, a careful reading of history will reveal that Baptist and
Methodist missionary women and club women were not the only ones working to
meet the spiritual and practical needs of Black children and adults. Catholic nuns
also did their share to alleviate human suffering.
Black Catholic Nuns and Missionary Work
Between 1820 and 1920, Black Catholic women worked in conjunction
with French missionary priests to establish three black religious orders in the
United States. The Oblate Sisters of Providence was founded on July 2, 1829 in
Baltimore, Maryland by Elizabeth Lange and Rev. Nicholas Joubert; the Sisters
of the Holy Family was founded in 1842 in New Orleans, Louisiana by Henriette
Delitte and Father Etienne Rousselon; and the Handmaids of Mary was
established on October 15, 1916 by Elizabeth Williams and Father Ignatius
Lissner in Savannah, Georgia. In addition to engaging in religious and moral
instruction, these Black Catholic nuns established mission schools, did charity
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work among the poor, and cared for the sick, the aged, and the orphaned (Rector
1982). Poverty, racism and bigotry against Catholics were challenges for all
three religious orders, but perhaps most so for the Georgian nuns living in the
rural, segregated South. Joining the mass southern exodus, the Savannah based
Handmaids of Mary relocated to Harlem, NY in 1922 and opened St. Benedict's
Day Nursery in 1923. The nursery provided parenting classes, childcare, and
food for poor children of working mothers. St. Benedict's Day Nursery is still in
operation today (Franciscan Handmaids, n.d.).
Like leading club women, many leading Black nuns were from families of
means, affording them the leisure time to engage in humanitarian efforts.
Occasionally, a particular convent might suffer financially, necessitating that nuns
work for pay. Such was the case of the Franciscan Handmaids of Mary who took
in laundry in order to survive (Rector 1982) When a convent was solvent, a
Catholic nun's unmarried, childless status allowed her to devote the majority of
her energies to social service. Although Black home missionary and club women
did not let their marital or parental status keep them out of the public sphere, their
time was still divided between service to their families and both paid and unpaid
service to their communities. On the other hand, Catholic nuns, by taking a vow
of lifelong celibacy, were able to be more fully involved in religious instruction and
social outreach. The religiously inspired social work they accomplished in their
communities reflected positively on the image of Black womanhood. In addition,
their adherence to a religion in which living arrangements and style of dress were
visible demarcations of sexual purity and religious piety were forms of resistance
to the debasing stereotypes prevalent about Black women's morality.
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The Holiness and Pentecostal Movements
While missionaries, club women, and Catholic nuns were able to
positively impact the lives of people both spiritually and practically, not all
religiously committed women were satisfied with these primarily parachurch
positions. Some women felt that their ministerial call was more direct, and
therefore, they desired to pastor churches. The Holiness Movement, which
gained strength in the later part of the nineteenth century and the early part of the
twentieth century attracted many such women. At the turn of the century, women
in the holiness tradition comprised a respectable percent of holiness clergy. In
1896, 53% of the Salvation Army officers were women; in 1908, 20% of the
Nazarene clergy were women; and in the Church of God (Anderson, Ind.), the
percentage of women pastors was 32% in 1925 (Stanley 1996).
The holiness tradition emphasized the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit
in the lives of believers. The belief that the Holy Spirit could empower anyone,
regardless of race and gender, led to the participation of diverse ethnic groups
and women (Collier-Thomas 1998; Stanley 1996). Many Black women who
desired to pastor took advantage of the Great Migration by starting independent
storefront churches in northern cities. The spread of storefront churches has
contributed to Pentecostalism being the fasting growing black religious group
(Lincoln and Mamiya 1990, 307, 77).
The Pentecostal Movement was an offshoot of the Holiness Movement.
Modern Pentecostalism was born in 1906 at Azusa Street in Los Angeles,
California under the leadership of William J. Seymour, a Black holiness preacher.
Pentecostalism derives its name from the Biblical account of how, on the Day of
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Pentecost, over 5000 people began to speak in tongues.2 0 Following in the
Biblical tradition, modern-day Pentecostalism emphasizes that the sign of
individual sanctification is glossolalia, or speaking in tongues. Other signs include
faith healings and prophesy.
The Church of God in Christ (COGIC) quickly became the largest Black
Pentecostal denomination. While the COGIC denomination sanctioned female
evangelists, their bylaws still do not allow for the ordination of women. For this
reason, some Pentecostal women chose to start their own churches. The most
renowned woman to do so was Bishop Ida Bell Robinson (1891 - 1946) the
founder of the largest black Pentecostal denomination headed by a woman,
Mount Sinai Holy Church of American. Demonstrating the slogan "Lifting as We
Climb" Bishop Robinson ordained numerous women. Before her death in 1946,
Robinson's church had affiliates across the nation and in Cuba, Guyana, and
South America (Collier-Thomas 1998, 194).
Fr o m M id -C e n t u r y t o th e P r es e n t
To Ordain or Not to Ordain
In the mid nineteenth century, many denominations began ordaining
women. In 1948 the AME Church allowed women full ordination. The Christian
Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church followed in 1954 (Raboteau 1999, 127).2 1 ,2 2
2 0 The Book of Acts, Chapter 2
2 1 In 1954, the CME Church changed its name from Colored Methodist Episcopal Church
to Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.
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These changes in black churches mirrored changes in the predominately white
denominations. In 1956 the United Presbyterian Church and the Methodist
Episcopal Church approved the ordination of women.
What prompted this formalized acceptance of women's leadership in
Christian churches? Chaves (1997) posits that social movements exert pressure
on all institutions, including religious institutions, to change, and that the resolve
of First Wave feminists to "overthrow the monopoly of the pulpit" really began to
be felt by denominations by the mid twentieth century as ideas of gender equality
became normative. "These rule changes—and others during the 1940s and
1950s—occurred because...permitting women's ordination meant promoting the
principle of formal gender equality" (82). Chaves (1997) goes on to argue that
denominations that resisted women's ordination were resisting more than
women's leadership; they were also resisting the liberal agenda of individual
rights that is an integral aspect of modernity. These resisting denominations
tended to be comprised of members who were distant from the women's
movement and more southern, more rural, and less educated (Chaves 1997, 83,
79).
Chaves' theory applies to black denominations. The three black Methodist
churches ordain women, but the AME Zion was first to do so, perhaps because
some of the key male leaders had been influenced by the liberal ideas of gender
equality that emerged with the first wave of feminism. Lincoln and Mamiya (1990,
293) write, "The leadership provided by a small group of liberal feminist AME
2 2 The AME Zion Church has been ordaining women as deacons since 1894 and as
elders since 1898 (Lincoln and Mamiya 1990, 74).
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Zion bishops (Hood, Walters, Small, and Pettey) in the late nineteenth century
was crucial in this process of legitimating women as pastors." Black Methodists
have also traditionally placed a higher priority on education than on inspiration.
Even though early nineteenth century preaching women often had little education
and therefore emphasized their call and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit to
justify their preaching, some people still believed that the emphasis on
sanctification was a "false doctrine" (Foote 1879). AME historian Daniel Payne
documents that General Conference participants frequently debated over the
value of clergy education with advocates of ministerial education steadily gaining
ground (Payne 1891). Today, Methodists either require or strongly encourage
their clergy to have a college degree, and all of their leaders must have some
type of formalized religious training. Currently, among the seven historically black
churches, the highest median levels of college graduates are found among AME
and CME clergy. Members of the black Methodist churches are also more likely
to be middle-class (Lincoln and Mamiya 1990, 130, 138).
On the other hand, many black Baptists churches and all Pentecostals in
the COGIC denomination do not allow for the ordination of women. In these
denominations, being called to preach is what is most important. In the COGIC
denomination, women who confess a call are only allowed to take the unordained
positions of "evangelist" or "exhorter." Baptist women who claim to have been
called to the ministry are rarely ordained to preach because the decision to allow
a person to be ordained is in the hands of the local church, and the majority of
Black Baptist clergy disapprove of ordaining women (Lincoln and Mamiya 1990,
292).
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Within some Baptist and Pentecostal denominations there is an anti
intellectual strain that borders on fundamentalism. Seminary training is
sometimes looked upon with suspicion, as though seminarians might become too
focused on following the instruction of humans and lose their ability to be guided
by the Holy Spirit. A seminary degree is a post-secondary degree, and according
to Lincoln and Mamiya (1990, 130) clergy of the Pentecostal COGIC have the
lowest percentage of clergy in the "college plus" category. In addition, members
of storefront churches are less likely to be middle class and more likely to be
Baptist or Pentecostal (COGIC) (Lincoln and Mamiya 1990, 138).
Since the mid nineteenth century, some black denominations have
ordained women while others have not. For most Christian denominations, it
would take a second wave of feminism to spark an increase in the number of
denominations ordaining women (Chaves 1997). This second feminist movement
happened in concert with a larger societal movement for the advancement of civil
rights.
The 2n d Wave of Feminism and Civil Rights
The Civil Rights Movement is said to have begun when Rosa Parks, a
Black woman, refused to give up her seat to a White man on December 1, 1955.
Parks' individual act of protest spurred collective acts of protest that eventually
led to changes in civil law. One of the most significant legal changes that came
about because of the organized protests of White women and people of color
was the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which banned employment discrimination on the
basis of color, race, national origin, religion, or sex. With these changes in the
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law, there has been a steady increase in the percentage of women pursuing
traditionally male-dominated fields, as shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Percentage of Professional Degrees Awarded to
Women, 1970 and 2002
1970 2002 % Change
Medicine 8.4 44.4 +36.0
Dentistry 0.9 38.5 +37.6
Law 5.4 48.0 +43.6
Theology 2.3 32.9 +30.6
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the
United States, 2006, Table No. 291
While the 1964 Civil Rights Act gave minority groups the basis upon
which to pursue legal recourse if faced with discrimination, it did little to help
women who faced discrimination in the church sector due to an exemption
written into the law. Section 2000e-1 [Section 702] reads as follows:
(a) This subchapter shall not apply to an employer with respect to the
employment of aliens outside any State, or to a religious corporation,
association, educational institution, or society with respect to the
employment of individuals of a particular religion to perform work
connected with the carrying on by such corporation,
association,educational institution, or society of its activities (Civil Rights
Act of 1964, Title VII).
This exemption helps explain why the degree for which there is the smallest
percent increase is that of theology.2 3
2 3 Religious organizations' legal impunity when discriminating on the basis of gender is
currently being challenged by Susan S. Rockwell, an attorney who filed suit against the
Roman Catholic Church and the Internal Revenue Service on May 22, 2002. Her claim is
that by granting the Church a tax exempt status, the IRS is subsidizing gender
discrimination. She also claims that she has suffered irreparable harm because the
Church silences debates over the ordination of women, thereby violating her First
Amendment right to freedom of speech. For more on this lawsuit, see B. A. Robinson.
2002. Lawsuit about ordination of women in Roman Catholicism. Ontario Consultants on
Religious Tolerance, http://www.reliaioustolerance.ora/femclra9.htm.
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Despite the fact that they have little legal recourse in terms of fighting
gender discrimination in churches, women are still managing to enter the ministry
in ever increasing numbers. In 1960 there were 4,267 female clergy (Carroll,
Hargrove and Lummis 1981, 4). In the year 2004, 60,450 women categorized
themselves as clergy (U.S. Census Bureau 2006). Thus, between the years 1960
and 2004 there has been an exponential increase in the number of clergywomen
in the U.S.2 4
P r e s e n t D a y C h a l le n g e s
How high an African American2 5 clergywoman rises in the church
hierarchy is not necessarily predicated upon her commitment to theological
study, her concern for personal piety, or her care of the congregation. Even
highly trained and strongly motivated clergywomen find their ministerial
opportunities blocked by what Susie Stanley coined the "stained glass ceiling"
(Stanley 1996, 150 - 151). Like women in secular organizations, women in
church organizations struggle to overcome institutionalized sexism that limits
2 4 The women in the census count are identified as "Clergy" as opposed to the other
census category of "Religious workers, all other." Unfortunately, census data do not
differentiate on the basis of race within groups. Data are given on the number of women
clergy and the number of African American clergy, but not the number of African
American women clergy. However, Lincoln and Mamiya (1990, 289) estimate that less
than five percent of clergy in historically black churches are female.
2 5 In the sections prior to my covering of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, I referred to women of
African descent as "Black women" as opposed to "African American women" because
they were not counted and/or treated as citizens. From this point forward, I use the term
"African American" to reflect their legal change, thought still not completely realized
change, in status. To be parallel, I also now refer to White people as "European
Americans." See Chapter 1, Note 2.
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their access to full power. Like their European American sisters, African
American clergywomen are over-represented in assistant or associate pastor
positions. African American clergywomen also have to deal with discriminatory
practices in church assignments. A qualified pastoral candidate can expect it to
take longer than her equally qualified male counterpart to find a church willing to
hire her (Zikmund et al. 1998). A highly trained seminary graduate might be
assigned to an undesirable post in which there is little chance for advancement
and few funds. As a result, African American clergywomen can expect to be paid
less than their male counterparts (Chang and Perl 1999). On an interpersonal
level, African American clergywomen must also contend with male clergy who
undermine their ministries and with female laity who resent their presence in the
pulpit (Carpenter 2001). The challenges present day clergywomen face in trying
to gain acceptance as women in a male dominated field are numerous indeed.
Coping Mechanisms
Clergy Couples
Given the opposition, what opportunities does a woman who feels called
to ministry have? Some women have chosen to co-pastor a church with their
husbands. Sometimes a woman co-pastor is seen as less threatening than a
woman head pastor because rather than usurping the man's power, she is
sharing it with him. One problem, however, is that some parishioners continue to
view the wife as the husband's assistant, rather than his equal partner (Jones
1994).
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Leaving the Black Church
Some women, tired of the institutionalized sexism inherent in the
traditional black denominations, start their own churches. In the spirit of Ida
Robinson, they become pioneers and blaze new trails for themselves. Other
African American women have opted to leave the historically black
denominations by joining predominantly white denominations. Some women
have found success and recognition in doing so. For example, in 1984 Rev.
Leontine Kelly was elected bishop of the United Methodist Church. She was the
first African American female bishop of a mainstream, white U.S. religious group.
Following her appointment was the appointment of Rev. Barbara Harris as the
Episcopal Church's first female bishop in 1989 (Collier-Thomas 1998).
Being the first of anything is never easy, and one challenge that
trailblazers must contend with is "tokenism." Church policymakers, concerned
about their image in the community, may appoint an African American woman as
a leader for the purposes of parading her around while church policies in general
remain sexist and racist. Vashti McKenzie, who became the first female bishop
of the AME Church on July 11, 2000 is determined that she will not be a token.
She states: "Whenever there's a first anything, it tends to draw attention. If we
say it's going to be just one (female bishop) and that's it, that's tokenism. My look
will be beyond just one. What's the matter with some?" (Brown 2000) Since
McKenzie's appointment, two other women have been elected as bishops,
Carolyn Tyler Guidry and Sarah Frances Davis. Thus, of the twenty bishops in
the AME church, three are women.
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Teaching and Preaching
In the tradition of their fore-mothers who strongly valued education even if
they were limited in their educational opportunities, today's African American
woman may choose to pursue teaching in institutions of higher learning. For
example, Dr. Olivia B. Stokes was the first African American woman to earn a
doctorate in Christian Education from Columbia University and the first African
American female minister to be ordained in the Nation Baptist denomination. She
has taught at Harvard Divinity School and New York University.
Other theologically trained women, such as Katie Cannon, Delores
Williams, and Jacquelyn Grant call themselves "womanist theologians"—feminist
theologians who take as their starting point the lived experiences of Black
women. Many womanist theologians teach in colleges and seminaries and write
scholarly books that confront issues of race, class, and gender. Womanist
theologian Kelly Brown Douglas has even dealt head on with the homophobia
that she feels is dividing the black church and community (Douglas 1999).
Some womanist theologians also pastor churches, but they bring an
agenda of female empowerment to these churches that is often over-looked in
traditional black churches. For example, Teresa Fry Brown started an
organization in her church called S.W.E.E.T. which stands for Sisters Working
Encouraging Empowering Together. A goal of this group was to bridge the gap
between the educated elite and the disenfranchised working-class women as
they shared testimonies of trouble and triumph (Brown 1997).
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Conclusion
Since the early twentieth century, African American women have been
struggling to gain acceptance, as women and as clergywomen. Despite being
repeatedly confronted with gendered and racialized discrimination, religiously
motivated African American women have taken to the mission fields, have
founded black religious orders, have formed their own organizations, and have
started their own churches. They have worked with and without husbands, with
and without support, within and without the black church. Their accomplishments
illustrate that the role of African American women in ministry has evolved over
the past 100, yet the fact that a significant percentage of historically black
churches still do not ordain women makes it evident that there is still much
progress to be made. Despite the numerous challenges, African American
preaching women have managed to reach their primary goal of ministering to
those in need, demonstrating that without a doubt, a woman's place is truly in the
lead.
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C hapter 3
Who's the Boss?
African American Clergywomen and Leadership Dilemmas in
the Church and Home
Introduction
Over 150 years have passed since Jarena Lee, "first female preacher of
the First African Methodist Episcopal Church," published her spiritual narrative in
which she documents the challenges she faced as a Black woman doing what
many considered to be a man's job—preaching the Gospel. In these 150 years,
laws restricting African American women's choices have changed, and attitudes
have become more egalitarian and accepting. While liberal feminist ideals about
gender equality have permeated the larger U.S. culture, what impact, if any, have
they had on the Protestant Christian subculture? Have the gender ideologies of
highly religious Protestants (HRP) evolved since the time of Jarena Lee? Do
HRP now believe that women and men have equal rights and responsibilities in
the public and private spheres? These questions are particularly relevant for
women pursing a ministerial career in a Christian congregation. They are
relevant because the attitudes and beliefs of the laity directly determine the social
context in which preaching women work, and even, at times, the context in which
they live.
When lay attitudes are open and accepting of female leadership,
clergywomen can direct their energies towards positive tasks like preaching and
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program management; when lay attitudes are negative and resistant,
clergywomen have to expend their energies countering the attacks directed
towards undermining their ministries. Lay attitudes provide a gauge of the level of
acceptance or resistance to women ministers; therefore, assessing these
attitudes and beliefs is key for understanding the professional and personal
opportunities and constraints that Christian clergywomen currently encounter.
Because within the Christian subculture the church and the family are intricately
tied, lay attitudes about women's roles within the family also have significant
implications for clergywomen's careers. I will address these implications in the
discussion section of this chapter.
The specific goal of this chapter is to characterize clergywomen's
occupational and familial contexts by delineating lay beliefs concerning what
roles women may occupy in the religious and domestic realms. To reach this
goal, I will answer the following questions:
What is the current gender ideology of highly religious African
American Protestants concerning a woman's "proper place" in the
church and home?
A) Is this gender ideology more or less conservative than that of highly
religious European American Protestants?
B) Does this gender ideology vary with respect to gender and view of the
Bible?
T heological Framework
Although African American Protestants uphold the Bible as the primary
guide for church structure and family living, there is variation in terms of how
religious leaders and biblical scholars interpret what the Scriptures teach about
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gender relations. The Pauline Epistles and the Genesis creation accounts supply
the foundation for four views on headship and authority.2 6 These views are
situated along a continuum, with a hierarchical view on one pole and an
egalitarian view on the other. Which view theologians adopt depends largely on
how they exegete key passages in the Bible. Most controversial are the
passages referred to as the Haustafeln or "household codes." The household
codes are a series of verses found primarily in Colossians 3 :1 8 -4:1 ; Ephesians
5:21 - 6:9; and I Peter 2:18 - 3:7 that provide instruction for a series of
hierarchical relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children,
and masters and servants. Traditionalists primarily rely on the household codes
to find justification for their view, in addition to appropriating the verses in 1
Corinthians 14:33b - 35 and I Timothy 2:11 - 15 which instruct women to be
silent in the church, and Titus 1 :5 -9 which seemingly outlines the criteria for
male church leadership. Egalitarians, however, turn to other biblical passages
that appear to suggest that God regards men and women equally (Acts 10: 34 -
45 and Galatians 3:28) and that women are not only authorized but also highly
valued as full participants in spreading the gospel (Romans 16; I Corinthians 11:
2-16; Philippians 4: 2 - 3).
By engaging in in-dept historical and cultural analyses of the ancient
Greco-Roman world and by supplying alternative translations to key Hebrew and
Greek words found in the Old and New Testaments, biblical scholars and
2 6 Gallagher (2003) and Bartkowski (1997) characterize Christian views on women's roles
as polar opposites (traditionalism vs. egalitarianism). I prefer to build upon Storkey's
(1985) more nuanced typology that suggests four perspectives.
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theologians arrive at one of four positions. Building on an understanding of
patriarchy as a system in which men are dominant in social institutions, I have
labeled the four positions in accordance to their level of patriarchalism: the purely
patriarchal view, the partially patriarchal view, the progressive patriarchal view,
and the post patriarchal view. Because there is fluidity and variation within and
between the viewpoints, they should be understood as ideal types in the
Weberian sense.
The Purely Patriarchal View
Proponents of the first view argue that the social order should be
organized in such a way that women are subordinate to men in all social
institutions. From this viewpoint, women are understood to be essentially
different from and inferior to men, and that inferiority necessitates that they be
governed by men. Men are instructed to be the head of women in a manner that
parallels Christ's headship of the church. From this perspective, women should
submit to men in not only the church and the family, but also in the larger
political, social, and economic realms. This view was espoused by many of the
early church fathers such as Tertullian who in the third century A.D. said that
women were the "devil's gateway" and Augustine who, ten centuries later,
described women as "defective men." (Pegis 1945; Tertullian c. 202).
The Partially Patriarchal View
The second view, while still essentialist in nature, proposes that women
should not be submissive to men in all social institutions—only the church and
the family. It is argued that while roles for men and women were established in
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creation, with men being designated as the leaders, the Bible is more ambiguous
about women's roles in secular society; therefore, women may occupy a range of
positions, including that of leader, in business and politics. Women my fulfill
leadership roles in secular institutions because within this view women are
perceived as different than, but not inferior to, men. This viewpoint is adopted by
the conservative organization Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
(Piper and Grudem 1991). A prominent African American pastor who endorses
this view is Dr. Tony Evans, the leader of one of the largest black churches in
Dallas, TX and a frequent speaker at Promise Keepers functions. Dr. Evans
expects men to lead the church, and he instructs men to reclaim their role as
leaders of the family:
...sit down with your wife and say something like this, 'Honey, I've made a
terrible mistake... I gave up leading this family, and I forced you to take
my place. Now I must reclaim that role.'... I'm not suggesting you ask for
your role back, I'm urging you to take it back . . . there can be no
compromise here. If you're going to lead, you must lead . . . Treat the lady
gently and lovingly. But lead! (Evans 1994, 79 - 80).
The Progressive Patriarchal View
The third view further limits men's headship, restricting their authority over
women (and children and servants) to the domestic sphere only. Proponents of
this view are "progressive" in that they uphold that women may teach, preach,
and hold positions of authority in the church, including that of pastor. This view
remains patriarchal, however, in that in the home, wives are instructed to willingly
submit themselves to the loving leadership of their husbands. Bishop T.D. Jakes
is the most prominent African American televangelist and pastor who supports
this view. In his sermons, tapes, and books he encourages women to be publicly
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empowered yet domestically submissive. Most telling is that his wife, Serita
Jakes (2003), has recently published a book entitled Beside Every Good Man:
Loving Myself While Standing by Him in which she teaches wives how to
graciously allow the husband to be the head of the house while still maintaining a
sense of their own identity.
The Post Patriarchal View
In the final view, equality, not hierarchy, is promoted in all social
institutions, including the church and home. The "mutual submission" of wives
and husbands to each other—rather than just wifely submission—is emphasized.
Proponents of this view stress Galatians 3:28 which says that in Christ, there is
neither male nor female, but rather a unifying oneness. The most prominent
organization that adheres to this viewpoint is Christians for Biblical Equality, a
non-profit organization that purports that a "proper" interpretation of the Bible
indicates that both men and women are equally equipped for service and
leadership in the church, the home, and society.2 7
The Hegemonic View
The overwhelming majority of Christian evangelical family advocates and
family specialists support either the partially patriarchal view or the progressive
patriarchal view, both of which espouse the importance of hierarchy and
headship in family and marriage and instruct wives to be submissive to their
2 7 For more on the egalitarian organization Christians for Biblical Equality, see their
website http://www.cbeinternational.org/new/index.shtml.
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husbands (Dobson 2000; LaHaye and LaHaye 1998). Proponents of these two
views are often referred to as conservative, traditional, complementarian, or
essentialist evangelicals. Gallagher (2004b) posits that one reason the
traditionalist view has been the hegemonic view is that gender essentialists have
greater access and control over the cultural and material resources needed to
popularize their positions—more prestigious faculty positions in seminaries and
universities as well as greater access to radio, television, and print media. While
agreeing with the reasons given by Gallagher (2004b), I advance three additional
explanations for the hegemony of the traditional view: 1) It is more accessible.
Most Christians have not been trained in biblical textual criticism or biblical
languages and therefore just accept what is written in English. 2) It has more
face-validity. While the Bible does state directly that a wife should submit to her
husband because he is her head (Ephesians 5:22 - 24), there is no parallel verse
explicitly stating, "Husbands and wives are equal partners." 3) It provides an
ideological justification for male dominance. Current church and household
arrangements benefit men. Even though all men do not benefit equally from the
"patriarchal dividend" (Connell 2002, 142), African American men are sill
privileged relative to African American women and therefore may have little
incentive to challenge the status quo.
Review of the Literature
Definition of Gender Ideology
I am incorporating the definition of gender ideology as developed by Kerr
and Holden (1996). In developing their Gender Role Beliefs Scale, Kerr and
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Holden (1996) define gender role ideology as "prescriptive beliefs about
appropriate behavior for men and women." A belief is prescriptive when people
rely on it to establish injunctions, standards, laws or rules and when it has been
authorized by long-standing custom or usage and/or sanctioned by the
hegemonic hermeneutic of sacred texts.
Research on Religion and Gender Ideology
Feminist consciousness raising activities of the 60s and 70s have had an
effect on people's attitudes towards women's roles. Numerous studies have
confirmed that since the 1970s there has been a liberalization of gender role
attitudes in the United States and cross culturally (Bolzendahl 2004; Casper and
Bianchi 2002; Loo and Thorpe 1998; Harris and Firestone 1998; Bennett and
Bennett 1992). One consistent finding is that women's gender role attitudes have
become increasingly more liberal than men's, regardless of race, class, or
religion (Deutsch and Saxon 1998; Hunter and Sellers 1998; Levant et al. 1998;
Spence and Hahn 1997; Willetts-Bloom and Nock 1994).
Recent scholarship indicates that religious subcultures have also been
influenced by liberal feminist ideals of gender equality, even though members of
these subcultures are reluctant to identify themselves as feminists (Gallagher
2004a; Stacey 1990).2 8 Among Christians support for traditional gender roles is
declining (Petersen and Donnenwerth 1998); however, a hierarchical model of
2 8 The reluctance to use the term "feminist" is not, however, unique to religious
conservatives. Many people—both religious and non-religious—do not want to be labeled
a feminist, even though they actually live and promote many feminist ideals (Schnittker,
Freese and Powell 2003).
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church and home is still very much alive (Woodberry and Smith 1998). Because
the church is an agent of socialization that often promotes conservative
understandings of gender, support for traditional gender roles has been found to
be strongest among those who attend church frequently as compared to those
who attend less regularly, if at all (Hunter and Sellers 1998; Willetts-Bloom and
Nock 1994; Bennett and Bennett 1992). Frequent attendance at conservative
religious services during childhood has also been found to reduce women's life
chances by encouraging early marriage and domesticity in lieu of occupational
and educational attainment (Glass and Jacobs 2005). Overall, religious affiliation
is a strong predictor of traditional gender ideology (Harris and Firestone 1998).
To assess the gender ideology of religious groups, some researchers are
relying on content analysis of religious materials published by and/or marketed to
religious communities (Gallagher 2003; Christopherson 1999; Griffith 1997). One
intriguing finding is that although the materials remain conservative, they are not
uniformly so. For example, in his investigation of the Promise Keepers
movement, Lockhart (2000) assesses that Promise Keepers' literature and
platform speakers endorse a range of ideals concerning male/female domestic
relations, encompassing four approaches—a traditionalist approach, a
psychological archetypes approach, a biblical feminist approach, and a pragmatic
counseling approach. Noting the variety of ways that Promise Keepers
conceptualize masculinity, Lockhart (2000, 73) takes issues with Messner's
(1997, 90) assertion that Promise Keepers are in the terrain of anti-feminist
backlash.
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Work, Religion, and the Gender Ideology of European American
Christians
The vast majority of the empirical research on the relationship between
religion and gender ideology in the U.S. focuses on the beliefs and behaviors of
conservative European American evangelical Christians. Sociologists of religion
have been particularly interested in how the entrance of women into the paid
labor force has affected the gender ideology of conservative evangelicals.
Evangelical women are employed at about the same rate as women within the
dominant U.S. culture: 56% of all evangelical women are employed and 67% of
those with preschool children are employed, compared to the national averages
of 61% and 63.5% respectively (Gallagher 2003, 134, 142; U.S. Census Bureau
19962 9 ). The economic necessity of a dual-income family has led many
conservative religious leaders to be more supportive of liberal feminist ideals of
equal employment opportunities for married women. Yet, employed women are
still expected to work the "second shift." In their comparison of the effects of
employment on gender role attitudes of 741 European American female
Catholics, 839 mainline Protestants, and 798 evangelical Protestants, Wilcox and
Jelen (1991), using General Social Survey (GSS) data, find that evangelical
women, more than women in the other two religious groups, are "double-bound"
by their internalization of the heaviest family/workplace obligations.
Hall (1995, 146) avers that the best predictors of a married woman's labor
force participation (LFP) are her ideals about family and work, yet he recognizes
291 use 1996 data because Gallagher's figures come from the 1996 Religious Identity and
Influence Survey.
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that her choices are often constrained by the presence of preschool children, her
educational level, and her husband's income. For this reason, ideals and realities
are often out of sync. Gesch (1995) proposes that more liberal gender role
attitudes are a consequence rather than a cause of women's increased LFP.
Griffith makes a similar inference. By doing a content analysis of women's
literature published over the past forty years by Aglow Fellowship—one of the
largest interdenominational women's evangelical organization in the world—
Griffith (1997) provides evidence that these evangelical women have adjusted
their perception of a woman's place and function in the home to become more
congruent with the social reality of an increased number of women entering the
paid labor force. Other conservative religious leaders such as James Dobson, an
antifeminist evangelical psychologist who has an enormous following, have also
shown more acceptance of women's paid employment (Gallagher 2003).
Not all families, however, have changed their gender ideology. In
contradistinction to Bernard's projection (1981) that the "family provider role" was
a dying construct, some couples continue to use provider language to define their
relationships, even if that definition is not accurate. For example, in their study of
European American blue-collar couples who work shifts, 85% of whom self-
identify as adherents of the Christian faith, Deutsch and Saxon (1998) observe
that although the couples are relatively egalitarian in their sharing of domestic
labor and in their provision of economic resources for the family, they engage in
father-equals-breadwinner, mother-equals-nurturer myth-making to reconcile
their traditional beliefs with their non-traditional behaviors. On the other end of
the social class spectrum, Schmalzbauer (1993) notes that evangelicals in the
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professional and managerial occupations are resisting the liberalization of sexual
mores yet accommodating to new-class liberalism on gender roles.
The Head of the Family
The gender ideology of conservative evangelicals is rooted in hierarchy
and beliefs about essential differences between women and men. Traditional
evangelicals believe that husbands should be the head of the household and
wives should be the submissive partners, but what do "headship" and
"submission" actually entail? Before women entered the workforce in great
numbers, headship was often equated with the instrumental roles of male
breadwinning and family decision-making and submission with the silent
acquiescence of economically dependent wives (Gallagher 2003). However, as
more couples have become dual breadwinners, the definitions of headship and
submission have changed accordingly. Studies of traditional evangelicals have
shown that evangelicals increasingly equate headship with "spiritual leadership"
in which the husband as a "servant leader" lovingly takes responsibility for
providing spiritual guidance to his family (Denton 2004; Gallagher 2003;
Bartkowski 1999; Gallagher and Smith 1999; Stacey and Gerard 1997; Stacey
1990). Traditional evangelicals believe that husbands should not be harsh
dictators who make unilateral decisions for the family. Instead, they should
engage in dialogue with their wives concerning family matters, and only in
instances of impasse in which the couple cannot come to agreement should
wives graciously submit to their husband's authority, a concept aptly labeled
"patriarchy in the last instance" (Stacey and Gerard 1997, 504). However, most
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husbands rarely, if ever, play their "trump card" (Gallagher 2003; Stacey and
Gerard 1997; Stacey 1990). Although wives tend to concede more often than
husbands, Gallagher (2003, 94) views this as a characteristic of women in
general. Most often, decisions are made jointly, based on negotiation,
compromise, and expertise. Denton (2004) has found that conservative
evangelicals are no less or more egalitarian in practice than other religious
groups, despite their ideological support of headship. Because the rhetoric of
male headship is not equated with male authority in everyday familial
interactions, some sociologists have labeled this type of male leadership as
"symbolic traditionalism" (Gallagher and Smith 1999) and "soft patriarchy"
(Wilcox 2004).
Religion and the Gender Ideology of African Americans
One major shortcoming of the studies reviewed above is that they
primarily focus on European American Christians, whether evangelical, mainline,
Catholic or charismatic. However, as Kane (2000) has demonstrated in an
extensive review of the literature on racial variations in gender role attitudes, it is
misleading to assume that gendered patterns are homogeneous across racial
categories. So, how does religiosity affect the gender ideology of African
Americans? In some ways, this is a difficult question to answer because, despite
the historical and continual centrality of religion in the lives of African Americans
(Taylor, Chatters, and Levin 2004; Raboteau 1999; Sernett 1999), many
empirical studies do not include controls for religiosity in their measures of
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gender role attitudes among African Americans. However, a few exceptions are
worth noting.
Using data from the National Survey of Black Americans, Hunter and
Sellers (1998) challenge the assumption that African Americans do no hold
feminist attitudes. They find that both men and women support egalitarian gender
role attitudes. However, for men, those with high levels of church participation
are significantly less liberal (p<.01) than those with low levels of church
participation. The same holds true for women, yet the difference is not
statistically significant.
Similar results are found in a study by Wilcox and Thomas (1992). Using
data from a 1988 telephone survey of African American women in Washington,
D.C., Wilcox and Thomas (1992) find that religiosity does not deter African
American women from supporting gender equality. Religiosity is, in fact,
associated with increased support for collective feminist action. The exception to
this is that religious involvement and orthodoxy are strong associated with
opposition to legalized abortion. In light of their concern over whether or not
women in Washington, D.C. are representative of the general population of
African American women, Wilcox and Thomas (1992) use two national surveys—
the GSS and the 1988 American National Election Study—to collaborate their
findings. Results using both of these national surveys indicate that for African
American women, higher levels of religious involvement have no effect on gender
role attitudes and negatively affect support for abortion.
While Wilcox and Thomas (1992) focus on women's attitudes, Hunter and
Davis (1992) study men's attitudes. In their ethnographic exploration of how
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African American men conceptualize masculinity, Hunter and Davis (1992)
conclude that masculinity is a multidimensional construction comprised of four
domains: 1) self-determination and accountability 2) family 3) pride and 4)
spirituality/humanism. The ideals in the spirituality and humanism domain cluster
around themes of men being spiritually and morally principled, men connecting to
and caring about the community, men respecting women, men being sensitive
and trustworthy, and men being equitable in their dealings with others. They
suggest that a history of oppression combined with the traditional significance of
religion in the black experience contribute to African American men having ideals
about masculinity that may diverge from the dominant group's ideals about
manhood (473).
Cross-Racial Comparisons of Gender Ideology
Cross-racial comparisons of gender role attitudes produce inconsistent
results. 3 0 There is empirical evidence to suggest that there are no significant
racial differences in gender role attitudes as well as evidence to suggest that
there are significant differences. Some unique patterns emerge when
researchers control for region, religiosity, class, and family structure.
3 0 Because I am concerned primarily with comparisons between African American and
European American men and women, and because there are few studies that assess the
gender role attitudes of other racial/ethnic groups, I am focusing my literature review on
research that compares my two groups of interest.
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Research Reporting No Differences
Some research does not find any significant cross-racial attitudinal
differences between African Americans and European Americans on specific
measures of gender role attitudes. Studying 556 college freshman, Lottes and
Kuriloff (1992) assess that there are no significant racial differences in attitudes
towards feminism. Wilcox (1990) and Ransford and Miller (1983) determine that
African American women are not significantly more or less feminist than
European American women, while Wilkie (1993) reports that African American
men are not significantly more likely than European American or Hispanic men to
endorse married women's paid employment. Taking geography into account,
Levant et al. (1998) find that African American male undergraduates from the
metropolitan Northeast/Mid-Atlantic region of the country are not significantly
different in their masculine identity than European American college men from
the same region or from the rural South.
Differences Among Women
For African American women, frequency of church attendance, frequency
of prayer, denominational affiliation, and exposure to televangelists are
insignificantly correlated with gender role attitudes, yet for European American
women, these measures of religiosity are strong predictors of opposition to
gender equality and to feminism (Wilcox and Thomas 1992). Similar results are
noted in a study by Glass and Jacobs (2005). Using retrospective data from the
National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), Glass and Jacobs (2005)
find that being raised in a religiously conservative household has no effect on
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African American women's gender ideology or LFP but a significantly negative
effect on European American women's attitudes towards egalitarian familial roles
and responsibilities in addition to a negative effect on their LFP.
Family structure also makes a difference in women's gender role
attitudes. Among African Americans, never-married women without children are
the most likely to challenge culturally dominant views of gender; whereas among
European Americans, there are no differences between never-married women
without children and married women with children in their acceptance of
traditional gender roles (Dugger 1988, 441).
While most of the empirical research finds African American women to be
more egalitarian, there is also evidence to suggest that African American women
may be more conservative. Using a convenience sample of undergraduates and
controlling for region, Levant et al. (1998) conclude that African American women
are more supportive of traditional masculine ideology than European American
women, regardless of geography.
Differences Among Men
Differences between men are difficult to assess because the findings for
men are frequently more contradictory than the findings for women. In some
studies, African American men are found to be more traditional. Lottes and
Kuriloff (1992) determine that African American men are more accepting of
justifications for male dominance than European American men. Controlling for
region, Rice and Coats (1995) find that southern African American men hold the
most conservative gender role attitudes and African American women the least
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conservative; European American men and women are in between, with women
being less conservative than men. Using a convenience sample of
undergraduate students and a self-report instrument, Levant et al. (1998) also
find that African American men from the rural South are more traditional in their
masculine ideology than European American men from other regions of the
country.
However, contradistinctive results are reported in other empirical
research. In their study of the relationship between race and traditional
masculinity ideology, Abreu and associates (2000) determine that European
American men endorse higher levels of traditional male gender roles than African
American men. Some researchers consider African American men to be more
egalitarian than European American men because African American men do
more household labor than other racial/ethnic groups. In fact, in her ethnographic
study of working class family life Rubin (1994) goes so far as to state that relative
to their European American, Asian, and Latino counterparts, "...black families
look like models of egalitarianism" (92). African American men are also more
likely than European American men to be supportive of working mothers (Hunter
and Sellers 1998; Blee and Tickamyer 1995; Rice and Coats 1995) indicating
their willingness to share provider responsibilities with their spouses (Wilkie
1993). It should be noted, however, that a liberal attitude towards women's
employment is not necessarily synonymous with an all-encompassing liberal
attitude towards gender roles.
To test the hypothesis that the higher the employment rate of women in a
social context, the more egalitarian the gender role attitudes of people within that
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context, Haller, Hoellinger, and Grathof (1994) conduct a cross cultural analysis
using survey data from eight countries. What they discover is that in countries in
which female LFP is high, gender role attitudes are more conservative, and in
countries where female LFP is low, gender role attitudes are more liberal. They
conclude that attitudes are shaped not just by changing economies but also by
socio-cultural factors such as religion.
While socio-cultural factors are definitely important, coupled with this is
the importance of distinguishing between attitudes towards male roles and
attitudes towards female roles. Pleck, Sonenstein, and Ku (1994) posit that
attitudes towards male roles are empirically and conceptually distinct from
attitudes towards female roles. Within this framework, an individual can be liberal
towards women's roles (e.g. believing that it is acceptable for women to be in the
paid labor force) while simultaneously espousing conservative attitudes towards
men's roles (e.g. believing that men are still the "head of the house"). Much of the
literature on African American men's gender ideology seems to support such a
distinction. Blee and Tickamyer's assessment (1995) that African American men
in comparison to European American men are more accepting of working wives
but less liberal about gender roles in the home may reflect a belief that
employment is compatible with women's roles but domestic labor is not
compatible with men's roles (Kane and Sanchez 1994). Thus, what may be
central to African American men's sense of masculine identity is conceptualizing
their role as men in a traditional light, viewing themselves as, for example, the
"patriarch" of the family who "provides leadership" and "makes decisions for [the]
family" (Hunter and Davis 1992, 472); the "boss" in male/female interactions
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(Lottes and Kuriloff 1992); and the leader who provides direction in the public
arena (Ransford and Miller 1983) regardless of what roles women occupy.
Taking a social constructionist viewpoint allows us to see how gender is created
in certain acts, and it allows us to see how meanings change depending on who
carries out those acts and under what circumstances (West and Zimmerman
1987).
Gender construction does not happen, however, in a vacuum; therefore, a
structural analysis that factors in how living in a social context characterized by
classism and racism intersect to influence gender role attitudes and behaviors is
also paramount. Acceptance of working wives may be for African American men
more indicative of economic realities than egalitarian beliefs. For African
Americans, a multiplicity of factors including historical legacy and current
structural location contribute to gender relations within the black church and
family differing from those found within the dominant white culture. These
differences must be analyzed and understood in relation to African American
women's heritage of higher rates of paid and unpaid work outside of the home,
and African American men and women's encounters with discrimination in the
market economy (Gilkes 2001; Collins 2000; White 1999; Giddings 1984; hooks
1981).
African American Women’ s Gender Construction
Although Moynihan (1965) may have viewed African American women as
less feminine because of their long-standing involvement in the paid economy,
that is not how the women have perceived themselves. The construction of a
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feminine identity for African American women has historically not been
predicated upon them limiting their interactions to the domestic realm. Instead,
they have developed a notion of femininity that is consistent with their economic
and social realties (Dugger 1988). For example, in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries, middle class church club women and educators often
encouraged their less fortunate sisters to become politically involved and fight for
their rights as people of African descent and as women. The club women's efforts
to improve the lives of poor women has been labeled the "third shift"—paid
employment, followed by unpaid domestic work, followed by community service
(Dickson 1997). To these women, responsible motherhood and womanhood did
not mean confining oneself to the domestic sphere; instead, it meant doing
whatever was necessary to insure the advancement of their children and of the
entire race, as evidenced by the slogan adopted by the church club women,
"Lifting as we Climb." (Eugene 2000).
Since the late 19th century, women of African descent in the U.S. have
promoted a subcultural ideal of femininity that includes unity, assertiveness, and
economic independence. In terms of community activism, recent studies
consistently find that African American women exhibit a preference for social
action beyond that of European American women (Wilcox 1990). Consequently,
African American women have found the combination of family, career, and
community involvement to be highly consistent with their ideals of womanhood
(Collins 2000; Landry 2000). As noted above, African American men have also
been supportive of working wives. However, there are limitations on that
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acceptance that are pertinent to this research, and it is to those limitations that
we now turn.
You May Work...But Not Here! Barriers to Church Employment
African American men have typically been supportive of African American
women holding a vast array of paid professional positions, excluding one—that of
minister. African American women who pursue ministerial careers are sometimes
perceived as encroaching upon the one site that has been most closely
associated with male authority, power, and prestige—the pulpit. Just as African
American women have been negatively labeled for being a strong presence in
the home, they are also negatively labeled for being a strong presence in the
church—when they present themselves as anything other than followers of male
leadership. Perhaps because the black family has been denigrated as
"matriarchal" there's been an even stronger determination to ensure that the
black church remains patriarchal.
Historically, the black church3 1 has afforded African American men the
opportunity for status conferment otherwise denied within the larger society.
3 1 In this dissertation, I utilize the expression "black church" in a general sense. "In
general usage, any black Christian person is included in 'the Black Church' if he or she is
a member of a black congregation" (Lincoln and Mamiya 1990, 1). Therefore, when I use
the expression "black church" I am referring to any of the following:
a. The seven historically black denominations—the African Methodist Episcopal Church
(AME), the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AMEZ); the Christian Methodist
Episcopal Church (CME); the National Baptist Convention, USA, Incorporated (NBC);
the Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC); and the Church of God in
Christ (COGIC)
b. Any predominantly black local church in a white denomination such as the United
Methodist Church (UMC) or the Episcopal Church. Black congregations in white
denominations maintain a worship style and political agenda that are comparable to
that found in the seven historically black denominations.
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Within the racially stratified U.S., African American men have occupied a
subordinate status, yet, by establishing and encouraging gendered hierarchies
within the church and family, African American men have been able to obtain a
position of dominance vis-a-vis African American women. Thus, the black church
has not only been a spiritual, emotional, and social enclave, it has also operated
as a vehicle of status conferment for men. Historically, if a man's status in the
paid economy was low, among his associates, neighbors, and family, his "master
status" was the one he occupied in the church. In all social encounters with other
African Americans—not just those during Sunday morning worship service— he
would be referred to by his religious title, whether deacon, elder, or pastor. This
is a trend that continues to this day.
Church leadership for African American men has also been a means of
economic advancement, and some male ministers have been able to move into
the middle classes. Recent emphasis on financial prosperity as a God-given right
has proven lucrative for some Christian ministers, capitulating them into the
upper classes. The basis of the health-wealth prosperity message is that in order
to receive, believers must first give—to their church.3 2
c. Any independent, non-denominationally affiliated church with African American clergy
and a predominantly black congregation.
Roughly 80 - 85 percent of African American Protestants comprise the body of the black
church (Lincoln and Mamiya 1990).
3 2 At the 2004 American Academy of Religion Conference, the Womanist Approaches to
Religion and Society Group sponsored a session entitled "A Real Woman with a Dollar in
Her Shoe: Black Women and Theologies of Prosperity." The panelists and respondents
which included Stephanie Mitchem, Teresa Fry-Brown, Paula McGee, and Karen Baker-
Fletcher, provided a womanist critique of prosperity ministries by outlining how a
predominantly male pastorate is flourishing financially at the expense of their
predominantly female laity, many of whom live in poverty.
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Male clergy not only often have a higher social class status than the
people they serve, they also have a considerable amount of prestige. This
prestige results in part from them being perceived as leaders of their
congregations as well as the larger community. This was most evident during the
Civil Rights Movement when, for example, the leader of a black Baptist church in
Atlanta named Martin Luther King, Jr. was appointed to head the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference and often called upon to be a spokesman for
the race. It is also evident today. According to a recent Barna poll, the majority of
African Americans (63%) agree that the pastors of black churches are the most
important leaders in the African American community (Barna Research Group
1996). Recognizing the clout that religious leaders have within their communities,
the Republican Party has worked to gain the support of these mostly male
African American clergy as they campaign against gay marriage (Hamburger and
Wallsten 2005). When power and prestige are viewed from a zero-sum
perspective within religious institutions, male clergy often exert an effort to limit
the acquisition of power by women (Carpenter 2001; Baer 1994; Lincoln and
Mamiya 1990).
Attitudes Towards Clergywomen
The two most comprehensive investigations assessing current attitudes
towards African American clergywomen are a study conducted by Lincoln and
Mamiya (1990) and Carpenter (2001). I will incorporate major findings from these
studies below.
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The Lincoln and Mamiya Study
In their nationwide survey of 2,150 African American clergy, 66 of whom
were women (3.7%) Lincoln and Mamiya (1990) report that there is no general
consensus among clergy concerning women's roles in the church. The young are
more likely to approve of women pastors than the old, and the more educated
express more approval than the less educated. Across denominations, Baptists
are more prone to disapprove of women pastors, while all branches of the black
Methodist church have high approval rates. Consistent with their church policy,
the majority of C.O.G.I.C. leaders disapprove of women pastors.
Clergy attitudes also vary along gender lines. Male clergy are fairly evenly
divided on the issue of women serving as clergy: 51% approve and 49%
disapprove, while female clergy are more likely to express approval (82%) than
disapproval (18%). The finding that nearly 20% of women clergy disapprove of
women serving as clergy needs some explanation. Lincoln and Mamiya suggest
that these disapproving women may be widows who took over the leadership of
their husbands' churches. Even in denominations that have official policies
prohibiting women pastors, there is often tacit agreement that it would be better
for the wife to serve in her late husband's stead as opposed to bringing in an
outsider. Lincoln and Mamiya refer to these women as shepherds sans portfolio
(288).
In the qualitative portion of their study, clergy were given the opportunity
to elaborate on their views. The clergy who express disapproval of women
working as pastors primarily rely on traditional theologizing about gender roles
couched in essentialist language and gender stereotypes. The male clergy opine
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that female pastors are not "God-approved," that women are physically incapable
of ministering, and that ministerial work makes women less feminine (294 - 296).
The Carpenter Study
Similar attitudes of resistance to women clergy are found in the research
conducted by Carpenter (2001). In 1985, 1992 and 1999 Carpenter (2001)
surveyed African American female Master of Divinity graduates to ascertain what
their experiences have been like as African American women in Christian
ministry. Although her study is not longitudinal, some of the 120 clergywomen
who responded to her questionnaire in 1985 are also included in the 203
respondents from 1992 and the 324 respondents from 1999. The women work in
both church settings (representing, among others, the seven historically black
denominations) as well as para-church and secular organizations. In the written
questionnaire and follow-up telephone interviews, Carpenter asked the
clergywomen questions concerning their career goals and career attainment,
their theological orientation, their family structure, and their perception of how
well they were being received by other clergy and laity. In 1999, 56% of the
clergywomen describe their overall experience as women in ministry as "fair" or
"poor." In all three years, the women report that they perceive sexism and male
clergy to be the top two barriers to clergywomen's advancement in the
ecclesiastical realm.
Carpenter assesses that the reasons for resistance to women in ministry
fall within the following categories: theological beliefs (e.g. The Bible says women
should keep silent in the church); religious tradition (e.g. Jesus did not call
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women disciples); negative stereotypes about African American women as bitter;
a perception that women are physically incapable to minister due to pregnancy or
menstruation; a fear that the black church is already too feminized and women in
leadership will further inhibit the involvement of men;3 3 and a fear that
clergywomen create too much competition for clergymen.3 4 Some of the specific
retaliatory behaviors of clergymen mentioned by the clergywomen are as follows:
speaking and teaching against the ordination of women clergy; failing to
introduce clergywomen who appear as guests at a religious service; prohibiting
clergywomen from preaching from the raised pulpit and instead directing them to
the lowered platform; excluding clergywomen from training and mentoring
opportunities; and assigning women to churches hostile to women ministers,
referred to as "forcing a woman" on a congregation (95).
Besides sexism and male clergy, clergywomen also list negative attitudes
by female clergy and female laity as major obstacles to overcome (172). In fact,
female laity are described as being more oppositional to women in ministry than
male laity. Carpenter explains that part of women's resistance is a result of
women being under the influential teaching and preaching of male clergy who
condemn female pastors. Carpenter goes on to explain that women's resistance
is not simply based in an acceptance of traditional theological understandings of
3 3 In response to the commonly held assumption that more female clergy will discourage
men from attending church, Lincoln and Mamiya (1990, 306) posit that the gender of the
pastor is less significant than cultural conceptions of masculinity, demographic
imbalances, and structural factors.
3 4 Baer (1994, 83) reports that African American clergymen speak out against
clergywomen who are too successful and allegedly "stealing" members from their
congregations.
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gender roles; it is also based in social-psychological needs. Because of tradition,
many congregants are more comfortable with male models and masculine
imagery of the divine. Some denominations and laity even base their opposition
to the ordination of women on the argument that men, not women, more naturally
represent the divine (Smith and Stevens 2003), utilizing what Chaves (1997, 86)
refers to as the "iconic argument." Given such reasoning, it is not surprising that
one laywoman in Carpenter's study felt that it was "unnatural" for too many
women to be in the pulpit (171).
Some laywomen also rely on male clergy to satisfy certain emotional
longings they have that stem from their of dearth of male companionship. The
absence of men in both black churches and black families are well documented
(Tucker et al. 1996; Gilkes 1995; Staples 1993). For women whose fathers,
brothers or husbands are not intimately involved in their lives, the male pastor
can be the surrogate man who supplies them with much yearned for male
contact. Such women, according to Carpenter, may transfer their exalted view of
God onto the male representative of God. One consequence of this unhealthy
transference is that it can lead to the sexual abuse of female laity by male clergy
(Dyson 2001).
What's Missing In the Current Literature
While the studies by both Lincoln and Mamiya (1990) and Carpenter
(2001) provide us with vital data concerning clergy attitudes towards women's
roles, neither study gives us direct information about the attitudes and beliefs of
"in the pew" African Americans. Even Carpenter's study relies on clergywomen's
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perception of lay attitudes. This information, while valuable, is second-hand, and
it may only be representative of the laity that are oppositional enough to express,
in word and deed, their disapproval of women clergy. Another drawback is that
research that has directly assessed lay attitudes towards female clergy has
focused on people in predominantly white denominations (Smith and Stevens
2003; Lehman 1987). Similarly, the literature cited above that assesses attitudes
towards women's roles in the home also frequently focuses on European
Americans (Denton 2004; Gallagher 2003; Bartkowski 1999) while the studies
that makes cross-cultural comparisons too often fail to even include religiosity as
a variable, much less make religiosity the primary focus (Levant et al. 1998;
Lottes and Kuriloff 1992). Given these limitations of the existing literature, the first
goal of this dissertation is derive answers to the following empirical questions:
What is the current gender ideology of highly religious African
American Protestants concerning a woman's "proper place" in the
church and home?
A) Is this gender ideology more or less conservative than that of highly
religious European American Protestants?
B) Does this gender ideology vary with respect to gender and view of the
Bible?
M ethods
Sample
The data to empirically test the above questions come from the 1996
Religious Identity and Identification (Rll) Survey. I obtained access to this data by
making a specific request of the principle investigator, Christian Smith, who
graciously shared both the data and codebook. The Rll survey, which was
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administered between January and March 1996 using random-digit dialing
(RDD), is a national random-sample survey of churchgoing Protestants
(n=2,078). Of the 2,078 churchgoing Protestants surveyed, 203 were African
American females; 64 were African American males; 1,106 were European
American females; and 587 were European American males.
"Churchgoing Protestants" were defined as those who attended
Protestant religious services a minimum of two times a month or who said that
their faith was "extremely important" to them (as opposed to just "very
important"), even if they did not regularly, if ever, attend services. For this reason,
they are also referred to as "Highly Religious Protestants." These churchgoing, or
highly religious Protestants (HRP) were over-sampled in order to have a large
enough sample of distinctive religious traditions within American Protestantism.
The comparison group (n=504) consisted of those who were either not
Protestant, or who were Protestants but were infrequent churchgoers who did not
indicate that their faith was "extremely important" to them. The comparison group
was only asked a subset of the survey questions.3 5 Altogether, a total of 2,591
U.S. adults participated in the survey, comprising a response rate of 69%.3 6
3 5 I find it very disappointing that the comparison group was not asked all of the
questions, especially since many of the questions they were not asked were the most
interesting! My understanding is that the rationale for not asking the comparison group all
of the questions is that the focus of the survey was to be on HRP; never-the-less, by
limiting the survey in this way, the types of comparisons that can be made with the
"comparison group" are severely limited. Overall, they were asked 26 of the 169
questions on the survey.
3 6 For more detailed information on the survey methods, see Appendices A, B, and D in
Christian Smith et al. 1998. American evangelicalism: Embattled and thriving. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
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The goal of the survey was to assess the religious and social beliefs,
identities, and behaviors of HRP in the U.S. Toward that end, respondents were
asked questions about how they identify themselves religiously; what stand
Christians should take on various social, economic, and political issues; whether
or not they believe Christians live radically different lives than non Christians;
what strategies Christians should take to deal with racism; how couples make
decisions and share power in the home; and, most importantly for this
dissertation, what roles men and women should occupy in the church and home.
Measurement of Variables
Outcome Variables
Two items are used to measure gender ideology:
1. Do you think that women should be allowed to hold the position of head
pastor, or not? Yes N o___
2. Do you think that the husband should be the head of the family, or not?
Yes N o___
Item 1 measures attitudes towards women's leadership in the church, whereas
Item 2 measures attitudes towards men's leadership in the home. Because these
concepts are theologically distinct leading to the four viewpoints described above
(i.e. the purely patriarchal view, the partially patriarchal view, the progressive
patriarchal view, and the post patriarchal view), I do not combine these items into
a scale. Instead, I perform separate analyses for both items.
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Defining Male Headship
In an effort to determine what is meant by "male headship," those who
agreed that the husband should be the head of the house were asked to clarify
what that means to them by answering three additional questions:
A. Does it mean that the husband should be responsible to give spiritual
direction for the family, or not? Yes N o___
B. Does it mean that the husband should be the final authority in decision
making, or not? Yes N o___
C. Does it mean that the husband should be the primary breadwinner, or not?
Yes N o___
Item A measures whether or not respondents believe that the husband should be
the one to initiate activities such as family devotions, church attendance, and
family Bible studies. Item B measures whether or not respondents believe that a
husband's "vote" counts more in decision making, especially in those instances in
which couples cannot come to agreement on an issue and a decision must be
made. Item C measures whether or not respondents believe that husbands
should have the primary responsibility for providing the economic resources for
the family.
Measurement of Specific Variables
The two primary variables of interest are binary indicators of the
respondent's race (African American = 1) and gender (female = 1). In addition to
these two independent variables, I include variables that control for demographic
characteristics, region, and view of the Bible. I also include interaction terms to
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determine if gender ideology varies by race, gender, marital status, and view of
the Bible.
Demographic Characteristics
I control for age (a continuous variable) as well as for marital status
(married=1). Controlling for marital status should help us to determine whether or
not Dugger's finding (1988) that being never-married liberalizes the gender role
attitudes of African American women is also true for HRP. I also control for
education (measured as a binary variable where college graduate or more = 1
and less than college graduate = 0) and employment status (employed full time =
1). I include education because previous research indicates that education is
positively correlated with more liberal attitudes towards women's roles in the
church (Lincoln and Mamiya 1990). I include employment status because for
religious married women, their employment status is a strong indicator of their
attitudes towards women's roles in the home, with unemployed women being
significantly more conservative (Gesch 1995; Hall 1995).
Region
Because Levant et al. (1998) and Rice and Coats (1995) find that African
American men from the South are more conservative in their gender ideology
than men and women from other regions, I expect to find that HRP African
American men from the South will be more conservative than HRP African
American women and European American men from the South and from other
regions of the country.
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View of the Bible
Given that the conservative clergy in the Lincoln and Mamiya study
(1990) and in Carpenter's study (2001) base their arguments against the
inclusion of women in ministry on a literalist interpretation of the Bible, we might
assume that the ideology of HRP will also be affected by how they view the Bible.
Respondents' views of the Bible were assessed by this question: "Do you believe
the Bible is the inspired word of God or not?" Possible answers were 1) true and
literal 2) true but not literal and 3) true in religious matters but with errors about
other matters. I create a dichotomous dummy variable in which "true and literal" =
1, else 0.
Interaction Terms
Because African American women have a longer history of working for
pay in the U.S. and that work history has influenced their gender ideologies, I
include an interaction term defined as (African American X full-time employment)
to determine if, among women who work full time, African American women are
more liberal than European American women. The other interaction term
involving the full time variable is a variable defined as (female X full-time
employment). This variable is constructed to establish whether full-time
employment liberalizes women's gender ideology more than men's. To assess if
taking a literalist interpretation of the Bible has different effects according to
gender and race, I include two interaction terms, (African American X true and
literal) and (female X true and literal). Finally, to clarify whether the effects of
being married are different for African Americans, I include the interaction term
(African American X married).
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Analytical Plan
As a preliminary measure, I ran multicollinearity diagnostic tests among
all independent and control variables. No two independent variables have a
Pearson correlation coefficient above or even close to .60, and multicollinearity
proved not to be a problem in the analyses.
To determine the gender ideology of HRP, I estimate a series of binary
logistic regressions. For the first series of regressions, the outcome variable is
whether or not the respondent agrees that a woman can be the head or senior
pastor of a church. In the second series of regressions, the outcome variable is
whether or not the respondent agrees that the man should be the head of the
house. For those who agree that the husband should be the head of the house, I
estimate three additional regressions to determine the basis of that agreement.
The outcome variables are whether the respondents agree or disagree that
headship means "Spiritual Head," "Final Authority" and/or "Breadwinner."
Because I want to make comparisons across racial categories and across
gender categories, after estimating a model that includes all HRP, I estimate
models for African Americans only, European Americans only, women only, and
men only. I use Weight 1 for all analyses. Weight 1 adjusts for household size
given that individuals in households with fewer people have a greater chance of
being surveyed than individuals in households with more people. Weight 1 is also
the weight recommended when only analyzing HRP.
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Results
Descriptive Data
In Table 2 we find the means of the variables used in the analyses. The
majority of HRP are in favor of women serving as the head or senior pastor of a
church (64%) and in favor of the man being designated as the head of the house
(76%). African Americans are more likely than European Americans to express
approval for women's religious leadership and for men's home leadership. For
both groups, women are in stronger support of female pastors than men are,
while men are in stronger support of male headship than women are. Yet the
within group differences between women and men are greater among African
Americans than among European Americans.
Women comprise the majority of those surveyed (66%). The
representation of African Americans in the sample (14%) is slightly greater than
their representation in the U.S. (13%) (U.S. Census Bureau 2006). The average
age of the respondents is 49, with African Americans being on average 7 years
younger than European Americans (ages 43 and 50 respectively). The majority
of HRP are not college graduates, with African Americans being less likely than
European Americans to have a college degree. Interestingly, even though
currently more African American women are graduating with college degrees
than African American men (Hefner 2004; Cose and Samuels 2003), in this
sample, men are more likely to have graduated from college than women. More
African Americans than European Americans live in the South, and more African
Americans than European Americans believe that the Bible is literal and true.
112
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Table 2: Means of Variables Used in the Analyses: 1996 Religious Identity and Influence Survey
Variable
All Highly
Religious
Protestants
Female Head Pastor OK 63.90
Husband is Head of House 75.52
Head = Breadwinner 51.73
Head = Spiritual Leader 86.07
Head has Final Say 51.46
Women 66.47
African American 13.62
Age 48.87
College Graduate 31.98
Married 61.53
Works full Time 51.84
South 50.19
Believes Bible is Literal &
True
49.39
N 1960
African
American
Women
70.97
80.30
54.84
82.17
50.64
100
100
42.61
27.86
33.99
55.61
65.02
62.63
203
African
American
Men
66.67
87.50
50.00
85.45
47.27
100
43.01
35.94
43.75
79.37
62.50
55.17
64
European
American
Women
62.81
74.37
49.67
84.77
52.97
100
51.22
30.05
62.48
45 71
41.31
47.92
46.29
1106
European
American
Men
61.99
75.57
55.00
89.15
49.65
48.47
38.33
74.28
67.19
48.55
44.59
587
co
Multivariate Results
Views on Male Headship in the Home
In Table 3 I present the log-odd estimates from the binary logistic
regression models that predict the gender ideology of HRP concerning male
headship in the home and female leadership in the church. In the first two
columns are the estimates from the main effects model and the interaction model
predicting the likelihood that HRP will agree that the husband is the head of the
family. The main effects model estimates that African American HRP are (e M 4) =
1.72 times more likely than European American HRP to agree that the husband
is the head of the house. Although women are less likely than men to express a
belief in male headship, the difference is not statistically significant. College
graduates are less likely than those without a college degree likely to adopt a
hierarchical view, while those who are married are (e9 3 9 ) = 2.56 times more likely
to believe in male headship, and those who believe that the Bible is literally true
are (e1 1 3 9 ) = 3 times more likely. These two odds are highly statistically
significant positive odds.
The interaction model estimates that among those HRP who believe that
the Bible is literally true, African Americans are significantly less likely than
European Americans to express support for male headship in the home.
However, among those who are married, there are no racial variations in the
acceptance of hierarchal family relationships. Overall, the first two models predict
that attitudes towards male headship in the home are primarily a function of racial
category, educational level, marital status, and view of the Bible.
114
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Views on Female Leadership in the Church
In the third and fourth columns in Table 3 ,1 present the log-odd estimates
from the binary logistic regression models that predict whether HRP will agree
that it is acceptable for a woman to be the head or senior pastor of a church. The
main effects model predicts that African Americans are (e4 4 0 ) = 1.55 times more
likely than European Americans to express approval for women serving as head
pastors of a church. While women are more likely to approve of female leaders in
the church, the difference is not statistically significant. Those who are unmarried
are twice as likely [(1/e'6 8 2 ) = 1.97] as those who are married to support female
leadership in the church, while those who do not take a literal interpretation of the
Bible are almost 4 times more likely [(1/e'1 -3 4 6 ) = 3.84] than literalists to support
women pastoring.
None of the interaction terms are significant indicating that there are no
racial differences in attitudes towards women serving as the head pastor among
those who believe that the Bible is literally true or among those who are married.
Overall, the third and fourth models predict that attitudes towards women serving
as the head pastor of a church are primarily a function of racial category, marital
status, and views of the Bible. Age, education, employment status, and region do
not significantly impact the views of HRP.
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Table 3: Logistic Regression of Gender Ideology on Race and Gender:
_______ 1996 Religious Identity and Influence Survey______________
Variables
Male Headship In Home
Female Leadership in
the Church
Main
Effects
Interaction
Effects
Main
Effects
Interaction
Effects
African American
.544**
(.202)
.771**
(.295)
.440*
(.175)
.615+
(.352)
Female
-.094
(.131)
-.100
(.131)
.171
(.114)
.172
(.114)
Individual Characteristics
Age
.002
(.004)
.002
(.004)
.006+
(.004)
.006*
(.004)
College Graduate
-.264*
(.131)
-.260*
(.131)
.182
(.121)
.184
(.121)
Married
.939***
(.131)
.904***
(139)
-.578***
(.126)
-.551***
(.136)
Employed Full Time
-.071
(.133)
-.091
(134)
.062
(.119)
.066
(.119)
Region
South
.132
(.121)
.146
(.122)
-.110
(107)
-.110
(.107)
View of the Bible
Bible is Literally True
1.139***
(134)
1.248***
(.145)
-1.139***
(.110)
-1.126***
(.116)
Interaction Ternis
African Am. X Literally True
-.872*
(.386)
-.123
(.362)
African Am. X Married
.478
(.453)
-.179
(.345)
Constant
.147
(.263)
.160
(.269)
.970
(.246)
.933
(.253)
*2 155.122 161.238 163.156 163.542
Df 8 10 8 10
Weighted N = 1748 for Male Headship Model. Weighted N = 1678 for Female Leadership Model.
Numbers in parenthesis are standard errors.* p < .10 * p s .05 ** p s .01 *** p s .001 (two-
tailed test)_____________________________________________________________________
116
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Views On Female Leadership in the Church by Race and Gender
Racial Differences
In Table 4 I present the log-odd estimates from the binary logistic
regression models that predict the attitudes of HRP concerning women serving
as head pastor of a congregation. The first two models in Table 4 indicate that
gender is a predictor of attitudes towards female leadership in the church for
African Americans but not for European Americans. The model predicts that
African American women are (e8 3 3 ) = 2.3 times more likely than African American
men to agree that it is acceptable for a woman to serve as the head pastor of a
church; among European Americans, women are no more or less accepting than
men of women pastors. For European Americans, being married significantly
decreases the likelihood that one will be in favor of female leadership, while for
African Americans, the marriage coefficient only approaches significance. For
both HRP African Americans and European Americans, view of the Bible is a
strong predictor of attitudes towards female leadership in the church, with those
who adopt a literalist interpretation of the Text being significantly less likely to
support women taking on the role of the head pastor of a church.
Among African Americans, there are no significant interaction effects,
while among European Americans, there is one significant effect (not shown in
Table 4). Among those who work full-time, European American women are highly
significantly more likely than European American men to be supportive of women
pastoring. However, as is the case among African Americans, among European
Americans, there are no gender differences in attitudes towards women leaders
among those who take a literal interpretation of the Bible.
117
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Gender Differences
Table 4 shows that race is a predictor of acceptance of female leadership
for women but not for men. The model predicts that African American women are
(e 5 6 5 ) = 1.76 times more likely than European American women to support a
woman being the head pastor of a church. Marital status is another variable that
predicts attitudes for women but not for men. Among women, those who are
married are significantly less likely than those who are unmarried to be
supportive of female leadership. The employment variable has an interesting and
opposite effect for women and men. For women, being employed full time
increases the odds of accepting women as pastors, but for men, being employed
decreases the odds. Finally, for both women and men, adopting a literal
interpretation of the Bible strongly decreases the likelihood that one will believe
that it is acceptable for a woman to serve as the head pastor of a church.
There are no significant interaction effects for women or men (not shown
in Table 4). Thus, the effects of being literalists, full time workers, or married are
the same for both African Americans and European Americans.
118
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Table 4: Logistic Regression of Beliefs about Female Leadership on Race
and Gender: 1996 Religious Identity and In
Variables African European
vanaDies American American
luence Survey
Women Men
African American
— —
.565**
(.212)
.073
(.326)
Female
.833*
(.374)
.105
(.120)
— —
Individual Characteristics
Age
-.006
(.011)
.008*
(.004)
.006
(.004)
.002
(007)
College Graduate
-.666
(.411)
.261*
(.128)
.278*
(.159)
.015
(.194)
Married
-.682t
(.356)
-.565***
(.136)
-.694***
(.155)
-.186
(.242)
Employed Full Time
.572
(.416)
.039
(.125)
.286*
(.144)
-.537*
(.229)
Region
South
-.305
(.344)
-.087
(.113)
-.093
(.135)
-.207
(.177)
View of the Bible
Bible is Literally True
-1.346***
(.373)
-1.114***
(.116)
-1.157***
(.139)
-1.161***
(.186)
Constant
1.676
(.732)
.881
(.262)
1.115
(.297)
1.427
(.395)
*2 30.256 137.282 123.929 54.559
Df 7 7 7 7
Weighted N 212 1465 1090 508
Numbers in parenthesis are standard errors.t p £ .10 * p S .05 ** p < .01 *** p <
.001 (two-tailed test)
119
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Views On Male Headship in the Home by Race and Gender
Racial Comparisons
In Table 5 I present four logistic regression models that estimate the odds
that HRP will be supportive of male headship in the home. The first two columns
present the estimates by racial category, and the second two columns present
the estimates by gender category. The first model shows that among African
Americans, women are less likely to be supportive of male headship in the home;
this difference, however, only approaches significance. Among European
Americans, there are no gender differences. Among African Americans, each
additional year of age increases the odds that a HRP will support male headship
in the home by 5%, computed as (e0 5 1 ) = 1.05. While increases in age among
European Americans have no effect on attitudes towards male leadership in the
home, marital status does; those who are married are (e 9 5 0 ) = 2.59 more likely
than those who are unmarried to adopt a hierarchical position. Those who
believe that the Bible is literally true have (e1 2 4 3 ) = 3.46 times greater odds of
supporting male headship. Among African Americans, there are no differences
based on views of the Bible.
In terms of interaction effects (not shown in Table 5), among African
Americans, there are no gender differences among those who work full time nor
among those who take a literal view of the Bible. There are also no gender
differences among European Americans who take a literal view of the Bible.
However, European American women who work full time are significantly less
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likely than European American men who work full time to be supportive of male
headship in the home.
Gender Comparisons
In the third and fourth columns of Table 5 we see the estimates for
women and men. The models suggest that race is a stronger predictor of gender
ideology among men than among women. For both women and men, being
married strongly increases support for male headship as does believing that the
Bible is literally true. Interestingly, college graduates are not significantly more
egalitarian and those with less education, and those living in the South are not
significantly more hierarchical than those living in other parts of the country.
The only significant interaction effect is found among women (not shown
in Table 5). Among women who work full time, African American women are
more supportive of male headship in the home than European American women.
However, among men and women who are married, there are no racial
differences in gender ideology concerning male headship, nor are there racial
differences among those who take a literal view of the Bible.
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Table 5: Logistic Regression of Beliefs about Male Headship on Race and
Gender: 1996 Religious Identity and Identif cation Survey
Variables
African
American
European
American
Women Men
African American
— —
.416*
(.228)
1.776**
(.623)
Female
-1.218+
(.645)
-.019
(.137)
— —
Individual Characteristics
Age
.051***
(.016)
-.005
(.004)
.009*
(.005)
-.010
(.008)
College Graduate
.303
(.533)
-.350*
(-137)
-.219
(.164)
-.255
(.222)
Married
.769
(.476)
.950***
(.140)
1.077***
(.159)
.855**
(.272)
Employed Full Time
.807*
(.433)
-.265*
(.143)
-.201
(.159)
.197
(.253)
Region
South
.013
(.413)
.177
(.129)
.049
(.152)
.319
(.208)
View of the Bible
Bible is Literally True
.510
(.403)
1.243***
(.146)
1.238***
(.167)
1.019***
(.213)
Constant
-.389
(.912)
.506
(.287)
-.294
(.308)
.459
(.432)
*2 41.831 150.488 127.515 50.309
df 7 7 7 7
Weighted N 228 1522 1147 601
Numbers in parenthesis are standard errors. * p £ .10 * p £ .05 ** p £ .01 *** p £
.001 (two-tailed test)
Defining Male Headship in the Family
In Table 6 we find the estimates that predict how HRP who support male
headship in the home define headship. In terms of racial comparisons, the
122
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models predict that HRP African Americans are no more or less likely than HRP
European Americans to define male headship as a function of breadwinning,
spiritual leadership, or decision-making. There are, however, significant gender
differences, with women being significantly less likely to define male headship in
terms of breadwinning or spiritual leadership. In all three models, a belief that the
Bible is literal and true strongly influences the acceptance of each of the three
definitions of male headship in the family.
There are no significant interaction effects between race and literalness,
marital status, or gender (not shown in Table 6). In other words, the effects of
being a biblical literalists, a married individual, or a woman are the same for both
African Americans and European Americans in all three models.
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Table 6: Defining Male Headship in the Family: 1996 Religious
Identity and Influence Survey_____________________
Variables Breadwinner sPiritual Final
variames Breadwinner Leader Authority
African American
.280
(.176)
-,379f
(.226)
-.154
(.169)
Female
-.419***
(.127)
-.378*
(.187)
.128
(.122)
Individual Characteristics
Age
.022*** -.003
. 014***
(.004) (.005) (.004)
College Graduate
-.658***
(.132)
.315
(.193)
.148
(.128)
Married
.110
(.137)
.209
(.183)
.313*
(.134)
Employed Full Time
-.219f
(-131)
.261
(.182)
-.172
(.128)
Region
South
.150
(.116)
.004
(.162)
-.172
(.113)
View of the Bible
Bible is Literally True
.408***
(.118)
.461**
(.166)
.512***
(.116)
Constant
-.824
(-276)
1.686
(.379)
.354
(.269)
*2 113.519 25.180 37.970
df 8 8 8
Weighted N 1321 1336 1320
Numbers in parenthesis are standard errors. * p s .10 * p s .05
* * p <
.01 *** p £ .001 (two-tailed test)
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D is c u s s io n
Highly religious Protestant African Americans are more liberal in their
attitudes towards women's roles in the church than they are concerning women's
roles in the home. The majority of African Americans (70%) agree that it is
acceptable for a woman to serve as the senior or head pastor of a church, and
an even stronger majority (82%) agree that the husband is the head of the family.
In the classification typology that I create, these findings typify HRP African
Americans as "progressive patriarchs." They are "progressive" in that they adopt
an egalitarian viewpoint concerning the level of power that women should be
allowed to obtain in the religious realm. However, they are "patriarchal" in the
sense that they still adopt a hierarchical view towards gender relations in the
home, believing that men and not women should be designated as the "head of
the family."
Although increased education is usually associated with more liberal
ideals, among HRP, being a college graduate does not significantly increase
support for female leadership in the church, and it only minimally decreases
support for male headship in the home. It appears that among HRP, what is
learned in Sunday School has more influence than what is learned any place
else. This also might help explain why only 32% of HRP are college graduates.
If education does not strongly shape gender ideology for HRP, what
does? The findings from this research are that both marital status and view of the
Bible have the strongest impacts on gender ideology for HRP overall. Married
individuals and individuals who believe that the Bible is literally true are
considerably more conservative than those who are unmarried or those who are
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not literalists. Interestingly, there are no significant interactions between gender
and marital status, gender and view of the Bible, or race and marital status. The
only significant interaction with regard to these variables is found between race
and literalism: African Americans who believe that the Bible is literally true are
less supportive of male headship in the home than European Americans who
believe that the Bible is literally true.
One explanation for why the effect of biblical literalism on support for
male headship varies by racial category is that historically African Americans
have had more to lose than European Americans by adopting a literal
interpretation of the Scriptures. For example, in the antebellum period, the Old
Testament account of what is frequently referred to as the Curse of Ham or the
Curse of Canaan was used to justify the enslavement of people of African
descent. In this biblical account, Noah, Ham’s father, curses Ham’s son Canaan
(not Ham himself) with perpetual servitude because Ham saw Noah naked and
drunk and did not hide his father’s shame. “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of
servants shall he be unto his brethren” (Genesis 9:25, KJV).3 7 Then, in the New
Testament, the apostle Paul enjoins servants to be obedient to their masters in
Ephesians 6:5 - 8. Both of these scriptural references were favored texts of White
ministers who preached to enslaved Africans with the hope that such a message
would encourage docility, humility, and acceptance of their slave status as God-
3 7 For more on how biblical passages that actually make no direct reference to Black
people become the justification for the enslavement of people of African descent, see
Stephen R . Haynes. 2002. Noah’s curse: The biblical justification of American slavery.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, and see David M. Goldenberg. 2003. The curse of Ham:
Race and slavery in early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press.
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ordained. Given these historical realities, African Americans have recognized that
being too literal can work to their own demise; therefore, the literalism of African
Americans is likely and justifiably more flexible than that of European Americans.
This more flexible literalism allows African Americans to apply a self-affirming
hermeneutic as they interpret (or reinterpret, as the case may be) Scriptures that
appear to sanction one group’s dominance over another.
In terms of how the gender ideology of HRP African Americans compares
overall to that of HRP European Americans, we find that African Americans are
both more egalitarian and more conservative than European Americans. They
are more egalitarian in that they are more likely than European Americans to
support female leadership in the church. However, they are more conservative in
that they are significantly more likely to support male leadership in the home.
While there is evidence for racial differences in gender ideology, the
evidence for gender differences is less apparent. Among all HRP, women are not
more likely than men to agree that it is acceptable for a woman to be the head of
the church, and they are not less likely to agree that the husband is the head of
the family. This finding that HRP women's gender ideology is not more egalitarian
than men's contradicts the findings of numerous studies that show that women
are more liberal than men (Deutsch and Saxon 1998; Hunter and Sellers 1998;
Levant et al. 1998; Spence and Hahn 1997; Willetts-Bloom and Nock 1994). This
can be explained in part by the fact that women who have high levels of
religiosity are more conservative than those who do not (Hunter and Sellers
1998; Willetts-Bloom and Nock 1994). If HRP women were significantly more
egalitarian than men, then indication of that greater liberalism would most likely
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be evident in how churches were structured. Because women make up the
majority of Protestant congregations, if their goal was to create an egalitarian
environment for worship, they could use their numerical and financial clout to
affect change. Instead, as has been documented in Carpenter's study (2001), lay
women contribute greatly to the maintenance of the status quo that favors men.
One place in which we do find significant gender differences among HRP
is when we analyze the subset of HRP who agree that the husband is the head
of the family. Those who agree that the husband is the household head were
asked to agree or disagree with three definitions of headship, i.e. being the head
of the family means being the breadwinner, being the spiritual leader, and/or
having the final say in disputes that must be decided upon. The analyses show
that women are significantly less likely to agree that headship means that the
man is the breadwinner or the spiritual leader. However, women do not differ
from men in their belief that the man should have the final say.
Although among all HRP, women do not differ from men in their gender
ideology, among African Americans and among all women, African American
women are more egalitarian in their attitudes towards female leadership in the
church than either African American men or European American women. African
American women do not differ, however, from men or from European American
women in their views concerning male headship in the home. In other words,
African American lay women are more progressive concerning women's church
leadership and just as patriarchal concerning men's household leadership.
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Implications of the Findings for African American Clergywomen
What are the personal and professional implications for African American
clergywomen of working in an environment in which the majority of their followers
are progressive on one hand and patriarchal on the other? One primary
implication is that clergywomen find themselves having to demonstrate that their
role as leaders of a congregation will not undermine the man's role as the leader
of the house. I argue that how convincingly they convey these seemingly
contradictory gender ideologies influences how accepted they are as women in
Christian leadership.
Kandiyoti's (1988) concept of the "patriarchal bargain" is useful for
theorizing how African American clergywomen strategize to simultaneously
solidify their pastoral positions and stabilize their home life. A patriarchal bargain
is one in which women maneuver within restrictive conditions in such a manner
that will allow them to optimize the limited choices available to them. They are
"bargaining" within their constraints in that they concede power in one area in
order to gain power in another. Whether this concession of power is real or
symbolic depends largely on the situation.
Sources of Power for African American Clergywomen
Building on Weber's (1915) concept of power as the probability that an
individual will be able to impose her will even in the face of resistance, I propose
that two key sources of power for African American clergywomen are their
professional positions and their personality traits. The role of the pastor in the
black church has historically been and continues to be a powerfully influential
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position. The opinions of religious leaders are sought by the government on large
political issues such as whether or not gays should be allowed to marry
(Hamburger and Wallsten 2005) and on smaller-scale issues facing individuals
such as how to deal with a marital conflict (Chang and Perl 1999). Even though
some African American male clergy have doggedly sought to limit clergywomen's
access to power (Carpenter 2001; Baer 1994; Lincoln and Mamiya 1990), African
American female clergy have still acquired access to the pulpit. In situations in
which a woman is the pastor of a church, it is expected that she will provide
direct leadership and clear guidance for laity on how to live their lives in
accordance to the mandates of the faith.
Individuals who choose occupations in which they will be in positions of
influence and authority over other individuals tend to have the type of personality
that is undaunted by these tasks. Although female clergy aver to have a
"feminine" leadership style, i.e. one that is more democratic and less directive, a
quantitative study of Protestant clergy undertaken by Lehman (1993) casts doubt
on whether this is truly the case. Lehman reveals that even though there is a
feminine response pattern to questions clergy were asked regarding their
approach to ministry, this is most likely attributed to a social desirability effect in
that female clergy do not want to be viewed as having a detached, autocratic,
avoidant leadership style—even if that is what they actually have. The statistical
results from his analyses reveal that among clergy who desire to be in positions
of formal authority, women are just as willing as men to use power over their
congregations (Lehman 1993, 66).
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Methods of Conceding Power
Individuals with the type of personality that allows them to comfortably
use power over others in one domain—the church—may also have no problem
with using power over individuals in another domain—the family. If pastors with
power-over personalities are men, there are no public/private contradictions in
terms of which self they must present to their laity because it is culturally
acceptable for men to be in charge in all social institutions. If, however, pastors
with power-over personalities are women, they may find themselves with the
need to demonstrate to laity that when in their homes, they are willing to concede
and redistribute power. Therefore, one type of patriarchal bargain that
clergywomen may strike is as follows: In order to increase their pastoral influence
and create harmony in their home life, clergywomen may profess from the pulpit
that even though publicly they are leaders, privately they are under the authority
of their husbands.
Making this public profession serves two purposes. First, it reassures
conservative congregants that female pastors are not coming in with some type
of feminist agenda designed to undermine what many laity perceive to be a
biblical mandate for male leadership in the home. Secondly, if the clergywoman
is married, it provides her husband with a face-saving symbolic source of power.
If she has a strong personality and he does not, laity may be concerned that the
balance of power in the family favors the woman. Her words assure them that
this is not the case. She need not provide evidence that her husband is actually
leading in the family domain. It is sufficient that publicly she pronounces his
authority and her own voluntary submission to it. For unmarried clergywomen, a
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declaration that she supports male leadership in the home may make her more
attractive to a man who might consider forming a union with her if he felt
confident that he would not have to fight for the title of household head.
An Illustrative Example
Joyce Meyer is a tele-evangelist who has a large following among all
women, including African American women. In a recent Barna survey of 614
pastors of Protestant churches, Joyce Meyer was named by non-white pastors
as one of the top leaders who most influences U.S. churches and church leaders;
of all the persons listed, she is the only woman (Barna Research Group 2005).
Further evidence of Meyer's popularity within the black community is found in
Frederick's (2003) study on the influence of religion in the everyday lives of
African American women. The women Frederick surveyed cite Joyce Meyer as
their favorite female televised preaching personality. I posit that one factor that
contributes to Joyce Meyer's popularity among so many Christian women is that
she is a progressive patriarch who models female empowerment with her multi
million dollar ministry yet regularly professes to engage in wifely submission in
her home.
In a September 2005 airing of her program, Meyer directly linked her
success in ministry with her willingness to be submissive to her husband. Her
"Life Point" for the day, which appeared on the television screen, was as follows:
"You are not fit to be in authority unless you can come under authority." She
stated that God would not "put up with" her being "a rebellious wife at home" and
then allow her to minister on such a grand scale (Meyer 2005).
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Her success as a minister is impressive. She has a world-wide ministry
that bears her name alone—Joyce Meyer Ministries. Her program, Enjoying
Everyday Life airs at least five times every single day. Everywhere she goes she
preaches to a packed stadium, and in every place she preaches, her husband is
present, sitting on the first row. Lest anyone get the impression that he is just a
male version of the pastor's wife whose only task is to support and follow the
leader, she regularly makes it clear that there is a distinction between her public
and private roles. "Up here I'm Joyce Meyer the minister, the TV preacher; at
home I'm Dave's wife." She said that as a wife it is her job to submit, to concede,
and let Dave, her husband, have the "final say" in those rare instances in which a
decision has to be made and they cannot come to an agreement. She said that
she does this because God's "divine order for the family" is for the man, not the
woman, to have authority. This statement drew applause from her mostly female
audience.
Although it is hard to imagine a situation in which this powerful woman
who described herself as one whose personality is best suited to "work, lead,
rule, and control" (Meyer 2005) would willingly submit to anyone, her verbal
concession of domestic power is sufficient for satisfying those who ideologically
support hierarchical gender relationships in the home. Paradoxically, the more
she empowers at least the image of her husband, the more she increases her
own power and influence over the millions of conservative Christian women
watching her every day. In addition, her ability to make her husband appear
strong in the public eye may also be a factor that has contributed to their
marriage lasting over thirty years.
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C onclusion
In this chapter I have determined that HRP African Americans believe that
it is acceptable for a woman to be a leader in the church yet necessary for a man
to be the leader of the home. Although HRP African Americans express support
for female religious leadership and support for domestic male leadership, it would
be interesting to determine how many actually live in accordance to their beliefs.
In other words, saying that it is acceptable for a woman to pastor a church and
actually attending a church in which a woman is the senior pastor illustrate two
different levels of commitment to gender equality. Likewise, saying that the man
is the head of the family and demonstrating this leadership in concrete ways is
often difficult for those who express ideological support for male headship. A
study that delves deeper into analyzing the actions behind the words would help
us to understand what is meant when HRP, whether laity or clergy, profess that
the husband is the household head. Further research is also needed to
determine how African American clergywomen and their spouses balance power
in the domestic realm. Does the balance of power look different when both
individuals are pastors as opposed to when only the woman is in church
leadership? These are questions that cannot be answered at this time, but future
research that pursues these questions would give us greater insight into how
African American clergywomen maneuver within social contexts that are
simultaneously progressive and patriarchal.
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C hapter 4
(Unmarried) Women Need Not Apply?
African American Clergywomen and the Dilemma of
Getting Placed and Paid
Introductio n
For many clergy, the aspects of work that they find the most fulfilling are
those tasks typically carried out within congregational settings—preaching and
teaching, conducting worship, and counseling parishioners (Carpenter 2001, 161;
Zikmund et al. 1998, 144). To increase their chances of being employed by a
congregation and being permitted to engage in these activities, clergy strive to
acquire the credentials deemed important by the religious community of which
they are affiliated. But what happens when the credentials necessary for
placement are not based upon seminary training, adherence to the faith, or
commitment to the religious body but rather predicated upon demographic
characteristics such as the cleric's gender, sexual orientation, parental status,
and marital history? Furthermore, what happens when these demographic
characteristics themselves are perceived as indicators of an individual's
religiosity and fitness for congregational leadership? With these questions in
mind, in this chapter, I explore how gender and marital status impact African
American clergywomen's labor market outcomes.3 8
381 do not assess the effects of cohabitation (whether same-sex or not) on placement and
pay because only two of 264 African American clergywomen report being in partnerships.
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Chang and Perl (1999) divide the clergy labor market into three distinct
career tracks. The first track consists of clergy who are engaged in
congregational work. They include in this track clergy who are involved in some
type of teaching, counseling, or guiding role within a congregation. The majority
of clergy are engaged in congregational work. The second track consists of
clergy who are in administrative positions at the regional or national level. The
third track is comprised of clergy who are ordained but working in a secular
context in non-religiously related work. In assessing the effects of marital status
on clergy earnings, Chang and Perl (1999) limit their analysis to clergy engaged
in congregational work because of the assumption that marital status will be less
relevant when a cleric is in an administrative or non-congregational position.3 9
Their theoretical logic is based in the presupposition that the stigmas associated
with being single or divorced are reflections of congregational attitudes.
Therefore, in settings without congregations, having a non-traditional family
structure is irrelevant. If their assumption that clergy family form is relevant for
congregational work in a way that it is not relevant for non-congregational work,
we could expect to find that clergy in heterosexual marriages are more likely to
work in congregational settings than those who are not, and we could expect to
find that a preference for this family form is reflected in higher salaries for
currently married clergy. In this chapter, I propose to empirically test these
assumptions. My specific empirical question is as follows: To what extent do
gender and marital status affect African American clergywomen's placement and
3 9 Examples of non-congregational work could include working as a hospital, military or
college chaplain or working in a non-profit organization.
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pay? Past empirical research that has explored the relationship between gender,
marital status, ministry outcomes, and monetary compensation has largely
ignored the experiences of African Americans in general and African American
clergywomen in particular (Chang and Perl 1999; Zikmund et al. 1998, Nesbitt
1995). This research is an attempt to begin to fill that gap. Given the recent
influx of women into the ministry over the past 30 years combined with the recent
decreases in marriage for African American women in the U.S., an exploration of
the social and financial consequences of being married (or not), mothers (or not),
and ministers is both timely and needed.
Literature R eview
Clergy Gender, Marital Status, and Placement
Recent events in the past 30 years have impelled religious communities
to clarify their position on marriage, the family, and sexuality. Among these
events are changes in family structure wrought by increases in cohabitation,
premarital childbirth, and divorce, in concert with decreases in fertility and father
involvement in the family (Casper and Bianchi 2002; Bianchi and Casper 2000;
Blackenhorn 1995). Other events that have facilitated religious communities
delimiting marriage and family have taken place squarely within those
communities themselves. In particular, the movement for the ordination of
women, the movement for the ordination of gays and lesbians, the movement for
a married Catholic priesthood, and the recent revelations of clergy sexual abuse
have raised questions about the form and function of families, the place and
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purpose of sexuality in the lives of religious leaders, and the level of integrity and
dignity that communities of faith expect their leaders to uphold.
Although gender and sexual norms vary across religious bodies, within
Christianity, Judaism and Islam, the three largest religious groups in the United
States, (U.S. Census Bureau 2004 - 05) conservative hermeneutics of sacred
texts support male leadership, monogamy and fecundity in marriage,4 0 celibacy
in singleness, and heterosexuality (Machacek and Wilcox 2003). Therefore, it is
not surprising that recent research on what congregational search committees
and regional administrators are looking for in prospective congregational leaders
indicates that heterosexual married men with children are the prime candidates
(Lummis 2003).
Congregations want men...
Numerous studies document that in the search for a pulpit, clergymen
have the advantage over clergywomen (Carpenter 2001; Sullins 2000; Zikmund
et al. 1998; Nesbitt 1997, 1995). Not only does it take clergywomen longer than
clergymen to find a placement after seminary, the placements that they do get
are also less than ideal (Nesbitt 1995). Clergywomen are more likely than
clergymen to be hired by rural, small, congregations with few monetary resources
(Chang and Perl 1999; Zikmund et al. 1998). Even though some clergywomen
express a preference for such congregations due to the greater intimacy that
4 0 Although monogamy is expected of Islamic women, the Qur'an does outline conditions
under which a man may marry up to four women. For more information on this topic, see
al-Hibri, Azizah. 1995. Marriage and divorce: Legal foundations. In The Oxford
encyclopedia of the modern Islamic world, ed. John L. Esposito, 3:48-50. New York:
Oxford University Press.
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they are able to form with their parishioners (McDuff 2001; Finlay 1996),
sociologists of religion are concerned about the inequities in power, prestige, and
pay that such placements provide.
Within white liberal Protestant congregations, the professed policy is to
select clergy without regard to personal characteristics such as age, race,
physical ability, or gender (Lummis 2003), yet these factors continue to influence
hiring committees. While serving as a member of an Episcopal campus chapel's
hiring committee, Fobes (2001) reveals that even though committee members
are ideologically committed to gender neutrality and claim to act in gender-free
ways, they still unintentionally uphold a "patriarchal agenda." This agenda
encourages search committee members to use gender as a cultural resource to
select a man as their priest.
Within many black congregations, there is also a "patriarchal agenda" and
women candidates are sometimes told directly that their gender, not their ability
or training, is the barrier that prevented them from being hired (Jones and
Shorter-Gooden 2004, 275). The preference for male leadership is often
expressed as a necessary tactic to encourage other men to join a congregation;
however, as Lincoln and Mamiya (1990, 306) observe, low male participation
rates are more likely due to cultural and demographic factors than due to the
presence of women in the pulpit. Although women have higher levels of
religiosity than men in nearly all religions (Stark 2002), within black Christian
congregations, estimates of the active membership have been placed at 70%
female (Lincoln and Mamiya 1990, 304) up to over 90% female (Gilkes 2001).
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Baer (1994) explains that in light of these highly skewed sex ratios, spiritual black
churches often appoint African American men as "token" leaders.
...who are married with children.
In assessing the factors that inhibit the acceptance and opportunities for
African American women ministers, clergywomen in Carpenter's study (2001) not
only repeatedly cite gender discrimination against women as a barrier, they also
report that "lack of family" and "unmarried status" are key obstacles. Within some
conservative religious bodies, being married is a way of signifying support for
male headship, and women who are unmarried are sometimes looked upon with
suspicion. An unmarried minister in training who had to go before a review board
of mostly male, married clergy explains,
"I was grilled about being single, about having divorced. A couple of them
said, 'You have to have a covering"' which she explains is, "a male in
domination over you—a husband, presumably." (Laura, a 41 year-old
minister in training quoted in Jones and Shorter-Gooden 2003, 272).
One factor that might make the marital status of African American
clergywomen a particularly salient issue is the ever-increasing concern over the
state of African American marriages. Because African Americans have the lowest
rates of marriage and the highest rates of divorce (U.S. Census Bureau 2004 -
2005; Tucker and Mitchell-Kernan 1995; Cherlin 1992), many religious leaders,
community activists, and public officials have expressed alarm over the future of
the black family and over the future of children who grow up in single-parent
homes. In response to the ascending apprehension about black family life, both
micro and macro theories have been put forth to elucidate the low rates of
marriage and high rates of divorce among African Americans.
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Micro theories focus on the individual choices African Americans make.
Fragile family explanations highlight how premarital childbirth, early childbearing,
and cohabitation decrease the likelihood of marriage and reduce marital stability
(Dush, Cohan and Amato 2003; Hatchett et al. 1995). Gender role socialization
theories suggest that parents who encourage young girls to be independent and
assertive as a way of achieving in a culture that devalues femaleness and
blackness are instilling within daughters skills that will help them in the job market
but hurt them in the marriage market when men perceive of these women as too
aggressive and unfeminine (Hill 2002; Pinderhughes 2002; Franklin 2000). Those
who see changing values as the culprit argue that decreases in marriage and
increases in divorce are signs of expressive individualism (Bellah et al. 1985) and
the diminishment of familism as a cultural value (Popenoe 1993).
On the other end of the spectrum are those who apply macro theories.
Macro theorists do not attribute the declines in marriage among African
Americans to problems within the individual; rather, they view individual choices
as being constrained by structural factors. Economic theorists emphasize that
poor economic conditions for African American men make many unable to
adequately sustain or even contribute to a household (Staples 1999; Wilson
1999, 1987). Sex ratio theorists posit that imbalanced sex ratios in the black
community arising from high infant, adolescent, and adult male mortality
(Palazzo, Guest and Almgren 2003), disproportionately high incarceration rates
of African American males (Pettit and Western 2004; Staples 1999), and
increasing interracial marriage of African American men (Yancy 2002; Crowder
and Tolnay 2000) lead to a shortage of marriageable men for every marriage-
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minded woman (Fossett and Kiecolt 1991; Guttentag and Secord 1983). The
acceptance of cultural ideals about the importance of hypergamy or "marrying
up" in the social class structure in combination with the preference to marry
endogamously (i.e. marry African American men) leave many highly educated
and financially stable African American women who desire to marry with few
marriage prospects (Brown and Kesselring 2003; Bulcroft and Bulcroft 1993;
South 1991). Whether adopting a micro or macro perspective, what theorists
agree upon is that something must be done.
Strategies for Improvement
Many of the policies put in place to encourage marriage have sought to
increase what many already have—an appreciation for marriage, while ignoring
what they don't have—the means to make it happen. Most African Americans
place a high value on being married (Tucker 2000). Davis et al. (2000) reports
that 90% of the single professional African American men and women in their
study express a desire to marry. Hoffnung (2004) shows that college-educated
African American women hope to be able to have both a career and a marriage,
but their expectation that they will actually be able to find a mate is lower than
that of European American women. Similarly, Porter and Bronzaft (1995) find that
the majority (63%) of college educated African American women desire to be
"married career women with children" yet they perceive that it is unlikely that they
will be able to find and marry trustworthy African American men with comparable
family, educational, and career goals. Poor, welfare mothers also want to marry
(Lichter, Batson and Brown 2004); however, because the men with whom they
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relate are often unemployed and marriage to these men would only add to the
women's already heavy financial burdens, they make the rational choice to
remain single (Edin 2000). What the above-mentioned research shows is that
valuing and desiring marriage is one thing; having the opportunities, structural
resources, and environmental support to obtain and then maintain that marriage
is something entirely different. For this reason, it is often difficult for people to live
out their values.
Some have suggested that a strategy for dealing with the marriage
exigency is to have African American clergy and the black church at the forefront
of a marriage movement designed to strengthen and promote stable marriages
within the community (Brookings Institute 2004). The Bush Administration has
adopted this strategy and has incorporated leaders of the black community in
support of the campaign for heterosexual marriage (Hamburger and Wallsten
2005). What impact might this impetus to use leaders of faith communities to
promote marriage have on clergy placement? To the extent that religious
adherents uphold marriage as the preferred state, and to the extent that
members and leaders of religious communities who make hiring decisions find it
both practically and politically advantageous to hire clergy who represent the
idealized nuclear family, we can expect that currently married clergy will be
preferred by congregations over currently divorced or never-married clergy. It
could be proposed that the status of the latter two categories evince a lack of
commitment to the institution of marriage—one because the marriage failed and
the other because marriage was never achieved. Thus, I propose the following
hypotheses:
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Hi: Clergy who are married will be more likely than clergy who are never-
married to work in a religious institution.
H2: Clergy who are married will be more likely than clergy who are
divorced to work in a religious institution.
Although for clergy being married may enhance career opportunities, that
does not mean that we should expect that the benefits of marriage operate in the
same way for women and men. There is an extensive body of research that
suggests that the personal and professional gains associated with marriage are
greater for men than for women (Hochschild [1989] 2003; Cohen 1999; Nock
1999; Loh 1996; Daniel 1995; England 1995; Waite 1995; Bernard 1973). One
explanation for why men benefit in ways that women do not lies in the fact that
women continue to be the ones who primarily bear the opportunity costs
associated with having children (Budig and England 2001; Waldfogel 1997;
England 1995; Korenman and Neumark 1992). Given these factors and given
that, as noted above, congregations at times uphold a "patriarchal agenda" that
favors men, we should find support for the following hypothesis:
H3: Male married clergy will be more likely than married female clergy to
work in a religious institution.
Theorizing the Preference
The leadership theory of Grojean and associates (2004) illuminates why
conservative congregations might prefer to hire heterosexual men who are
married with children. According to their theory, leaders play a pivotal role in
establishing and transmitting the values of an organization to its members. One
key way that leaders impact the organizational climate is through setting the
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example. Building on social learning theory (Bandura 1986) they posit that
followers learn appropriate behavior and ethics by observing the example set by
the leader and by monitoring the consequences of that behavior. In this manner,
"a leader's actions are viewed as the standard of acceptable conduct and are
modeled by individuals as appropriate..." (Grojean et al. 2004, 229).
Many religious organizations uphold the two-parent, father-headed,
heterosexual model of family life as the ideal. Employing a young, healthy,
heterosexual, married minister is a means through which congregations can
provide a model of the idealized family (Lee and Balswick 1989). To hire a cleric
whose personal life does not reflect the idealized life is to indirectly convey the
message to laity that being never-married, divorced, gay or lesbian is an equally
valid and valued lifestyle. If a cleric's unconventional personal life appears to be
successful or fulfilling, the "wrong" message is reinforced and congregants may
begin to believe that the values, in this case "family values," of the organization
have changed. Because many religious organizations are concerned about
conflicting signals being sent to congregants, they desire to hire clergy who truly
practice what they are paid to preach.
A benefit to religious organizations of having clergy who embody the ideal
is that they can help attract and retain members whose values are congruent with
the organization's values; i.e. members who "fit." (Grojean et al. 2004, 229).
While some congregations are attracting new members, an ever-increasing
concern among other congregations is that they are not. Congregations have a
vested interest in encouraging young families to join their ranks because not only
do the families themselves provide immediate human and financial capital, but
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their children, as a result of being socialized into the religion, insure the continuity
of that religious body.
One strategy for increasing membership is by employing clergy in whom
people feel they can respect and trust. Respect and trustworthiness are gained
when a leader's actions and values are in sync with the organization's values
(Grojean et al. 2004). However, one unintended consequence of expecting
leaders to live lives worthy of emulation is that it can cause clergy and their
families to experience intense interpersonal and intrapersonal stress and strain
(Walrond-Skinner 1998; Lee and Balswick 1989). The stress is exacerbated
because clergy are so closely scrutinized, a phenomena aptly referred to as the
"glass house" or "fishbowl" effect (Lee and Balswick 1989, 74; Mace and Mace
1980).
Another common source of stress for clergy is the stress associated with
trying to maintain a family on an inadequate salary. While the leadership theory
of Grojean and associates helps us to understand why heterosexual men who
are married with children may have the advantage when congregations are
seeking to hire or promote a cleric, place of employment is not the only concern
for clergy. Compensation for services rendered is also a major issue, especially
given that clergy are among the lowest paid of professionals (McMillan and Price
2002). This leads to the following question: Do married fathers also have a salary
advantage? It is to the topic of gender differences in clergy compensation that we
now turn.
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Clergy Gender, Marital Status, and Pay
The Male Marriage Premium
A particularly robust finding in social science research is that married
men, regardless of their racial category, earn more than never-married men in
the same racial category (Antonovics and Town 2004; Light 2004; Cohen 2002;
Lerman 2002; Cohen 1999; Loh 1996; Daniel 1995). Although the earnings
advantage that married men have over never-married men—referred to as the
"marriage premium"—has been declining in recent years (Cohen 2002), men still
benefit economically from marriage with married men earning, on average,
between 10% and 40% more than never-married men. Of all racial categories in
the U.S., the financial gains associated with marriage are greatest for European
American men (Cohen 1999; Loh 1996; Kilbourne, England and Beron 1994);
however, in 2000, African American men aged 25 - 49 who were married without
children or divorced with children had a larger percentage gain in wages than all
men in parallel marital-parental categories (Lerman 2002, 36).
Although the financial gains associated with marriage for men are clear,
what is more difficult to substantiate are the reasons for this wage premium.
Three primary explanations are given to account for the male marriage premium.
They are as follows: the discrimination hypothesis—employers discriminate in
favor of married men; the productivity hypothesis—married men earn more
because they are more productive than unmarried men; and the selection
hypothesis—traits that make men attractive to employers also make them
attractive as spouses.
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The Discrimination Hypothesis
According to the discrimination hypothesis, employers offer greater
financial rewards to married men for three primary reasons: 1) marriage signifies
to employers that a man has traits that will prove beneficial in the market, i.e.
responsibility, dependability, loyalty, and motivation 2) for women, marriage
signifies to employers that a woman is less invested in market work; employers
assume that a married woman will demonstrate this lessened investment by
reducing the number of hours she works or by leaving the place of employment
altogether, especially if she has children or if her husband acquires a job that
requires relocation and 3) employers believe a man who has the responsibility of
being the family "provider" has a greater need for a family wage and thereby
reward him higher, especially if the man's wife does not work.
Bardasi and Taylor (2005) hypothesize that if employer discrimination is
the cause of the male premium, then we should see two trends 1) men with
children should enjoy a higher premium than men without children because
fathers have a social responsibility to provide for their offspring and 2) married
men will enjoy a premium over never-married men regardless of the length of the
marriage because employers reward the fact that the men are married, not that
marriage allows men to accumulate human capital. Using panel data from the
British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) covering the years 1991 - 2001, Bardasi
and Taylor find support for both of their hypotheses; they find a significant
positive effect of the number of children, and they find that married men earn
more, regardless of the length of their marriage. They therefore conclude that
employer discrimination accounts for part of the male marriage premium.
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Loh (1996) also finds support for the discrimination hypothesis. She
contends that because married self-employed men do not receive the same
wage premium that their married salaried counterparts receive, employer
favoritism must be accounting for the difference. In other words, if marriage made
men more productive, the rewards for that greater productivity would be evident
whether one was salaried or self-employed. The fact that self-employed men are
not earning a premium gives credence to the notion that employers are
rewarding men for being married, not for being more productive.
There is also evidence that within the religious industry, employers
discriminate in favor of married men. In a survey of Presbyterian clergywomen
conducted in 2002, 60% of the 1404 clergywomen surveyed indicate that
negotiating equitable terms of their call is a serious concern. This inequity is most
evident in clergy salaries where clergywomen earn less than clergymen
regardless of their marital status. For example, single clergywomen are
discriminated against because it is assumed that they need less. One woman
shares her experience, "I was asked to take a pay-cut to meet budget; 'one
woman needs less money to live on!'" On the other hand, married women are
also discriminated against because it is expected (at least among European
Americans) that they have a spouse to support them; one clergywoman explains
her position, "It is assumed women have a spouse whose job pays well, so they
need not be paid as much. To ask for it is viewed as being greedy by those in the
church." (Clergywomen's Experiences in Ministry 2002). The comments by these
women indicate that clergywomen find themselves in a double-bind that cannot
be undone simply by changing one's marital status.
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The Productivity Hypothesis
Another commonly cited explanation for married men's higher earnings is
that marriage makes men more productive. According to Becker (1973), marriage
makes men more productive because the division of labor allows the higher
earning spouse, usually the man, to specialize in market work, while the lesser
earning spouse, usually the wife, specializes in household production. The
research testing this theory has produced mixed results. Using data from the
NLSY, Gray and Vanderhard (2000) find that for European American men, as the
probability of divorce increases, the male marriage premium decreases. They
conclude that this provides evidence in support of the productivity hypothesis in
that wives who know that a divorce is pending invest less in their husbands'
human capital.
Research in which the wife's hours of employment are used as a proxy for
specialization has also been found to support the theory. For example, Bardasi
and Taylor (2005) find that each hour that a wife works in the paid economy
reduces her husband's premium by .16%. Thus, husbands with wives who work
40 hours per week earn 11% more than never-married men, while husbands
whose wives do not work earn 18% more than never-married men. Hersch and
Stratton (2000) contend, however, that wives' hours of employment is an
imprecise measure of specialization. They test the specialization hypothesis
using panel data from the NSFH that includes information on the amount of time
married and single men allocate to nine different home production activities.
Because they find that married and single men spend equal amounts of time on
home production, married men's higher earnings cannot be accounted for by
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their ability to spend more time in market production as their wives spend more
time in household production. Antonovics and Town (2004) and Loh (1996) also
find little evidence that the male marriage premium is due to household
specialization.
A modified version of the productivity hypothesis is used to explain why
congregations pay married clergymen more than never-married clergymen. The
modified hypothesis suggests that married clergymen are more productive in
their service to their congregations not because the wife spends more time in
household work but because she is able to spend time in unpaid congregational
work. A clergyman's wife's congregational work would be what Daniel (1995,
117) calls "augmentation capital" i.e. the flow of services that a wife provides that
enables a husband to more effectively fulfill his work responsibilities. The wife is
supplying her husband augmentation capital because, in theory, congregations
who hire married men are getting two for the price of one. Although commonly
believed, this modified productivity hypothesis is not supported empirically.
Because married male clergy earn about 20% more than single, never-married
men, whether their wives work or not, Chang and Perl (1999) conclude that
congregations pay married men more because they value the fact that they are
married, not because they are indirectly compensating for the "pastor's wife
bonus," i.e. the volunteer community and congregational services of the pastor's
wife.
The Selection Hypothesis
In contrast to the productivity hypothesis that proposes that marriage
makes men more productive, the selection hypothesis proposes that more
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productive men are selected into marriage. There are two ways that men are
selected into marriage: 1) men with higher earnings are more likely to marry and
2) men who are more "attractive" are more likely to marry. The reasoning behind
the second point is that unobservable attributes that make men attractive to
employers (effective communication, honesty, commitment to the team,
responsibility, etc.) also make them attractive to women seeking a mate.
One of the challenges of empirically testing the selection hypothesis lies
in controlling for selection. Ginther and Zavodny (2001) address this challenge by
using "shotgun" marriages to control for selection. They reason that men who
marry under the duress of a pending birth do not necessarily have the types of
personal characteristics that would make them particularly desirable as husbands
or employees; despite this, these men also earn a marriage premium. Using data
on European American men from the National Longitudinal Survey Young Men
Cohort (NLSYM) and the 1980 Census 5% PUMS, they find that the 15%
marriage premium accruing to men who had a birth within seven months of
marriage is not significantly different from the 16.4% marriage premium accruing
to men who did not have a premarital conception, yet both estimates are
significantly greater than never-married men's returns. They conclude that
selection effects account for no more than 10% of the marriage premium.
Korenman and Neumark (1991) also use data from the NLSYM to show that less
than 20% of the observed wage premium can be accounted for by unobserved
characteristics. Antonovics and Town (2004) utilize data on identical twins to
account for the unobserved heterogeneity that occurs when using cross sectional
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data. They find that married men earn a wage premium of up to 27%; they assert
that little of this premium is due to selection.
Is there a Female Marriage Premium?
While the evidence consistently shows that married men earn more than
their never-married counterparts, what is less clear is the effect of marriage on
women's wages and how the effects, if any, vary by race. Using data from the
1992 - 1993 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), Budig and England
(2001) show that marriage increases women's earnings, net of human capital
measures, family characteristics, job characteristics, and job industry.
Unfortunately, they do not test for interactions between marital status and race so
there is no way to assess whether this premium varies by racial category.
Research that does assess the effects of race and marriage on wages produces
mixed results. Some studies show that only European American women earn a
marriage wage premium. After controlling for the number of children, Waldfogel
(1997) estimates that being married, separated, or divorced (as compared to
never-married) has a positive effect on European American women's earnings
while among African American women, only the divorced experience a wage
premium. A more common finding is that African American women earn a wage
premium and European American women do not. Daniel (1995) uses data from
the 1979 NLSY to provide evidence that African American women earn a
significant, positive marriage premium of 3% while marriage has a negative net
effect on European American women's wages. Using data from the Current
Population Survey (CPS) Cohen (1999) finds that among workers 25 - 54 years
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old, African American women who are currently married, formerly married, or
cohabiting earn significantly more than those who are never-married, indicating
that there is a pay premium for being currently or formerly partnered. Cohen
shows that marriage has an opposite effect on the hourly wages of European
American women with never-married women earning more than those who are
ever-married or cohabiting. Kilbourne and associates (1994) also find a marriage
premium for African American women. They estimate that marriage has no effect
on European American women's wages net of work experience and education,
yet marriage significantly increases African American women's wages by 3
percent, African American men's wages by 9 percent, and European American
men's wages by 13%.
What do we know about the effect of marriage on African American
clergywomen's earnings, and how does this marriage effect compare cross-
culturally? These are difficult question to answer given that the research on the
impact of marriage on clergywomen's earnings has been less extensive than the
research on women in the general population, and research making cross-racial
comparisons among clergywomen is virtually non-existent. What we do know
about the effect of marital status on clergy earnings is derived primarily from
studies of predominantly white denominations. Using data from the Ordained
Women and Men Study conducted by Zikmund and associates (1998), Chang
and Perl (1999) document that marriage has a positive effect on the earnings of
male clergy, but no effect on the earnings of female clergy. Nesbitt (1995), in her
study of the effect of marital status on clergy attainment, avers that the presence
of a wife, even one who works full time, is "occupational currency" for male
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clergy, yet having a husband has no effect on clergywomen's attainment.
Although not directly testing for the effects of marriage on clergy earnings,
Kilbourne et al. (1994) find that after controlling for marital status, those in
occupations requiring nurturant skills—skills that are often used in the work of
clergy—are compensated less than those in occupations primarily requiring
cognitive skills, and they find that when comparing European Americans and
African Americans, European American women pay the largest pay penalty for
being in a nurturant occupation.
The above literature review suggests the following three hypotheses:
H4: Among married clergy, women will earn less than men.
H5: Among male clergy, both African American and European American
men will earn a marriage premium relative to never-marrieds, but the
European American marriage premium will be greater than the African
American marriage premium.
H6: Among female clergy, African American women will earn a marriage
premium relative to never-marrieds, but European American women
will not.
Is there a Motherhood Penalty?
What impact does childbearing have on the earnings of clergywomen?
Research on women in the general population has shown that the effect of
children on differences in wages across marital status groups varies by racial
category. Controlling for the presence of children, Cohen (1999) shows that
African American women who are currently married, cohabiting, or divorced (in
that order) earn significantly more than never-married women. Conversely,
among European American women, those who are currently married with
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children do not earn more or less than those who are never-married with
children.
The number of children a woman has is also significant. Korenman and
Neumark (1992) find that among European American women, having two or
more children not only lowers women's wages indirectly through decreased time
in the labor force, but it also lowers their wages directly. They provide evidence
of this direct negative effect by showing that even when women work full time,
they still suffer a motherhood penalty. Using a fixed-effects model that controls
for marital status and human capital variables, Budig and England (2001) show
that for all women, the penalty for one child is 5 percent, the penalty for two
children is 11 percent, and the penalty for three or more children is 15 percent.
They hypothesize that when women have more than two children, the gains in
wages do not offset the costs of childcare for more than one child, so mothers
are more likely to take a break from employment during their children's early
years. However, like Korenman and Neumark (1992), Budig and England (2001)
find that even after controlling for work experience, there is a negative effect of
children on women's wages. In assessing the interaction effects of race and
ethnicity and parental status, Budig and England (2001) find that African
American and Latina women have smaller motherhood penalties than European
American women, but only if they have three or more children. Waldfogel (1997)
finds that there is a motherhood penalty regardless of the number of children for
European American women while for African American women, having one child
has no effect on women's wages. Although having two or more children does
lower African American women's wages by 5 percent, their wage penalty is less
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than the 18 percent wage penalty experienced by European American women
with two or more children. In a study of the effects of marriage and motherhood
on the careers of African American attorneys, Blair-Loy and DeHart (2003) report
that motherhood is not associated with lower salaries for the women in their
sample. They attribute this finding to the long-standing complementary view of
motherhood and paid employment within the black community.
The above literature review suggests that the costs associated with
motherhood are less for African American women than for European American
women, leading to the following hypothesis:
H7: The negative effect of motherhood on wages will be less for African
American clergywomen than for European American clergywomen.
Da t a a n d M e th o d s
Sample
The data to empirically test the effects of gender and marital status on
clergy selection into a religious industry and clergy salary come from the 2000
Census, a 5 percent Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS). The PUMS on-line
data extraction system allows users to select a subset of cases and variables for
analysis. Using the occupation variable, I restrict my sample to only those people
who classify themselves as clergy. Census data do not distinguish between
religious bodies in their classification of clergy; therefore, clergy may be of any
religious orientation. In the 5% sample that I draw, there are 290 African
American clergywomen; 1,455 African American clergymen; 2,983 European
American clergywomen; and 17,153 European American clergymen. After
eliminating the widowed from the sample, there remains 264 African American
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clergywomen; 1,421 African American clergymen; 2,824 European American
clergywomen; and 16,914 European American clergymen.
Measures
Variables for Hypotheses 1 -3
For Hypotheses 1 - 3 , the analysis used is logistic regression, and the
outcome variable is a binary indicator of the employment industry in which the
cleric is employed (religious institution = 1). The independent variables include
gender (female = 1), number of own children (ranging from 0 to 7 children) and
marital status. I code marital status into three dummy variables: never-married,
divorced (which is comprised of those currently divorced or separated), and
married. Currently married is the excluded category. There is one continuous
control variable—age, which is the age of the cleric at the time of data collection.
I considered limiting my sample to those workers in the prime working ages of 25
to 59 as has been done in other studies on gender differences in occupational
attainment (Cohen and Huffman 2003); however, within the black church, it is not
uncommon for clergy to work until they die (Lincoln and Mamiya 1990). In
addition, for many clergywomen, the ministry is a second career (Lehman 2002;
Nesbitt 1995), and clergywomen tend to be older (Meinzer and Merrill 2003). In
fact, the median age for African American clergywomen is 50 (Carpenter 2001).
Given these realities, to limit the sample to clergy between the ages of 25 - 59
would introduce a bias in the data. Other control variables include education
(based on degrees earned), income from all sources (logged to approach
normality) and region (South = 1, else 0).
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To determine if the effects of marital and parental status vary across
gender, I include three interaction variables. The marital status variables are
interacted with gender: (never-married * female) and (divorced * female). In
addition, the number of own children variable is also interacted with gender
(number of own children * female). I am also interested in the effects of race.
Therefore, in the four models that I estimate, I run separate regressions for
African Americans and European Americans in order to make between group
comparisons.
Variables for Hypotheses 4 - 7
For Hypotheses 4 - 7 , only clergy who work in a religious institution are
included in the sample. The analysis used is ordinary least squares (OLS)
regression, and the outcome variable is the natural logarithm of the cleric's total
income from all sources. Using income from all sources provides a more
accurate rendering of clergy financial compensation than simply using the hourly
wage earned given that, in addition to a base salary, it is not unusual for clergy to
also receive a housing allowance, a pension plan, and other types of monetary
compensation for expenses associated with continuing education, conventions,
and transportation.
For Hypothesis 4, which predicts the gender and marital status effects on
salary, the independent variables are dummy variables for gender (female = 1)
and marital status. I code marital status into three dummy variables: never-
married, divorced, and married. Currently married is the excluded category. For
Hypotheses 5-7, which predict the race and marital status effects on salary, the
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independent variables are dummy variables for race (African American = 1) and
marital status (defined above). Number of own children is a control variable.
Human capital controls include education, experience, and experience squared.
When experience cannot be directly ascertained, a proxy, as defined by Mincer
(1974), is often used: (age - years of education - 6) and its square. Although the
Mincer experience proxy, typically referred to as potential experience, is used
extensively in the economics literature, one criticism is that the proxy is
downwardly biased for men and upwardly biased for women (Gabriel n.d.).
Potential experience often overstates women's actual labor market experience
given that women's experience is often not continuous, with the birth of children
frequently leading to labor force interruptions and part-time employment
(Waldfogel 1997, 210; Korenman and Neumark 1992, 240). For clergywomen,
the upward bias may be even greater. Because women tend to enter the ministry
later in life or even as a second career, the experience variable may be capturing
how much experience a cleric has in the secular job market which may or may
not be beneficial in a ministerial career. For example, in a 2002 survey of
clergywomen in the Presbyterian Church, USA, African American clergywomen
report spending, on average, 13 or more years in full-time secular employment
prior to ordination, and European American women report spending 7 years
(Clergywomen's Experiences in Ministry 2002). Despite these shortcomings, in
the absence of actual longitudinal work history data—something impossible to
obtain with census data—the experience proxy provides the best estimation of
labor market experience. Although age is an important predictor of income, age
is not included in the analysis because having age, education, and experience in
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the same model would create a problem of extreme multicollinearity given that
the experience variable is a perfect linear function of age and education.
Another control variable is hours usually worked in a week. I control for
usual hours worked because one explanation for women's lower wages relative
to men's is that women are more likely to work part-time, especially if they have
children (Avellar and Smock 2003; Joshi, Pad and Waldfogel 1999; Taniguchi
1999; Waldfogel 1997). I also include a dummy variable for the region (South =
1, else 0). In studying the effects of race, marriage, and parental status on
earnings, Cohen (1999) finds that those living in the South earn less than those
living in other regions of the country. I expect to find this same trend of lower
earnings among southerners to extend to clergy, as well
To determine if the effects of marital status on earnings vary across
gender within a racial category, I include three interaction variables. The marital
status variables are interacted with gender: (never-married X female) and
(divorced X female). In addition, the number of own children variable is also
interacted with gender (number of own children X female). For Hypothesis 4, I
run separate regressions for African Americans and European Americans for
comparison purposes. For Hypothesis 5 - 7, I run separate regressions for men
and women. To determine if the effects of marital status on earnings vary across
racial categories within a gender, I again include three interaction variables. This
time, the family status variables are interacted with race: (never-married X
African American), (divorced X African American) and (number of own children X
African American).
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Results
Descriptive Findings
Table 7 presents the means for the variables used in the analyses. While
the overwhelming majority of all clergy work in a religious institution (94%),
African American women (84%) are less likely than African American men (93%)
to be employed by a religious agency. A similar pattern holds among European
Americans (86% and 95% respectively). The other main industries in which
clergy work are hospitals (1.8%), educational institutions (.8%), correctional
facilities (.6%), and the military (.4%) (not shown in table). Female clergy also
earn less than male clergy; among African Americans the female/male differential
is $5,712, and among European Americans the female/male differential is
greater, with female clergy earning, on average, $10,646 less than male clergy.
All clergy are more likely to be currently married than currently single, yet African
American clergywomen are the least likely to be married (56%) and the most
likely to be divorced (23%). This mirrors the marital pattern of African American
women in the larger population. Interestingly, African American and European
American clergywomen have similar rates of non-marriage (21%). Contrary to the
common perception of clergy having large families, with the exception of African
American clergymen, most clergy do not have any children less than 18 in the
home. Clergywomen of both races average less than one child, and clergymen
average one child. Because the average age for clergywomen is 48 and the
average age for clergymen is 51, it is highly probable that the children of clergy
are older than 18 and therefore not reported in the count of minors in the home.
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In terms of degree attainment, approximately half of African American clergy
have less than a bachelor's degree compared to a quarter of European American
clergy. Twenty-five percent of African American clergy have a master’s or
professional degree compared to 47% of European American clergywomen and
44% of European American clergymen. On average, clergywomen have two
years less experience than clergymen, and African American clergy have a year
and a half more experience than European American clergy. In terms of usual
hours worked per week, women work between 35 and 36 hours per week, and
men average 40 to 44 hours per week. The majority of African American clergy
live in the South; the majority of European American clergy live in other regions
of the country. Among African American clergy, 16% are women, and among
European American clergy, 14% are women. These percentages mirror the
national average of 15% female clergy (U.S. Census Bureau 2006).
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Table 7: Means of Variables Used in the Analyses: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS
X/ariahlo
African American European American
V C ll IflUIC
Women Men Women Men
Works in a Religious Industry 84.47 93.03 85.80 95.44
Income 27,608.30 33,319.91 24,747.76 35,393.52
Income (logged) 9.91 10.19 9.82 10.28
Married 56.06 84.59 66.04 83.30
Divorced 22.73 7.04 12.68 2.77
Never-Married 21.21 8.37 21.28 13.94
Has at Least One Minor Child 42.05 51.86 35.06 43.45
Number of Own Children in the Home
Less than 18 Years Old
.73 1.03 .64 .90
Age 48.31 51.54 48.62 50.93
Degree Attainment
Less Than Bachelor's Degree 49.60 47.20 26.30 24.50
Bachelor's Degree 17.80 19.60 23.90 22.70
Master's / Professional Degree 25 25.10 46.80 44.40
Doctorate 7.60 8 3 8.40
Potential Experience 29.50 32.88 28.91 31.03
Potential Experience Squared 1019.91 1281.36 1021.91 1172.94
Usual Hours/Week 35.01 39.94 35.98 44.08
South 57.58 58.48 32.33 42.30
N =
Percent
264
15.67
1420
84.32
2824
14.31
16,914
85.69
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Multivariate Findings
Gender, Marital Status, and Placement
In Table 8 I present the log-odd estimates from the binary logistic
regression models that predict a cleric's employment in a religious institution. The
regression analysis begins with a baseline model that estimates that African
American clergywomen are (1/e'8 8 5 ) = 2.42 times less likely than African
American men to work in a religious institution. For European American clergy,
females have 3.44 times lower odds of working in a religious institution. In the
second model, I introduce family characteristics. For both racial categories,
female clergy remain significantly less likely than male clergy to work in a
religious institution, net of other factors. For African Americans, the effect of
being never-married is not as predicted; the effect of being never-married is
negative but only approaches significance in Model 2 and is clearly insignificant
in Model 3. Thus, for African Americans, we must fail to accept Hypothesis 1 that
married clergy are more likely than never-married clergy to work in a religious
institution. However, for European American clergy, we do find support for
Hypothesis 1 in that being never-married does significantly reduce the likelihood
that a European American cleric will work in a religious institution. For both
African Americans and European Americans the effect of being divorced is as
predicted. For African American clergy, the marital status variables estimate that,
controlling for gender and number of children, there is a significant negative
effect of being divorced on a cleric's odds of working in a religious institution
(odds decrease by 1/e"9 4 6 = 2.58). For European American clergy, the odds of
working in a religious institution decrease by 1.71 for the divorced. These
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negative effects of divorced hold across all models providing clear support for
Hypothesis 2 that those who are married are more likely than those who are
divorced to work in a religious institution. For African Americans, being a parent
has a somewhat surprising impact; each addition child decrease the odds that an
African American cleric will work in a religious institution by 16% (1/e'1 4 6 = 1.16).
For European Americans, having children has the expected positive effect. In
Model 3, for African Americans, gender and divorced status remain significant,
while the presence of children remains negative but becomes insignificant.
Increased age improves an African American cleric's odds of working in a
religious institution, yet additional degrees, increased income, and living in the
South have no effect on place of employment. For European Americans,
increased age, education, and income have negative effects on placement, and
working in the South only approaches significance. In Model 4 I test for
interactions between gender and family status. For African Americans, the only
significant interaction is found among married clergy; as predicted in Hypothesis
3, married female clergy are significantly less likely to work in a religious
institution than married male clergy, net of other factors. For European American
clergy, the married interaction is significant and negative supporting Hypothesis
3, and the female X divorced interaction is also significant and positive, indicating
that the negative effects of being divorced are significantly stronger for men than
women.
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Table 8: Logistic Regression of Clergy Employment in a Religious Institution: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS
Variable
African American Clergy European American Clergy
Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4
Female
-.885***
(.204)
-.693***
(.217)
-.646**
(.218)
-.952**
(.362)
-1.236***
(.067)
-1.101***
(.069)
-1.215***
(072)
-1.255***
(.108)
Never Married
-.507 +
(.297)
-.166
(.315)
-.178
(.407)
_ 47*] ***
(•079)
-.532***
(.082)
. A J .1 ***
(•104)
Divorced
. 946***
(.258)
-.903***
(.260)
-.953**
(.338)
-.535***
(.118)
-.507***
(.119)
-1.080***
(.155)
Number of Own Children
<18 In
-.146*
(.074)
-.078
(.080)
-.138
(.088)
.172***
(.033)
.087*
(.035)
.085*
(.040)
Age
.024**
(.008)
024**
(.008)
-.015***
(.002)
-.016***
(.002)
Educational Attainment
(Degree Level)
-.053
(.094)
-.056
(.094)
-.099**
(.036)
-.103**
(.036)
Income from All Sources
.118
(.099)
.117
(.101)
- 1A A ***
< : J « >
- 146***
(.044)
South
.038
(.185)
.036
(•186)
.122+
(.066)
.120+
(.066)
Female X Never-Married
.119
(.618)
-.226
(.170)
Female X Divorced
.108
(.539)
1.039***
(.234)
Female X Number of Own
Children
.337
(.217)
-.015
(.077)
Constant 2.563
(.105)
2.859
(.154)
.430
(1.024)
.536
(1.045)
3.038
(.037)
3.007
(.049)
5.551
(.447)
5.622
(.458)
* 2
[Degrees of Freedom]
16.928
[1] -10
31.069
[4]-2
42.888
[8] 16
45.696
[11] 35
298.20
[1] -288
407.27
[4] -368
488.426
[8] -409
514.149
[11]-406
o >
~ v l
N = 1,604 for African Americans. N = 19,321 for European Americans. Numbers in parenthesis are standard errors. Numbers in brackets are
degrees of freedom. + p a .10 * p < .05 ** p £ .01 *** p < .001 (two-tailed test)________________________________________________
Gender, Marital Status, and Pay
In Table 9 I present the OLS regression results for three models
estimating the effects of clergy gender on earnings. Not shown in Table 9 is the
baseline model estimating male and female clergy earnings. For African
Americans, the intercept for the baseline model is 10.197. Taking the inverse
logarithm of this number, we get an average estimated male clergy salary of
$26,823. The female coefficient is -.265; therefore, without controls, African
American female clergy earn, on average, $20,578, computed as [anti-ln
(10.197-.265=9.932) = 20,578.460], This female salary of $21K is 23% less than
the male salary of $27K. For European American clergy, the baseline male salary
is anti-ln 10.277 = $29,057, and the female salary is $18,233, a difference of
$10,824 indicating that women earn 37% less than men. In Model 1, we find a
similar pattern for both African Americans and European Americans. Controlling
for marital status, female clergy again earn significantly less than male clergy.
Specifically, among African Americans, women earn 19% less than men [100*(e‘
2 1 3 - 1) = -19.18], and among European American, women earn 26% less than
men [100*(e" 3 °1 - 1) = -25.99]. Of the marital status variables, the never-married
earn significantly less than the married while divorce has no negative effect on
salary. In Model 2, for African Americans, the gender variable only approaches
significance, yet being never-married continues to have a negative effect on
salary. Each additional child, every additional degree earned, every additional
year of experience, and every additional hour worked significantly increase clergy
salary. Living in the South, however, has no effect on salary for African American
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clergy. Usual hours worked per week has the largest impact on earnings
(standardized beta of .330) followed by experience and then education. Living in
the South has the smallest effect. The standardized betas in Model 2 for
European American indicate that experience is the most significant factor is
salary while being divorced is the least significant. For European Americans,
gender continues to have a significantly negative effect on salary, as does being
never-married. Divorce also proves to be significant, indicating that the negative
effects of divorce were being suppressed in Model 1. Increases in the number of
children, degrees earned, experience gained, and hours worked have a highly
statistically significant positive effect on clergy earnings. Contrary to the
expectation that living in the South would depress earnings, European American
clergy living in the South earn more money than European American clergy living
in other parts of the country. In Model 3 we find that there is an interaction
between marital status and gender. For both African Americans and European
Americans, we find that the female beta is negative and significant providing
support for Hypothesis 4 that among married clergy, women will earn significantly
less than men. Model 3 also shows that for African American clergy, the
divorced do not suffer any financial losses; however, among European American
clergy, divorced men are penalized relative to married men while divorced
women earn a premium relative to married women. For both African American
clergywomen and European American clergywomen, the positive effects of
having children are not significantly more for clergymen than for clergywomen.
For African Americans, Model 3 explains 18% of the variance in earnings, while
for European Americans, Model 3 explains 25% of the variance in earnings.
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Table 9: OLS Regression of Clergy Salary on Gender and Selected Characteristics: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS
Variables
African American Clergy European American Clergy
Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 1 Model 2 Model 3
Female -.213** (.068) -.107+ (.063) -.271** (.096) -.438*** (.016)
_ 301***
(.015) -.475*** (.022)
Never Married -,370***(.080) -.220** (.079) -.318*** (.091) -.398*** (015) -.409*** (.015) -.526*** (016)
Divorced -.018 (.084) -.002 (.078) -.062 (.094) -.033 (.028) -.079** (.026) -.215*** (.033)
Own Children
<18 In Home
.076*** (.019) .066*** (.021) .046*** (.005) .044*** (.005)
Educational
Attainment
178*** ( 021) 174***
(.021) .185*** (.005) .183*** (.005)
Experience .020** (.007) .020** (.007) .017*** (.001) .018*** (.001)
(Experience)2 .000 (.000) .000 (.000) -8.6E-05*** (.000) .000*** (.000)
Usual Hours
Worked / Week
.015*** (.001) .015*** (.001) .011*** (.000) .011*** (.000)
South -.009 (.043) -.009 (.043) .050*** (.010) .042*** (.010)
Female X Never-
Married
.403* (.173) .730*** (.040)
Female X
Divorced
.245 (.172) .442*** (.053)
Female X Own
Children
.064 (.056) -.011 (.015)
Constant 10.277 (.026) 8.665 (.141) 8.695 (.141) 10.331 (.006) 8.892 (.028) 8.918 (.028)
Adjusted R2 .023 .182 .184 .077 .229 .246
N = 1,467 for African Americans. N = 18,180 for European Americans. Numbers in parenthesis are standard errors. + p s .10 * p s .05
** p a .01 *** p s .001 (two-tailed test)_________________________________________________________________________________
Race, Marital Status, and Pay
In Table 10 I present the OLS regression results for three models
estimating the effects of clergy race and marital status on earnings. For
clergywomen, Model 1 predicts that African American and European American
women earn comparable salaries, yet Model 2 predicts that African American
clergywomen earn significantly more than European American clergywomen after
controlling for the presence of children and human capital characteristics. For
clergymen, African Americans earn less than European Americans in each of the
predicted models. The effects of marital status are consistent across all models
for both clergywomen and clergymen. For women, those who are never-married
or divorced earn significantly more than those who are married (indicating a
marriage penalty for women), while among men, the opposite is true— married
clergymen earn significantly more than never-married or divorced men (indicating
a marriage premium for men). Because being married lowers women's salaries
regardless of one's racial category, I must fail to accept Hypothesis 6 which
predicts that among female clergy, African American women will earn a marriage
premium and European American will not.
For women, the main effects Model 2, which explains 35 percent of the
variance in income, predicts that the number of hours worked per week has the
strongest impact on earnings (i.e. it has the largest standardized beta, not shown
in Table 10) while living in the South has the weakest impact. For men, Model 2
explains 20% of the variance in earnings, and experience has the strongest
impact on earnings while being African American has the weakest impact.
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Although clergywomen and men differ in the effects of marriage on earnings,
they are similar in that each additional child, each additional year of experience,
and each additional hour worked all have positive effects on earnings. Living in
the South has no effect on women's earnings, but for men, southern living
positively affects earnings.
In Model 3, none of the interaction terms are significant for clergywomen.
Married, divorced, or never-married African American women do not earn more
or less than married, divorced, or never-married European American women; nor
do the effects of children differ for the two groups. For both African American and
European American clergywomen, being mothers has an equally positive effect
on earnings; therefore, I must fail to accept Hypothesis 7 which predicts that
motherhood will have a negative effect on the wages of all clergywomen, with
that negative effect being greater for European American women than for African
American women. While the positive effects of being mothers does not differ
among clergywomen, among clergymen, each additional child increases African
American fathers' earnings by 8%, computed as [100(e °4 6 + 0 3 2 - 1) = 8.11, an
amount that is significantly more than the 5% increases of each additional child
for European American fathers, computed as [100(e °46- 1) = 4.7 .
Model 3 also indicates that among male clergy, being never-married as
compared to married reduces African American men's earnings by 25%,
computed as [100(e'5 1 4 + 2 2 4 - 1) = -25.17] and European American men's
earnings by 40%, computed as [100(e'5 1 4 - 1) = -40.19]. Stated differently,
married African American clergy earn 25% more than never-married clergy, and
married European American clergy earn 40% more than never-married clergy.
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Thus, we have clear support for Hypothesis 5 which predicts that among male
clergy, both African American and European American men will earn a marriage
premium relative to never-marrieds and that the European American marriage
premium will be greater than the African American marriage premium.
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Table 10: OLS Regression of Clergy Salary on Race and Selected Characteristics: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS
Variables
Clergywomen Clergymen
Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 1 Model 2 Model 3
African American .089 (.072) .208*** (.060) .152 (.094) -.099*** (.020) -.043* (.019) -.103*** (.027)
Never Married .206*** (.051) .128** (.046) .128** (.048) -.512*** (.015) -.503*** (.015) -.514*** (.016)
Divorced .368*** (.059) .114* (.049) .111* (.052) -.212*** (.031)
-191*** ( 029)
-.215*** (.032)
Own Children
<18 In Home
.065*** (.018) .057** (.019) .048*** (.004) .046*** (.005)
Educational
Attainment
.237*** (.019)
237***
(.019) .171*** (.005) .171*** (.005)
Experience .020*** (.005) .020*** (.005) .018*** (.001) .018*** (.001)
(Experience)2 -8.4E-05 (.000) -8.9E-05 (.000) .000*** (.000) .000*** (.000)
Usual Hours
Worked / Week
.028*** (.001)
028***
(.001) .009*** (.000) .009*** (.000)
South -.010 (.035) -.010 (.035) .042*** (.010) .041*** (.010)
African American
X Never-Married
-.003 (.157) .220** (.070)
African American
X Divorced
.023 (.153) .167* (.079)
African American
X Own Children
.070 (.056) .032* (.015)
Constant 9.722 (.025) 7.618 (.085) 7.626 (.085) 10.351 (.006) 9.048 (.028) 9.050 (.028)
Adjusted R2 .019 .345 .345 .062 .197 .198
N = 1,467 for African Americans. N = 18,180 for European Americans. Numbers in parenthesis are standard errors. + p £ .10 * p £ .05
** p s .01 *** p a .001 (two-tailed test)_________________________________________________________________________________
Discussion
The purpose of this chapter has been to determine through quantitative
analysis of census data the effects of gender, race, and marital status on African
American clergywomen's placement and pay. Consistent with other research on
the negative effects of being female in terms of clergy selection and salary, I find
that married African American women are significantly less likely than married
African American men to work in a religious institution, and that married
clergywomen who do work in a religious institution earn significantly less than
married clergymen. This same pattern exists for European American clergy. It
must be noted, however, that the male advantage in terms of placement and pay
only holds among married clergy; among never-married or divorced clergy there
are either no gender differences or there are gender differences that favor
women.
For African American clergy, the effects of being never-married or
divorced are the same for both men and women in terms of placement. I
hypothesized that married clergy would be more likely than never-married or
divorced clergy to work in a congregational setting. While this proves true for
European Americans, it does not prove true for African Americans. Among
African American clergy, only the divorced are disadvantaged in terms of
placement; never-married clergy are just as likely as married clergy to work in a
congregational setting. One possible explanation for this racial difference in the
effect of being never-married on clergy placement is as follows: Although African
American religious leaders have been called upon to promote marriage within the
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black community (Brookings Institute 2004), there may still be a recognition that
the structural barriers to marriage are ever-present and real—even for clergy. For
African American women, there is a shortage of marriageable men, i.e. men with
comparable levels of education and income who are comfortable having a wife
who is a cleric (discussed more in Chapter 5). For many African American men,
financial constraints make it difficult for them to afford marriage (Staples 1999;
Wilson 1999, 1987). Although clergymen are employed, perhaps they feel that
they do not earn enough to adequately contribute to a family. Therefore,
congregational hiring committees may choose not to penalize clergy for factors
that are not entirely within their control. Because the structural barriers to
marriage are, in general, less for European Americans, there may be a greater
expectation among European Americans that European American clergy will
marry.
Being divorced, however, is an entirely different matter. Divorce may
signify to hiring committees that a cleric is not committed to the institution of
marriage. It may also be believed and feared that clergy who are divorced might
set a bad example for the congregation. Therefore, hiring committees may
screen out clergy who are divorced. Although the effects of being divorced do not
differ between African American clergywomen and clergymen, among European
American clergy, the negative effects of being divorced are nearly twice as strong
for men as compared to women.
While the divorced are disadvantaged in terms of placement, among
clergywomen, they are actually advantaged in terms of pay. For African
American and European American clergywomen, divorced and never-married
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women earn more than currently married women. Chang and Perl (1999), who
also find that married women suffer a pay penalty, hypothesize that married
women earn less than divorced women because married women work less.
However, because I control for hours worked as well as for experience, this
explanation cannot be used to account for the marriage penalty experienced by
clergywomen in my sample. There must be some unobserved difference
between married and unmarried women that accounts for this pay disparity.
Further research is needed to decipher this conundrum, especially given that
divorce and non-marriage are contrary to the values expressed by many religious
organizations. For clergymen, the pay disparity is as expected—married men
earn more than never-married or divorced men, and this marriage premium is
greater for European American men than for African American men.
Another unexpected finding centers on the effects of children. While
having children has been found to lower women's earnings in the general
population (Budig and England 2001; Waldfogel 1997), among both African
American and European American clergywomen, each additional child increases
women's earnings. Each additional child also increases men's earnings. One
possible explanation is that within religious communities, being a mother is
valued higher than it is valued in the larger population; therefore, women are
rewarded, rather than penalized, for obtaining this status.
Topics for Future Research
While this research shows that clergywomen who are mothers are
rewarded financially, do those rewards vary across marital statuses? In other
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words, controlling for hours worked and human capital characteristics, would a
never-married mother earn as much as a married mother, or would there be a
penalty associated with having a child prior to marriage? Although this is a
question I sought to answer in this research, the paucity of never-married African
American mothers in the sample made that impossible. However, it is a topic
worth pursuing, especially given the growing concern about the increasing
number of children born to non-married parents (Lichter, Batson, and Brown
2004).
Another topic that is particularly salient at this time in U.S. culture centers
on the effects of sexual orientation on clergy placement and pay. Congregations
continue to be embroiled in debates over the propriety of same sex unions, with
many Christian denominations taking an anti-homosexuality stance (Foster
1998). A religious organization's views on same sex unions directly affects
whether or not the organization will allow gays and lesbians to become ordained
(Melton 1991). However, ordination is only half the battle since, as is the case for
women, ordination does not guarantee placement (Lehman 2002). To some
hiring committees, a candidate's sexual orientation is even more important than
maleness (Lummis 2003). Although committee members may not explicitly state
that they will not hire an openly gay or lesbian leader, within conservative
Christian circles, they use "code words" and phrases such as "We want a biblical
preacher" to communicate that they do not wish to hire a gay or lesbian leader
(Lummis 2003, 17). Because so few congregations will hire an openly gay or
lesbian leader, the competition for such positions is fierce, leading some clergy to
seek out chaplaincies in hospitals or prisons or other work in secular
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organizations where living a nontraditional lifestyle does not carry with it so many
barriers (Zikmund et al. 1998).
Within the black church, many religious leaders have been scathing in
their denunciation of homosexuality, and within the black community, a
heterosexual sexual ethic is upheld as normative (Sanders 1992). Douglas
(1999) has been highly critical of the heterosexism in the black church. She avers
that African Americans are not necessarily "hyperhomophic" as some claim, but
rather, African Americans, in response to having been labeled sexual deviants for
so long, have adopted the white cultural norm of heterosexism for fear of losing
what little privilege or status that might be meted to those that adopt a
heterosexual ethic. Although no study to date has been done to determine the
career opportunities and constraints encountered by openly gay or lesbian
African American clergy, there is reason to suggest that such clergy would not be
highly recruited by the historical black church and may find it necessary to start
their own ministries.4 1 Again, the paucity of clergy who report being in unmarried
partnerships makes it impossible for these questions to be answered in this
study.
4 1 On the Operation Rebirth website—a website proclaiming to be "...dedicated to ending
the religious and spiritual abuse against black gays and lesbians inflicted by Black
churches."—there is a list of churches that are affirming of GLBT relationships. Of the 35
churches listed, only one is a historically black church, and interestingly, it is a Baptist
church—Greater Bibleway Missionary Baptist Church of New Orleans, LA. See Affirming
Churches http://www.operationrebirth.com/affirminachurches.html
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Limitations of the Research
There are four major disadvantages of using census data to determine
the effects of gender, race, and marital status on clergy selection into a
congregation and clergy salary. The first disadvantage is that the census only
gathers information on one occupation per person, yet as a matter of economic
necessity, many African American clergy women and men and many European
American clergywomen are bivocational (Carpenter 2001; Zikmund et al. 1998;
Lincoln and Mamiya 1990). The second disadvantage is that census data only
report one's current marital status; therefore, it is impossible to differentiate the
effects of being married or divorced once from the effects of being married or
divorced multiple times. A third disadvantage is that census data do not
distinguish between religious denominations; yet, the effects of gender and
marital status will vary in accordance to a religious organization's level of
conservatism. For example, in her study of African American clergy, Carpenter
(2001) finds that Southern Baptists, a highly conservative denomination, have the
highest rates of marriage and the lowest rates of divorce. Southern Baptists also
do not permit women to be ordained. Knowing a religious organization's
theological position concerning marriage, divorce, and female ordination are
therefore key. A fourth and final disadvantage is that there are several factors
that influence clergy income that cannot be measured with census data. For
example, congregational size is one of the strongest determinants of how much
human and economic resources a congregation has at its disposal (Chaves
2004; Konieczny and Chaves 2000). The more resources available to a
congregation, the more salary a cleric may potentially earn. Another unaccounted
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for influence is media coverage. Clergy with a large television audience may
potentially earn more than clergy who are solely dependent on the offerings of
their local congregation. A final unmeasured factor that must not be discounted is
a religious body's theology on prosperity and giving. Religious organizations that
teach that an adherent's personal prosperity is determined by his/her level of
sacrificial giving to that religious body have the potential to generate enormous
sums of money that directly influence clergy earnings.
Conclusion
Despite the limitations associated with using census data, this study of
the effects of race, gender, and marital status on clergy placement and pay
provides a solid foundation for further studies on this topic. One of the major
contributions of this study lies in the direct comparisons that are made across
racial categories. Because most research on clergy focuses solely on a single
religious denomination, and because most denominations continue to be divided
along racial lines, cross-racial comparisons are lacking. This research begins to
eradicate that omission. What we find is that differences between racial groups
are not as great as differences between genders. Married women earn less than
married men within their racial category. In addition, we find that never-married
and divorced clergywomen do not suffer the same pay penalties that never-
married and divorced clergymen face. This finding indicates that contrary to what
might be expected, religious organizations do not reward and therefore promote
a "traditional" family structure in the same manner for all clergy.
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C hapter 5
Can a Preaching "Sistah" Get Some Loving?
African American Clergywomen and the Dilemma of
Getting Married
In t r o d u c t io n
In 1947 Cary Grant starred in the black and white film The Bishop's Wife
playing the role of an angel sent to help an overwrought minister reprioritize his
family. In 1996, the movie was renamed The Preacher's Wife and remade with
an all-black cast, this time starring Denzel Washington as Dudley the angel and
Whitney Houston as the neglected wife. Although the name, cast, and color
changed, what remains the same is that in both of these movies, the religious
leader is a clergyman and his main supporter is his wife. As more women
become religious leaders, one may wonder if a movie entitled The Preacher's
Husband would be as well received as these movies have been, or would the
notion of a man taking the role of the supportive spouse to a high profile
community leader feel incongruous to most people? I pose this hypothetical
question because it is relevant to the third and final work-family dilemma that I
explore. In this chapter, I assess whether or not a woman's choice to pursue the
ministry as a career hinders or helps her likelihood of success in the marriage
market. Research on the marital prospects of African American female clergy is
virtually non-existent yet definitely needed, especially given that the state of
marriage among African Americans as a whole has been labeled a "crisis"
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(Kinnon 2003) and the leaders of the black church have been called upon to
address this "crisis" within the black community (Brookings Institute 2004)
Charting the Trends
Marriage advocates, family specialists, religious leaders, and policy
makers have expressed concern over the recent declines in marriage among all
U.S. citizens, not just African Americans. Although many perceive of the declines
in marriage as an alarming new phenomenon, the U.S. marriage rate, which is a
measure of the number of marriages per 1000 of the population, has actually
been in flux since the 1900s, with several highs and lows (see Figure 1). The
marriage rate peaked in 1920 (rate 12), in 1946 (rate 16.4) and again in 1972
(rate 10.9), and bottomed out in 1930 (rate 9.2) and in 1960 (rate 8.5). The
marriage rate has been gradually declining since 1980.
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17
15
13
11
9
7
5
tip ip < r P 0? tip tip tip c C W
x 3 . o r .o s < ' .oP .or . o p .oP .O s ' .O s ' . O p .op . c s 3 -C T3
Source: U.S. Census Bureau 1951 Table 57; 2004-2005 Table 70;
National Vital Statistics Report (54) 12 Table A
Figure 1: U.S. Marriage Rates per 1000 of the Population
Declining marriage rates mean that more women will remain unmarried and
fewer women will remarry after divorce or death of a spouse. As shown in Figure
2, for all people in the U.S. 18 years and older, the percentage who were never-
married increased between 1980 and 2004. Although African American women
had the largest increase between 1980 and 2004 in those who were never-
married (10.8 percentage points), African American men had the largest
percentage of never-marrieds in 2004 at 41.8%. The percentage of never-
married African American women equaled the percentage of married African
American women in 2004 with both being 38.2%. In both 1980 and 2004, African
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American women had the lowest percentages of those currently married and the
highest percentages of those currently widowed or divorced.
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80
70
1980 2004 1980
l
2004 1980 2004 1980 2004
I
1980 2004
All Black Women White Women Black Men White Men
Never-Married Married Widowed Divorced
Source: U.S. Census Bureau 1995 Table 58; 2006 Table 50
GO
CT>
Figure 2: Marital Status by Sex and Race, 1980 and 2004
Literature R eview
Becker's Specialization Theory
Numerous theories have been used to explain the lower rates of marriage
for the population as a whole and for African American women in particular. As
more women have gained inroads into the paid professions, social scientists
have been particularly interested in how women's employment influences their
transition to marriage. The theory that has received the most attention in
analyses of how women's earning power influences marriage rates is Gary
Becker's theory of marriage, also referred to as the specialization theory. Becker
(1973) posits that single people will only choose marriage when they anticipate
that the benefits from marriage, especially the financial benefits, will outweigh the
benefits of remaining single. Because of the gendered wage gap, the gains in
marriage are optimized when there is wage rate complementarity between the
spouses, i.e. the higher earning spouse (usually the husband) engages, or
specializes, in market production and the lower earning spouse (usually the wife)
specializes in home production. Becker's model is akin to the breadwinner
husband / homemaker wife family form that Parsons and Bales (1955) theorized
about. This type of arrangement makes spouses mutually dependent and
increases their marital stability. According to the theory, as women's wages
approach men's wages, women have less of an incentive to marry (or to stay
married) because their gains from marriage are now less. In other words, the
more economically independent a woman is, the less likely she will be to marry
because she no longer must depend on a husband's income to support her. The
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empirical research that has tested Becker's specialization model has yielded
mixed results.
Some research supports the specialization model (Burgess, Propper and
Arnstein Aassve 2003). Studies using aggregate data (Blau, Kahn, Waldfogel
2000) or individual-level data supplemented with aggregate level data (Lloyd and
South, 1996) show that women living in areas with higher earnings and higher
rates of employment have lower rates of marriage. One criticism of using
aggregate level data, however, is that it is difficult to determine causal ordering;
i.e. is marital status for women the consequence or the cause of employment
status (Oppenheimer 1997)?
While some research finds no effect of women's employment on the
likelihood of marriage (Xie et al. 2003) much research using the individual as the
unit of analysis reveals that women's employment actually increases, not
decreases, their chances of marrying. South (1991) notes that men view a
woman's ability to maintain steady employment as a prerequisite for marriage.
Carlson, McLanahan and England (2004) find that women with more education—
indicative of greater earning potential—are more likely to form unions.
McLaughlin and Lichter (1997) show that women who have the greatest personal
need (those with the fewest economic resources and therefore, according to
Becker's theory, most likely to marry) actually have the lowest marriage rates.
Marriage Deterred or Marriage Delayed?
Although most empirical evidence does not support Becker's assertion
that women's employment will deter marriage, it does suggest that women's
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financial independence might delay marriage. More young women (and men) are
delaying marriage to pursue higher education and gain career experience
(Sassler and Goldscheider 2004; Oppenheimer 1997; Lloyd and South 1996).
Full-time school enrollment decreases the risk of marriage (Thornton, Axinn, and
Teachman 1995). However, women college graduates are more likely to marry
than those without degrees, and they are more likely to marry at older ages
(Goldstein and Kenney 2001). Similarly, Sassler and Schoen (1999) demonstrate
that full-time work increases women's probability of marrying, but not until ages
28 - 31. Employment even helps poor women's prospects of marrying
(McLaughlin and Lichter 1997).
The Effect of Men's Employment on Marriage
Thus far the discussion has focused on the impact of women's
employment on the transition to marriage, but what role does men's employment
play? Research suggests that one of the strongest predictors of marriage is a
man's economic status. For men, earnings positively affect the transition to
marriage (Xie et al. 2003; Oppenheimer 2003; Burgess et al.; Smock 1997);
however, men who have difficulty finding or sustaining employment are less likely
to be viewed as viable marriage options and subsequently, less likely to marry
(Brown and Kesselring 2003; Oppenheimerm 2000). Among African Americans,
economically marginal men are less attractive and often not considered
"marriageable" (Staples 1999; Wilson 1987). While African American men as a
group earn more on average than African American women in similar
occupations, African American women are graduating with college and
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professional degrees in greater numbers than men, thereby increasing their
social standing (Hefner 2004; Cose and Samuels 2003). Although college-
educated African American women are more likely to marry than less educated
African American women (Goldstein and Kenney 2001) the pool of eligibles is
shrinking for both groups. For African American women who accept the cultural
ideal of hypergamy, or "marrying up," marrying someone with less education and
therefore fewer job prospects is not a viable option (Brown and Kesselring 2003;
Bulcroft and Bulcroft 1993; South 1991). Although many professional African
American women express a desire to marry (Davis et al. 2000), the economic
costs may outweigh the emotional gains. The result is that a growing number of
African American women can expect not to marry (Cherlin 1992).
What's Missing from the Literature
What seems to be missing from the literature is an analysis of how
women's employment in particular occupational fields impacts their chances of
marriage. Rather than viewing professional women as a homogenous group, I
want to ascertain if there are there certain occupations in which women are at a
greater risk of remaining single, compared to other occupations. An article in the
ABA Journal states that women lawyers are less likely to be married than women
doctors or women college professors; however, no empirical evidence is offered
in support of this claim (Arron 1999, 62). As an initial step in determining how
professional women's likelihood of remaining unmarried compare to one another,
I seek to ascertain if African American clergywomen are more or less likely to be
never-married than other professionals. My empirical question is as follows: How
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does occupation intersect with gender and race to impact a woman's marital
status? Specifically, how do African American clergywomen's odds of being
never-married compare to that of African American clergymen, European
American clergywomen, and professional African American women in secular
occupations?
Hypotheses
Gender, Occupation, and Marital Status
Research on men and women in particular occupations reveals two
important marriage trends. The first is that women in an occupation are more
likely to be married to men in that same occupation than are men to be married
to their female counterparts. This trends holds true for clergy as well, with
clergywomen being more likely to be married to clergymen than clergymen are to
be married to clergywomen (Carpenter 2001; Nesbitt 1995). Nesbitt (1995) posits
that one reason for this trend is that for a clergywoman, a clergy husband may be
more of an occupational resource than a clergy wife is for a clergyman. To some
men, a clergy wife may even been viewed as a liability, especially if a man is
intimated by a woman's status as a clergywoman (Carpenter 2001) and/or feels
awkward about dating a woman in the ministry (Zikmund et al. 1998).
The second trend is that women in the professions are less likely to be
married than their male counterparts; this is true for women in the ministry
(Carpenter 2001; Zikmund et al. 1998; Nesbitt 1995), as well as true for women
in academia (Toutkoushian 1998), management (Kirchmeyer 2002), law
(Samborn 2000), and engineering (Preston 1994). A distinct but related trend is
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that professional men overall have higher rates of marriage than professional
women. These trends can be accounted for, in part, by the fact that marriage
benefits men's careers in ways that it does not benefit women's careers (See
Chapter 4, this dissertation).
Given these trends, I make the following hypothesis:
FL: African American clergywomen will be more likely to be never-married
than African American clergymen.
Gender, Race, and Marital Status
Much of the research on marriage has compared the rates of marriage of
African American and European American women. Some research has found no
differences in marriage rates between African American and European American
women, specifically among the poor (McLaughlin and Lichter 1997) and among
those in the military (Lundquist 2004). Most of the empirical evidence, however,
indicates that African American women are more likely than European American
women to be never-married (Fitch and Ruggles 2000; Raley 2000; Tucker and
Mitchell-Kernan 1998; Tucker and Mitchell-Kernan 1995; Cherlin 1992). Given
the rather robust evidence that African American women have higher odds of
nonmarriage than European American women, I hypothesize that the same
pattern will hold among clergywomen:
H2 : African American clergywomen will be more likely to be never-married
than European American clergywomen.
Occupation and Marital Status
Because the majority of clergy are employed as religious leaders by
religious institutions (Chang and Perl 1999; Chapter 4 this dissertation) it is of
interest to determine how religious work affects marital outcomes. There are
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several reasons to suspect that clergywomen may be less likely to be never-
married as compared to other professional African American women. These
reasons encompass clergywomen's internal preferences and external pressures.
Female clergy may be less likely to be never-married than other
professional women due to a greater preference for marriage. Self-selection
effects may be operating in that women who choose the ministry as a career may
be more family-oriented than other professional women. As a result, they may
see marriage and/or motherhood as statuses to be eagerly pursued rather than
as barriers to career enhancement.
Other reasons center on the expectations that people have concerning
clergy sexuality. Although within recent decades there has been a weakening of
traditional and religious authority, clergy are still expected to at least appear to
live in accordance to the mores—especially the sexual mores—that they teach
(Lee and Baslwick 1989). Within the three largest U.S. religions—Christianity,
Judaism and Islam—there are prohibitions on premarital sex (Machacek and
Wilcox 2003), and a clergywoman's single status can raise questions regarding
her heterosexuality (Zikmund et al. 1998) as well as her sexual ethics in general.
I propose that although there has been a liberalization of sexual norms within the
U.S. culture which has contributed to the delays and declines in marriage
(Akerlof, Yellen and Katz 1996; Bumpass, Sweet and Cherlin 1991), this growing
acceptance of premarital sex, cohabitation, and single-parenthood (Popenoe and
Whitehead 2002; Axinn and Thornton 2000) does not extend in the same way to
clergywomen as it does to other professionals. Therefore, clergywomen who
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desire to be openly, sexually active, will be compelled to do so within the bonds
of a heterosexual marital union.
Clergymen, on the other hand, do not operate under the same rules, and,
too often male indecorum is ignored or excused (Woodward 1997). This can lead
to the surreptitious sexual abuse of female parishioners and young boys by male
religious leaders. Within the black church, sexual double-standards are
frequently at work in that within many congregations single male clergy can
serially date their parishioners with impunity, and some married male clergy
engage in clandestine sexual liaisons with female members (Dyson 2001).
However, for a woman cleric to do the same would at best weaken her authority
and at worst result in her dismissal and a revocation of her ordination. For this
reason, Bishop Vashti McKenzie, the first female bishop in the African Methodist
Episcopal church, advises clergywomen not to "play where you pray" (McKenzie
2001).
Marriage for clergywomen can help preserve their reputation and
enhance their occupation in other ways, as well. Chang and Perl (1999) suggest
that when parishioners make appointments to see a cleric for marriage or family
problems, they want to know that the one counseling them has personal
experience in the realm of their issues. Despite having taken pastoral counseling
classes in seminary, an unmarried clergywomen may not be viewed as a reliable
source on how to deal with marital conflict. In other instances, a clergywoman's
single status may leave some wondering as to her commitment to the
hierarchical gender order, especially within those religious organizations that do
permit the ordination of women yet still adopt varying degrees of male headship
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in the home (i.e. the "progressive patriarch" see Chapter 3 this dissertation). In
these instances, being unmarried may be an occupational liability for
clergywomen in a way that it is not for other professional women in that
clergywomen's credibility, competence, and compliance can be called into
question if they remain single.
If clergywomen do experience these occupational pressures to marry,
then it is reasonable to make the following hypothesis:
H3 : African American clergywomen will be less likely to be never-married
than other professional African American women.
On the other hand, despite a preference for marriage or a pressure to
marry, clergywomen may be hard-pressed to find mates, which may suggest that
African American clergywomen may be more likely to be never-married than
other professional women. For a professional woman who is not employed by a
religious organization, marrying someone outside of her faith will not negatively
impact her career prospects. However, for a clergywomen, the expectation of
religious homogamy limits her pool of eligibles. Although increases in religiosity
neither enhance marital happiness nor decrease the types of conflicts and
problems that often lead to divorce (Booth and Johnson 1995) religious
heterogamy does reduce marital stability (Bumpass, Martin and Sweet 1991) as
do spousal differences in rates of church attendance (Call and Heaton 1997).
Because marital dissolution negatively affects clergywomen's likelihood of being
employed by a religious institution (see Chapter 4 this dissertation), a
clergywoman's best chance for a stable marriage would come from marrying
someone who is a serious adherent of her faith. The problem, however, is that in
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general, women have higher rates of religiosity than men (Stark 2002). It is not
unusual for black congregations to be anywhere from 70% to 90% female (Gilkes
2001; Lincoln and Mamiya 1990). Given these highly skewed sex ratios and also
given, as outlined above, prohibitions against women clergy fraternizing with
male parishioners, female clergy are severely limited in their pool of potential
marriage partners.
Another challenge for African American clergywomen lies in the fact that
many perceive the married man's role to be the head of the house (see Chapter
3 this dissertation). Clergywomen, by nature of their occupation, are leaders in
not just their congregations, but also their communities. The role of preacher in
the black community has historically been one of the highest status positions.
According to DuBois (1903, 211), the "Negro preacher" is "A leader, a politician,
an orator, a 'boss,' an intriguer, an idealist...". A recent Barna poll shows that the
majority of African Americans continue to view the preacher as the most
important community leader (Barna Research Group 1996). There can be some
role incongruity for a clergywoman to be the spiritual leader of her community,
her congregation, and presumably of her husband if he attends her church, yet in
the home, become his subordinate. If a man feels that his authority in the home
would be challenged by having a clergy wife, he might not view a clergywoman
as an attractive marriage partner.
One practical solution to the desire for religious homogamy and to the
preference for male authority in the home would be for African American
clergywomen to marry clergymen. However, because of clergymen's high social
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status, they literally have "the pick of the crop" and women with a similar status
and perhaps better oratory skills may not be their first choice. Some clergymen
also hold negative stereotypes of African American clergywomen as unfeminine
(Lincoln and Mamiya 1990) or bitter and angry (Carpenter 2001). Given these
constraints, an alternative hypothesis is as follows:
Alternate H3 : African American clergywomen will be more likely to be
never-married than other professional African American
women.
Data and M ethods
I use data from the 2000 Census, a 5% Public Use Microdata Sample
(PUMS) to empirically test the effect of occupational category on the likelihood of
being never-married. I have chosen to focus on the never-married population of
professionals because census data do not permit researchers to determine the
timing or number of marriages, divorces, and/or remarriages, as the case may
be. Census data report on individuals' current marital status, not their marital
history. Thus, a clergywoman who is recorded as "currently married" could
conceivably also be divorced and/or widowed. Given that clergywomen enter
seminary and the ministry at older ages (Meinzer and Merrill 2003; Lehman
2002), it would be reasonable to assume that many of them embark upon their
clergy careers as married, divorced or widowed women. However, there is no
way to sequence marital formation (or dissolution) and career entry. Therefore, I
have chosen to focus on the never-married category because that is the only
category for which the time-order is clear, i.e. clergy status was attained prior to
marriage. It must be kept in mind that being classified as never-married does not
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mean that a person will not eventually marry; it simply means that at the time of
the survey, the respondent had not ever married.
Family scholars often focus on the never-married segment of the
population because there are benefits associated with doing so. One benefit is
that modeling nonmarriage provides an important indicator of marriage patterns
(Fitch and Ruggles 2000, 72). Another benefit is that highlighting the never-
married challenges certain assumptions about the normality of marriage for all
groups (Ferguson 2000).
Regression Analysis Procedures
To determine if African American clergywomen are more likely to be
never-married than African American clergymen, I begin by limiting my sample to
African American clergy. In the census classification of occupations, clergy are a
category distinct from a) directors of religious activities and education and b)
religious workers, all others. Clergy are not, however, separated by
denominational affiliation; therefore, including in the analyses the never-married
population of clergymen does introduce a bias given that some male clergy
undoubtedly will be Roman Catholic priests, and the Roman Catholic Church
(RCC) does not permit priests to marry. Despite this reality, I have chosen to
include African American clergymen as a comparison group because it is
estimated that African American men comprise less than .5 percent of the total
number of Catholic priests in the United States (Mabunda 1997, 668); therefore,
the effect that a Catholic affiliation would have on the estimates should be
negligible. Because the RCC does not officially ordain women as priests—
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although many women are de-facto priests within the RCC (Chaves 1997)—a
Catholic affiliation should not bias the analyses of clergywomen's never-married
state. Roman Catholic nuns also take vows of celibacy and commit to life-long
singleness; however, women affiliated with the RCC as nuns would be classified
as religious workers and not clergy.
Testing Hypothesis 1
I estimate binary logistic regression models in which the outcome variable
is a dichotomous measure of marital status (never-married = 1, ever-married =
0). My independent variable of interest is a dummy variable for gender (female =
1). I control for age (a continuous variable), usual hours worked (a continuous
variable), total personal income (logged to approach normality), region (South =
1, else 0), and educational level. I determine educational level by degree
attainment as opposed to years of education because the former has been found
to be more precise than the latter (Dobson and Houseknecht 1998). I recode the
educational variable to represent four levels of achievement: less than college
degree, college degree, graduate/professional degree, and doctoral degree. I
include these five control variables because each has been found to significantly
influence the timing and/or likelihood of marriage (McLanahan and England
2004; Goldstein and Kenney 2001; Sassler and Schoen 1999; Oppenheimer
1997; Thornton, Axinn, and Teachman 1995). I perform multicollinearity
diagnostic tests among all independent and control variables. Because no two
independent variables have a Pearson correlation coefficient at or even near .60,
multicollinearity proves not to be a problem in the analyses.
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After running the models, I use the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC)
to ascertain the "best" model from among the competing models that I run4 2
Using the BIC best model, I set the control variables to their sample means and
estimate the probability that an African American clergywoman will be never-
married as compared to an African American clergyman.
Testing Hypothesis 2
To determine if African American clergywomen are more likely to be
never-married as compared to European American clergywomen, I follow the
same procedures as above; however, my independent variable is now a dummy
variable for race (African American = 1). No dummy variable for gender is
needed because all of the clergy in the sample are women. I use the same
control variables that I use to test Hypothesis 1—age, usual hours worked, total
personal income from all sources, region, and educational level.
Testing Hypothesis 3
To determine if African American clergywomen are more or less likely to
be never-married than other professional African American women, I again
estimate binary logistic regression models. No dummy for gender or race is
4 2 BIC is the Bayesian Information Criterion, also known as Akaike's Bayesian
Information Criterion (ABIC) and the Schwarz Bayesian Criterion (SBC). The BIC best
model takes into account sample size, model fit, and the number of independent
variables in the model. The "best" model—the one with the lowest BIC value—balances
model fit with model parsimony given the sample size. The formula for calculating BIC for
logistic regression is BIC = - + p In N where )(2 is the model chi square, p is the
number of independent variables in the model of interest, and N is the sample size. See
Raftery, Adrian. 1995. Bayesian model selection in social research. Sociological
Methodology 25: 111 -164.
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needed because the sample consists only of African American women. The
control variables are again age, usual hours worked, total personal income,
region, and educational level. The independent variables are three comparison
occupations that I recode as dummy variables—doctors, lawyers and college
professors. Clergy are the reference category. I again use the BIC best model to
estimate the probability that a woman in a particular occupation will be never-
married. In order to make cross-racial comparisons, I separately estimate
regressions of European American clergywomen's likelihood of being never-
married as compared to other European American professional women.
Education and Professionalization
I have chosen to compare African American clergywomen's probability of
being never-married to that of doctors, lawyers, and college professors because
the latter are occupations that require an advanced or professional degree, and
my goal is to determine the extent to which rates of nonmarriage vary among
highly educated professional women. Many, but not all, occupations classified as
"professional" by the Census Bureau require a college degree; few require
graduate or professional degrees (U.S. Census Bureau 2006, 402, Table 604).
Graduate and professional degrees include law, medical, master's, or doctoral
degrees (Buckner 2003).
The ministry is a prime example of a professional category that does not
require higher education or even high school completion. One can legitimately
carry the title "clergy" if one has been recognized by a religious organization as
having met that organization's requirements for ordination. To the extent that a
profession is an occupation that requires a certain level of specialized training,
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the categorization of the ministry as a "profession" is at risk, especially given that
one can be a legitimately ordained minister by simply going on-line and paying a
fee!4 3 Because of the First Amendment that separates church and state, the U.S.
government does not regulate ministerial licenses in the same way that it
regulates medical or legal licenses. Although more denominations are requiring
that their religious leaders have seminary training (Lehman 2002) a significant
number of religious bodies do not have formal educational requirements. Among
black churches, the Methodist denominations typically encourage seminary
training, but the Baptist churches and the Church of God in Christ church often
provide their own training to those who claim that they have been "called" to the
ministry.4 4 Lincoln and Mamiya (1990, 129 - 130) predict that as the laity
continues to make educational and occupational gains, they will become less
accepting of clergy without educational credentials.
Because I am primarily interested in how clergywomen with seminary
training compare to women in these other professions, I am limiting my sample of
professional women to only those who have a degree beyond the bachelor's, i.e.
a master's degree, a professional degree, or a doctorate. Although there is no
way to determine if a clergywoman's advanced degree is actually in a theological
4 3 See http://openordination.org. I hypothesize that there are two reasons people take the
on-line ordination track: 1) to circumvent sexist and heterosexist policies that limit who
can be ordained and 2) to gain the credentials needed to perform wedding ceremonies
for a fee. Assessing why people choose on-line ordination would make for an interesting
study indeed!
4 4 For an account of the significance of the "call" among African American religious
leaders see William Myers. 1994. God's yes was louder than my no. Grand Rapids, Ml:
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
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field of study, we can at least know that she is educated on a level comparable to
the other professional women in the sample.
Limiting the sample to only those with a degree beyond the bachelor's
also has significant implications for the women I classify as college professors.
Because there is no census category "college professor," I am using the
occupational category "post-secondary teacher" as a proxy. To teach an
academic discipline in an accredited college or university, instructors must
typically have a minimum of a master's degree; therefore, limiting the sample to
those with an advanced degree will serve to filter out those who are not teaching
on the college level or higher. For example, an instructor in a trade school would
be classified as a post-secondary teacher but this person may or may not have a
master's degree given that trade schools frequently rely more on practical
experience than education.
Because my sample of professional women only consists of those with an
advanced degree or higher, I label the education variable "doctorate" to indicate
the effect of having a doctoral degree on professional women's likelihood of
being unmarried.
R esults
Descriptive Findings
Table 11 shows the percentage distributions and means, where
appropriate, for the explanatory and dependent variables. A percentage derived
from Table 11 but not specifically shown is that 17% of African American clergy
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are women [290 women / (290 women + 1455 men)]. This percentage of female
clergy is slightly higher than the national average of 15% (U.S. Census Bureau
2006). Several other interesting results emerge from this table, as well. Among
clergy, African American clergymen are the least likely to be never-married (8%)
while European American clergywomen are slightly more likely than African
American clergywomen to be never-married (20% and 19% respectively). The
majority of all clergy are currently married. Fifty is the average age for
clergywomen and 52 is the average age for clergymen. On average, African
American clergy have less than a bachelor's degree while European American
clergywomen have a college degree. With an average salary of $33K, African
American clergymen earn the most for their 40 hours of work, followed by African
American clergywomen ($28K) for part-time work (34 hours/week); European
American clergywomen earn the least ($26K) for 35 hours/week. European
American clergywomen's lower salaries are surprising in light of the fact that they
are more likely to be degreed and are less likely to work in the South where
salaries tend to be lower (Cohen 1999).4 5
Among professional African American women, lawyers are the most likely
to be never-married (40%). At 48 years of age, college professors are on
average 8 years older than doctors and 9 years older than lawyers; college
professors also have the most education. Doctors earn the most ($87K) and work
the most hours (50 hours/week), followed by lawyers ($59K) and 43 hours/week,
4 5 An exception to lower salaries for southerners is found among clergymen who earn
more for working in the South than for working in any other region of the country (see
Chapter 4, this dissertation).
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and finally college professors ($45K) for 35 hours/week. Doctors are the least
likely to work in the South (48%) and college professors the most (57%).
Similar patterns are found among professional European American
women. Lawyers are the most likely to be never-married (23%) while college
professors are older and more educated than the other professional women.
Doctors earn the most ($101K) and work the most hours per week (46) followed
by lawyers ($75K for 41 hours/week) and then college professors ($42K for 35
hours/week). The salaries of European American doctors and lawyers are
notably higher than the salaries of African American doctors and lawyers despite
the fact that African American women work more hours per week. However, the
salary of African American college professors is slightly higher than that of
European American college professors with both groups averaging the same
number of hours per week. This finding of higher salaries for African Americans
professors is consistent with other research that shows that African Americans in
academia earn more than their European American counterparts (Toutkoushian
1998). European American lawyers are the least likely to work in the South (12%)
and college professors the most (32%).
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Table 11: Descriptive Statistics for Variables Used in the Analyses: 2000
Census, 5% PUMS
Variable Percent Mean SD Min Max N
African American
Clergywomen
Marital Status
290
Never-Married 19 290
Married 51 290
Separated / Divorced 21 290
Widowed 9 290
Age (in years) 49.41 12.60 16 80 290
Education 1.92 1.02 1 4 290
Less than Bachelor's 49 290
Bachelor's 18 290
Master's/Professional 26 290
Doctorate 7 290
Income (in U.S. dollars) 27,718 30,039 0 330K 290
Income (logged) 9.93 .92 6.21 12.71 274
Usual Hours Worked / Week 34.18 19.84 0 99 290
South 50
African American Clergymen 1455
Marital Status
Never-Married 8 1455
Married 83 1455
Separated / Divorced 7 1455
Widowed 2 1455
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Table 11: Continued
Variable Percent Mean SD Min Max N
Age (in years) 51.95 13.90 20 89 1455
Education (by degree level) 1.93 1.02 1 4 1455
Income ( in U.S. dollars) 33,177 26,195 0 347K 1455
Income (logged) 10.19 .88 3
12.76
1387
Usual Hours Worked / Week 39.70 20.59 0 99 1455
South 59
European American
Clergywomen
2983
Marital Status
Never-Married 20 2983
Married 63 2983
Separated / Divorced 12 2983
Widowed 5 2983
Age (in years) 49.55 13.89 17 93 2983
Education (by degree level) 2.25 .89 1 4 2983
Income ( in U.S. dollars) 25,166 22,506 0 347K 2983
Income (logged) 9.83 .99 3.40 12.76 2834
Usual Hours Worked / Week 35.47 19.46 0 99 2983
South 32 2983
Professional African
American Women
2297
Doctors 576
Never-Married 32 576
Age (in years) 39.46 9.27 20 77 576
Education (by degree
level)
3.06 .24 3 4 576
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Table 11: Continued
Variable Percent Mean SD Min Max N
Income ( in U.S. dollars) 87,226 84,374 0 462K 576
Income (logged) 10.98 1.04 10.98 13.04 561
Usual Hours Worked / Wk 50.20 20.62 0 99 576
South 48 576
Lawyers 738
Never-Married 40 738
Age (in years) 38.33 8.98 23 86 738
Education (by degree
level)
3.04 .20 3 4 738
Income ( in U.S. dollars) 59,314 44,202 -3.5K 367K 738
Income (logged) 10.75 .85 4.16 12.81 723
Usual Hours Worked / Wk 42.70 13.18 0 95 738
South 49
College Professors 983
Never-Married 26
Age (in years) 47.72 12.77 21 93 983
Education (by degree
level)
3.35 .48 3 4 983
Income ( in U.S. dollars) 45,379 34,935 0 430K 983
Income (logged) 10.49 .85 3 12.97 963
Usual Hours Worked / Wk 34.93 15.22 0 80 983
South 57 983
Professional European
American Women
Doctors
Never-Married 18
32867
6718
6718
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Table 11: Continued
Variable Percent Mean SD Min Max N
Age (in years) 42.14 10.85 20 93 6718
Education (by degree
level)
3.09 .28 3 4 6718
Income ( in U.S. dollars) 101,279 95,095 -10K 585K 6718
Income (logged) 11.13 1.04 1.39
13.28
6519
Usual Hours Worked / Wk 45.97 21.70 0 99 6718
South 21 6718
Lawyers 11068
Never-Married 23 11068
Age (in years) 40.14 9.82 20 93 11068
Education (by degree
level)
3.05 .22 3 4 11068
Income ( in U.S. dollars) 75,465 75,108 -20K 627K 11068
Income (logged) 10.86 1.08 1.39 13.35 10639
Usual Hours Worked / Wk 41.01 16.05 0 99 11068
South 12 11068
College Professors 15621
Never-Married 18 15621
Age (in years) 47.17 11.92 20 93 15621
Education (by degree
level)
3.35 .48 3 4 15621
Income ( in U.S. dollars) 41,660 33,908 -10K 443K 15621
Income (logged) 10.33 .96 1.39 13 15222
Usual Hours Worked / Wk 34.93 17.58 0 99 15621
South 32 15621
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Multivariate Findings
Logistic Regression on Clergy Gender
In Table 12, I present the log-odd estimates from the binary logistic
regression models that predict a never-married versus an ever-married state for
African American clergy. I estimate three models. In Model 1 we observe that,
without controls, African American female clergy have nearly three times greater
odds (e10 5 4 = 2.869) of being never-married as compared to African American
clergymen. This is a highly statistically significant positive odd. When we control
for individual characteristics of the clergy in Model 2, we observe that a
clergywoman's odds of being never-married are over two and a half times greater
(e9 5 8 = 2.606) than a clergyman's odds of being never-married. This odd remains
highly statistically significant. We also find that with increases in age and income,
a cleric's odds of being never-married decrease significantly, while each
additional degree attained significantly increases a cleric's odds of being never-
married, controlling for other factors. The number of hours clergy work has no
impact on likelihood of being never-married. In Model 3, the region variable is
added and we observe that clergy who live in the South are no more or less likely
to be never-married than clergy who live in other regions of the country. The
main finding from Table 12 is that in every estimated model, being female has a
highly statistically significantly positive effect on the odds that a cleric will be
never-married. Thus, we have clear support for Hypothesis 1 which predicts that
female clergy will be more likely than male clergy to be never-married.
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Table 12: Logistic Regression of Never-Married Status on Clergy
Gender (African Americans Only): 2000 Census, 5% PUMS
Independent Variable Model 1 Model 2 Model 3
Gender of Clergy
Female Clergy = 1, else 0
1.054***
(.183)
.958***
(.194)
9 5 7 * * *
(.194)
Individual Characteristics
Age
-.061***
(.008)
-.061***
(.008)
Education (Degree Level)
.300***
(.090)
.300***
(.090)
Income (Logged)
-.392***
(.089)
-.390***
(.089)
Usual Hours Worked/Week
-.001
(.005)
-.001
(.005)
Region
South = 1, else 0
-.048
(.178)
Constant
-2.482
(.101)
3.816
(.837)
3.836
(.840)
*2 29.905 133.841 133.913
df 1 5 6
BIC -22 -97 -89
Unless otherwise noted, numbers in parenthesis are standard errors. N = 1661
.001 (two-tailed test).
*** p s
Of the three competing models, Model 2 has the lowest BIC value
(BIC = -97); therefore, I use Model 2 to make predictions. Model 2 suggests that
for African American clergy, never-married status is primarily a function of
gender, age, education, and income. Setting the control variables in Model 2 to
their sample means, we find that the predicted probability that an African
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American clergywoman will be never-married is .141; this is over two times
greater than an African American clergyman's predicted probability of .059 (see
Figure 3). These predicted probabilities are substantially lower than the never-
married national averages for African American women and men reported in
Figure 2 (38.2% and 41.8% respectively).
0.30
0.25
£ ° '20
a 0.15
.Q
2
0.10
0.05
0.00
Figure 3: Estimated Probability of Never-Married Status by Gender of
African American Clergy: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS
Logistic Regression on Clergywomen's Race
The second independent variable of interest in this study is
clergywomen's race. Table 13 presents the logit coefficients from binary logistic
regression of a clergywoman’s never-married status. Model 1 estimates that
African American clergywomen are less likely than European American
clergywomen to be never-married, but not significantly so. In Models 2 and 3 the
212
Female Clergy Male Clergy
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sign reverses and African American clergywomen are estimated to be more likely
than European American clergywomen to be never-married, but again, the effect
of race is statistically insignificant. The only significant variables in the model are
age, education and region. The age variable estimates that as clergywomen age,
they are less likely to be never-married, and the education variable estimates that
for every additional degree clergywomen earn, their odds of being never-married
increase. Clergywomen in the South are significantly less likely than
clergywomen living in other regions of the country to be never-married,
controlling for other factors. Because African American clergywomen are no
more or less likely than European American clergywomen to be never-married,
we must fail to accept Hypothesis 2 which predicts that African American
clergywomen will be significantly more likely than European American
clergywomen to be never-married.
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Table 13: Logistic Regression of Never-Married Status on Clergywomen's
_________ Race: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS________________________
Independent Variable Model 1 Model 2 Model 3
Race of Clergywomen
African American = 1, else 0
-.060
(.160)
.066
(.163)
.135
(.165)
Individual Characteristics
Age
-.018*** -.019***
(.004) (.004)
Education (Degree Level)
.347***
(.055)
.338***
(.055)
Income (Logged)
-.007
(.057)
-.008
(.057)
Usual Hours Worked/Week
.004
(.003)
.004
(.003)
Region
South = 1, else 0
-.289**
(.100)
Constant
-1.368
(.047)
-1.360
(.489)
-1.208
(.492)
*2 .140 78.498 87.051
df 1 5 6
BIC 8 -38 -39
Unless otherwise noted, numbers in parenthesis are standard errors. N = 3108. ** p
< .01 *** p s .001 (two-tailed test).
Setting the control variables in the BIC Best Model 3 to their sample
means, we find that the predicted probability that an African American
clergywoman will be never-married is .21; this is not significantly greater than an
European American clergywoman's estimated probability of .19 (see Figure 4).
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0.21
0.19
African American Female
Clergy
European American
Female Clergy
Figure 4: Estimated Probability of Never-Married Status by Race of Female
Clergy: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS
Logistic Regression on Occupation for African American Women
Table 14 shows the estimates from the regression of African American
professional women's occupation on nonmarriage, controlling for individual
characteristics and region. In Model 1 we see that without controls, doctors and
lawyers are significantly more likely than clergy to be never-married. Doctors are
almost twice as likely (e 6 1 0 = 1.84) as clergy to be never-married, and lawyers
are over 2.5 times more likely (e 9 5 9 = 2.61) than clergy to be never-married.
These are highly statistically significant positive odds. College professors are
also more likely to be never-married than clergy, but the effect of this
occupational category is not significant. After adding controls for individual
characteristics in Model 2, occupational category becomes an insignificant
predictor of non-marriage for professional African American women, suggesting
that the relationship because occupation and nonmarriage in Model 1 is spurious.
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Of the individual characteristics controlled for in Model 2, only increases in age
and income significantly decrease the risk of nonmarriage, all else being equal.
Professional women with a doctorate are no more or less likely than professional
women with a master's or professional degree to be never-married. Nor are
women who work longer hours each week at a greater risk of nonmarriage. This
same pattern holds for Model 3, which includes a control for region. African
American professional women who live in the South are less likely to be never-
married than women in other regions of the country, but not significantly so.
Because occupational category does not remain statistically significant
with the addition of control variables in the BIC Best Model 2, we must fail to
accept Hypothesis 3 which proposes that African American clergywomen will be
less likely to be never-married than other professional women. We must also fail
to accept the alternative hypothesis which proposes that African American
clergywomen will be more likely to be never-married than other professional
women.
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Table 14: Logistic Regression of Never-Married Status on African
_________American Women's Occupation: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS
Independent Variable Model 1 Model 2 Model 3
Occupation
Clergy (Reference Category)
— — —
Doctor
.610*
(.273)
-.183
(.297)
-.188
(.297)
Lawyer
.959***
(.268)
.120
(.291)
.115
(.291)
College Professor
.328
(.267)
.059
(.284)
.059
(.285)
Individual Characteristics
Age
-.080*** -.080***
(.006) (.006)
Doctorate =1, else 0 a
-.014
(.145)
-.007
(.145)
Income (Logged)
-.167**
(.057)
-.167**
(.057)
Usual Hours Worked/Week
.003
(.004)
.003
(.004)
Region
South = 1, else 0
-.144
(.096)
Constant
-1.360
(.257)
4.177
(.740)
4.244
(.741)
*2 42.193 350.412 352.646
df 3 7 8
BIC -19 -296 -291
Unless otherwise noted, numbers in parenthesis are standard errors. N = 2340.
* p s .05 ** p < .01 *** p s .001 (two-tailed test).
(a) only women with at least a master's degree or a professional degree are included in the
analysis.
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Setting the control variables in the BIC Best Model 2 to their sample
means, we find that the predicted probability that an African American
clergywoman will be never-married is .28; this is not significantly different than
the probabilities that a doctor (p=.24), a lawyer (p=.30) or a college professor
(p=.29) will be never-married (see Figure 5).
0.30
0.25
1 *
0.20
!5
n
n
0.15
o
Q. 0.10
0.05
0.00
0.28
IT25“
0 2 4
Clergy Doctors Lawyers College
Professors
Figure 5: Estimated Probability of Never-Married Status by Occupational
Category of African American Women: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS
Logistic Regression on Occupation for European American Women
In Table 15 I present the logit estimates of professional European
American women's odds of nonmarriage. In Model 1 we see that European
American clergy are significantly more likely than European American doctors
and college professors to be never-married. Lawyers, however, are not
significantly different from clergy in odds of nonmarriage. However, after adding
controls for individual characteristics in Model 2, we find that clergy are over
twice as likely to be never-married as compared to doctors (1/e 8 6 3 = 2.37), over
one and a half times more likely to be never-married as compared to lawyers
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(1/e' 4 7 2 = 1.60), and over one and a half times more likely to be never-married as
compared to college professors (1/e 4 6 3 = 1.59). Each of the individual
characteristic variables are also highly statistically significant, with the exception
of the education variable which is only modestly significant. Model 2 predicts that
as professional women age and as their incomes increase, they are significantly
less likely to be never-married, other factors being equal. Women with a
doctorate and women who work longer hours are significantly more likely to be
never-married, controlling for other factors. In Model 3, each of the occupation
variables remains highly statistically significant in a negative direction, indicating
that clergy are more likely to be never-married than each of these other
categories of women. The individual characteristics variables in Model 3 also
remain significant, with the exception of the education variable which is nearly
significant (p=.051). In Model 3, the region variable is added showing that
professional women in the South are 20% less likely (1/e'1 7 6 = 1.19) than
professional European American women living in other regions of the country to
be never-married, controlling for other factors. This is a highly statistically
significant negative odd.
The main finding evident in Table 15 is that for European American
women, occupational category significantly affects the odds of nonmarriage.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Table 15: Logistic Regression of Never-Married Status on European
American Women's Occupation: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS
Independent Variable Model 1 Model 2 Model 3
Occupation
Clergy is the Reference Category
— — —
Doctor
-.370***
(.070)
-.863***
(.075)
-.861***
(.075)
Lawyer
-.001
(.066)
- 472***
(.071)
-.468***
(.071)
College Professor
-.345***
(.065)
-.463***
(.070)
-.460***
(.070)
Individual Characteristics
Age
-.053***
(.002)
-.054***
(.002)
Doctorate =1, else 0 a
.080*
(.040)
.078+
(.040)
>
Income (Logged)
-079***
(.016)
-.081***
(.016)
Usual Hours Worked/Week
.015***
(.001)
.015***
(.001)
Region
South = 1, else 0
-.176***
(.030)
Constant
-1.142
(.062)
1.357
(.187)
1.435
(.188)
*2 160.754 2168.365 2202.412
df 3 7 8
BIC -129 -2095 -2119
Unless otherwise noted, numbers in parenthesis are standard errors. N = 33,802.
+ £ .10 * p £ .05 ** p £ .01 *** p 5 .001 (two-tailed test).
(a) only women with at least a master's degree or a professional degree are included in the
analysis.
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Setting the control variables in the BIC Best Model 3 to their sample
means, I estimate the probability that European American professional women in
each of the four categories will be never-married. Clergywomen's estimated
nonmarriage probability of .26 is twice as great as doctors' nonmarriage
probability of .13, and it is substantially greater than the probability of
nonmarriage for both lawyers and college professors (p=.18 for both). See Figure
6.
0.26 0.30
0.25
0.18 0.18
0.20
0.13
« 0.15
£ 0.10
0.05
0.00
Clergy Lawyers College
Professors
Doctors
Figure 6: Estimated Probability of Never-Married Status by Occupational
Category of European American Women: 2000 Census, 5% PUMS
D is c u s s io n
Gender Effects
The results from quantitative analysis indicate that gender strongly
influences an African American cleric's likelihood of nonmarriage. Using logistic
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regression analysis, I determine that African American clergywomen are 2.6
times more likely to be never-married than African American clergymen,
controlling for age, education, income, and usual hours worked per week. This
finding is consistent with other research that reports a lower rate of marriage for
clergywomen than clergymen (Carpenter 2001; Nesbitt 1995). I present two
possible explanations for women's greater odds of nonmarriage relative to
clergymen: 1) clergywomen are less successful in the marriage market, and 2)
clergywomen have a lower incentive to marry.
The first possibility suggests that women's marital outcomes are not
entirely determined by choice. Women may desire and pursue marriage but have
difficulty acquiring a mate for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons are
structural; for example, imbalanced sex ratios severely limit a woman's options.
The sex ratio is the number of men per 100 women. When sex ratios are low, as
is the case in the U.S. as a whole and the black community in particular, there
are more women than men. According to Guttentag and Secord (1983)
imbalanced sex ratios create a marriage squeeze in which there are not enough
men for every marriage-minded woman. There are many factors that contribute
to low sex ratios in the black community—high infant and young adult mortality
rates of African American males (Palazzo, Guest and Almgren 2003);
incarceration rates that are disproportionately high relative to their representation
in the population (Pettit and Western 2004; Staples 1999); and an increase in the
percentage of African American men marrying interracially (Yancy 2002; Crowder
and Tolnay 2000);
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According to sex ratio theory, the surfeit of women relative to men—in
communities in which women have greater levels of personal freedom—makes
marriage unnecessary for men (Guttentag and Secord 1983). A shortage of
marriageable men tends to make men more likely to cohabit versus marry (Raley
1996). The theory also suggests that in situations in which the sex ratio is low,
women have to compete for men, or perhaps settle for sharing a man; something
some low income women have resigned themselves to doing (Miller and
Browning 2000).
In addition to structural factors, attitudinal factors may also limit an African
American clergywoman's marital outcomes. If positive characteristics are
attributed to African American clergymen (spokesman for the race, community
leader, godly, god-like) and negative characteristics are attributed to African
American clergywomen (unfeminine, usurpers, bitter, angry), then it stands to
reason that African American clergymen would have more marriage prospects, at
least to the extent that potential mates believe the stereotypes (Carpenter 2001;
Lincoln and Mamiya 1990). While the negative effects of imbalanced sex ratios
have been repeatedly substantiated in the literature on African American
women's marital outcomes (Brown and Kesselring 2003; Bulcroft and Bulcroft
1993; Fossett and Kiecolt 1991; South 1991), what is needed is empirical
research that ascertains the extent to which negative stereotypes about African
American women in general and African American clergywomen in particular
reduce their chances of marriage.
Unlike the above two explanations that suggest that women's marital
outcomes are rooted in circumstances beyond their control, the second
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possibility implies that women do have a choice and that they choose not to
marry because the benefits to marriage do not outweigh the costs. For
clergymen, the occupational and financial costs associated with being unmarried
are high. As shown in the previous chapter, unmarried clergymen are less likely
to work in a congregational setting—the site most preferred by clergy—and they
earn substantially less than married clergy. These factors may encourage
clergymen to marry. For clergywomen, however, the payoffs to marriage are not
as great. Although married African American clergywomen are more likely than
divorced African American clergywomen to work in a congregational setting, in
terms of pay, there is actually a penalty associated with being married for
clergywomen. Because unmarried clergywomen (whether divorced or never-
married) earn significantly more than married clergywomen, even after controlling
for the number of children and the number of hours worked, clergywomen may
choose to remain single in an effort to increase their earnings potential.
Race and Occupation Effects
While the results from logistic regression reveal that gender is a primary
determinant of nonmarriage for clergy, race and occupation do not have the
same impact. Within the U.S. society as a whole, African American women are
more likely than European American women to be never-married (U.S. Census
Bureau 2006), yet among clergywomen, there are no racial distinctions. The
results from binary logistic regression indicate that African American
clergywomen are no more or less likely than European American clergywomen to
be never-married. Nor are African American clergywomen any more or less
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likely than other professional African American women (doctors, lawyers, college
professors) to be never-married. European American clergywomen are, however,
significantly more likely than European American doctors, lawyers, and college
professors to be never-married. There are several possibilities for interpreting
these findings.
One possibility is that the forces that compel African American
clergywomen to marry (i.e. a personal preference for marriage, a need to present
a sexually circumspect image) and the forces that constrain them from marrying
(i.e. limited marriage prospects among adherents of the faith, negative
stereotypes about clergywomen, pay penalties for married clergywomen) cancel
one another out leaving the attributes that make clergywomen unique among
women obscured.
Another possibility that could explain the lack of distinction in professional
African American women's likelihood of nonmarriage is that for African American
women, the probability of forming a marital union (or not) is similar for all women
with comparable levels of human capital, regardless of occupation. Poor women
with little human capital have low probabilities of marrying, while women with
more human capital have greater probabilities of marrying (Carlson, McLanahan,
and England 2004; Goldstein and Kenney 2001; McLaughlin and Lichter 1997).
The women in my sample of African American professionals are all highly
educated, high earning women. Even though social class and occupation are
correlated, these data reveal that among African American clergywomen, social
class is a stronger determinant of marital outcomes than occupation. In other
words, for African American women, it is not what one does (occupation) but
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rather what one has (education and income) that more strongly influences
marriage outcomes.
How do we explain European American clergywomen's higher rates of
nonmarriage relative to other professional European American women and their
similar rates of nonmarriage relative to African American clergywomen? We
could again interpose the choice factor—free choice and forced choice.
European American clergywomen may be freely choosing to remain single for
the benefits mentioned above—the singleness premium that is awarded to
women who are unmarried. They may also desire to be single-mindedly devoted
to their careers without the distractions of a family. On the other hand, European
American clergywomen may be single because they have been forced to choose
between having a career and having a family. Although many professional
women find it difficult to balance both career and family responsibilities and face
criticism for trying to do so, for European American clergywomen, the
consequences of working in an industry in which beliefs about a married
woman's primary responsibility being to her family may not just include criticism
but may also have direct, negative impacts on her career opportunities (Zikmund
et al 1998). Because many of the beliefs about women's primary responsibilities
being domestic are religious in origin, some European American clergywomen
may anticipate that the tension that would be created by having a personal
lifestyle that contradicts tenants of her faith—tenants it is her responsibility as a
clergywomen to teach—may be too great, and the perceived solution may be to
avoid the conflict inherent in trying to be a married minister who is also a mother.
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If some European American clergywomen find it more expedient to have
either a career or a family, but not both, it is plausible that their rates of
nonmarriage would be higher than other professional European American
women's rates but not higher than African American clergywomen's rates. Given
that the roles of mother, wife, and paid employee are roles that have typically
been accepted (and expected) for African American women to carry out
simultaneously (Collins 2000), it is likely that although African American and
European American clergywomen have similar rates of nonmarriage, their paths
to this marital status are disparate.
A Caveat
A word of caution about interpreting rates of nonmarriage is also in order.
Because there are four marital status categories—never-married, married,
widowed and divorced—rates of nonmarriage do not directly determine rates of
marriage. In other words, one cannot assume that because African American and
European American clergywomen have similar rates of nonmarriage that they
also have similar rates of marriage; rates of divorce and widowhood must also be
considered. Table 11 shows that African American and European American
clergywomen's rates of marriage differ: 51 percent of African American
clergywomen are currently married as compared to 63 percent of European
American clergywomen. A t-test of differences in percentages reveals that the
percentage of currently married African American clergywomen is significantly
less than the percentage of currently married European American clergywomen.
Although not shown in Table 11, European American clergywomen also have
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higher rates of marriage than other professional women. Rates of marriage for
African American clergywomen, however, are very similar to the rates of
marriage for other professional African American women.
C o n c l u s io n , L im it a t io n s, a n d F u tu r e R e s e a r c h
As mentioned above, a limitation of census data is that only the
respondent's current marital status is recorded; there is no way to ascertain if an
individual is in a first, second, or third marriage or if prior to the current marriage
the individual was divorced, widowed, or cohabiting. What is needed is a
database that contains the marital histories and work histories of African
American and European American clergywomen as well as information on their
subjective experiences. Such data would allow researchers to more directly
ascertain how a clergywoman's occupation affects her marital outcomes and
other personal relationships. Key questions could be pursued, such as the
following: To what do single clergywomen attribute their singleness? Is it choice?
Is it circumstances? Do single clergywomen who date men perceive that the men
they meet are intimidated by their status as clergy, as has been suggested in
other studies (Carpenter 2001; Zikmund et al. 1998)? Do single clergywomen
who date women perceive that the stress in their relationships exceeds that
which is normally experienced by lesbian couples due to the fact that religious
beliefs—beliefs clergy are expected to promulgate— are often the source of the
hostility directed towards same-sex couples? Do clergywomen who marry, marry
before or after becoming ordained? If marriage preceded ordination and then a
woman subsequently divorced, did the pressure of a clergy career contribute to
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the marital dissolution? Are clergywomen who have not divorced remaining in
unhappy marriages because divorce can mark the end of a career for clergy?
The questions that can be asked are endless, yet for the most part, have
not been pursued in research on clergywomen. Most of the research on
clergywomen focuses on their occupational outcomes while ignoring their
experiences in interpersonal interrelationships.4 6 What makes this study unique
and valuable is that it addresses the fact that women in ministry are induced to
make decisions about family life that can influence and also be influenced by
their career choices.
4 6 A notable exception is Zikmund et al. (1998) who address dating, marriage, same sex
relationships, and parenting issues in their chapter entitled "A Complex Life." However,
their focus is on the personal experiences of European American clergywomen.
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C o n c lu s io n
What's Next?
O v e r v ie w
This study on the family life decisions and occupational outcomes of
African American clergywomen is an inaugural attempt to determine the factors
that affect both the personal and professional lives of these career women. My
task has been to analyze the ways in which their familial and occupational
choices are intricately entwined, both influencing and being influenced by one
another. The overarching theme has been that today's professional woman faces
numerous dilemmas in the struggle to "have it all" i.e. have both a paid
professional career in combination with a satisfying home life. The results from
this study show that African American clergywomen, like other professional
women, must often make hard choices between equally valuable but competing
goals, must content with sexism that limits their access to power and other
resources, and must struggle to form marriages that can endure the vagaries of
life.
The Four Components to Balancing Career and Family
The Career Component
Throughout this dissertation I have discussed how the lives of African
American clergywomen are influenced by what Hoffnung (2004) identifies as
being the four fundamental factors involved in balancing a career and a family—
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the career component, the attitude component, the marriage component, and the
motherhood component. Because the career component is affected by the level
of commitment women have to their professions and by whether or not these
professions are based in traditional or non-traditional fields, I actually deal with
this component in each chapter. I discuss how many of the challenges
clergywomen encounter are specifically rooted in the fact that the ministry is a
traditionally male-dominated field and as such women have not been, and in
many ways continue to not be, welcome colleagues.
The Attitude Component
The low level of receptivity to women clergy is most evident in Chapters 1
and 2 in which I concentrate on the historical backdrop to the current situation. I
assess the present-day level of receptivity to women clergy in Chapter 3 in which
I address the contemporary attitude component. What I find in my analyses of
data from the 1996 Religious Identity and Influence Survey is that attitudes
towards women's religious and familial roles have had an uneven evolution.
Among most highly religious Protestant (HRP) African Americans there is
ideological acceptance of women occupying the position of head pastor in a
church. Compared to HRP European Americans, African Americans are more
egalitarian concerning women's leadership roles in the church. On the other
hand, attitudes regarding women's roles in the home have not evolved as much.
Highly religious Protestants maintain a strong allegiance to the concept of male
headship in the home, with African Americans being the more conservative of the
two racial categories studied. The implications for African American clergywomen
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of working and living in social contexts in which they are simultaneously liberated
and subordinated is that they must manage to convince those with whom they
relate on both a professional and personal level that their being a leader in one
arena—the church—does not preclude them from willingly being a following in
another arena—the home. Given this continued support for male headship in the
family among religious adherents, churches have rightfully been referred to as
"traditional family reserves" (Marler 1995).
The Marriage and Motherhood Components
Because religious communities are often conservative in their family
values, it has been suggested that clergy who model the "traditional family" have
more successful placements and higher salaries (Lummis 2003; Chang and Perl
1999). In Chapter 4, I test whether or not this is true for African American
clergywomen. Using census data, I determine the effects of both marital status
and motherhood status on the selection of clergywomen into a religious
institution and on the salary they are paid. In this manner, I address both the
marriage component and the motherhood component simultaneously.
What I find is that among African American clergywomen, being married
and being never-married have the same effect on placement. The only marital
status that lowers clergywomen's odds of working in a religious institution is that
of being divorced. Interestingly, divorce has an opposite effect on salary. For
African American clergywomen, divorced and never-married women actually
earn more than currently married women. This finding is similar to research
concerning the effects of marital status on the salaries of women in secular
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occupations. For women, being married may result in lower salaries because the
responsibilities associated with marriage may decrease the amount of time and
energy that women have to devote to their paid employment, or it may be that
employers simply assume that married women will be less committed to their
careers and therefore penalize women in accordance to their expectation.
While the effects of marital status are similar for women in both sacred
and secular occupations, the effects of being mothers are very different for the
two groups of women. Women in secular occupations pay a motherhood penalty
(Avellar and Smock 2003; Joshi, Paci and Waldfogel 1999; Waldfogel 1997).
Even though the penalty has been found to less for African American mothers,
they too suffer financial losses for trying to "have it all" (Budig and England 2001;
Waldfogel 1997). Interestingly, I find that among clergywomen, being mothers not
only increases their likelihood of working in a religious institution—the site most
sought after by clergy—but it also increases how much they are paid. In this
regard, the value religious institutions tend to place on family may actually be
serving to benefit women.
The Marriage Component Revisited
The last question I pursue also deals with the marriage component. In
Chapter 5 I ask whether pursuing a clergy career helps or hinders a woman's
chances on the marriage market. What I find is contrary to what was expected. I
expected to find that among African American women, those who were clergy
would either be less likely than other professional women to be single, never-
married (in part, due to a desire to model the traditional family that is valued by
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the religious institutions in which they work), or I expected to find that they would
be more likely to be single, never-married than other professional women (due in
part to negative perceptions of clergywomen as unfeminine and undesirable).
What I actually find is that there are no statistically significant differences in the
likelihood of being single, never-married for clergywomen and other professional
African American women. One interpretation I supply for this finding is that for
African American women, their specific occupational category is not as influential
in impacting marital outcomes as are structural factors such as 1) imbalanced
sex ratios which lead to a shortage of men for every marriage-minded woman
and 2) worsening economic conditions facing African American men leaving
many men marked as "undesirable" for the purposes of union formation.
P la n s f o r F u t u r e R es e a r c h
I stated in the introduction that a secondary purpose of this study was to
lay the groundwork for additional research on African American clergywomen. My
goal was to discover patterns that would lead to the formation of relevant
questions on the life experiences of women in ministry. I envision that the future
research I conduct on how work impacts family life for clergywomen (and vice
versa) will have both a qualitative and a quantitative component. I imagine that
by having focus-group discussions and one-on-one interviews with African
American clergywomen, I will be able to hear the women give voice to what they
perceive as being the major challenges as well as the major triumphs associated
with being single, divorced, or married women in ministry. I can then capture the
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issues that they raise and transpose them into a survey that can be distributed to
large numbers of clergywomen. The data gained from their responses will go far
in helping sociologists of religion, sociologists of inequality, sociologists of the
family, and family therapists understand life for this much understudied
population.
What I Want to Know
To be or not to be...single
We saw in Chapter 1 that for early nineteenth century "she preachers" as
they were often called, maintaining a marriage while simultaneously pursing a
career in the ministry was fraught with nearly insurmountable difficulties due to
the sexist and racist beliefs concerning Black women's "proper place" in the
home and society. Chapters 2 - 5 show that today, even after three waves of
feminism, African American preaching women still face attitudinal barriers that
limit their personal and professional outcomes. But are their barriers all external?
In other words, for African American clergywomen who want to be married but
are not, in what way do structural constraints intersect with personal agency to
frustrate their marital opportunities? Yes, there is a well-documented shortage of
marriageable African American men, but are African American clergywomen also
"writing off' available men that do not meet their preconceived ideals even
though these men could potentially be worthwhile mates? On the other hand,
although marriage is the preferred choice for most college-educated African
American women (Hoffnung 2004), some women voluntarily choose to remain
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single, both temporarily and permanently (Coleman 2000). For those who are
choosing singleness, what do they feel is gained by eschewing marriage?
Assessing the Risk Factors
For married and divorced clergywomen, I want to know if they perceive
that there are specific factors that put additional stress and strain on a married
clergywoman's relationship beyond that which is normally experienced by other
working women, placing clergywomen's marriages at a higher risk for failure. I
also want to know to whom clergywomen turn when they find themselves in
emotional and relational distress. Do they engage the aid of mental health
professionals? If not, to what extent do beliefs prevalent within the black
community that psychology is incompatible with theology affect their decision to
reject professional psychotherapy?
...and they lived happily ever after?
For women who feel that they are enjoying fruitful marriages, what
methods have they utilized to find fulfillment? Do they, as has been suggested in
this study, engage in patriarchal bargains and allocate to their husbands the
largely symbolic title of household head in order to maintain harmony? Or have
they figured out a way to reconcile their careers with their family arrangements in
such a manner that equality and mutuality would be the best descriptors for their
interactions? If a woman is in a mutually empowering marital relationship, what
type of personal qualities do she and her spouse have that make their
arrangement possible and positive?
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Finding the Formula for Success...and Sharing It
As a marriage and family therapist who is also a sociologist, my
professional goal is to make practical use of the information gained from my
research on African American clergywomen. The more I know about the specific
risk factors associated with clergy marriages, the more I will be able to provide
interventions geared first towards preventing and then towards alleviating marital
discord and disruption. Conversely, the more I know about what makes
clergywomen's marriages work to the benefit of the woman as well as the man,
the closer I will be towards finding a stabilizing, harmonizing but still equalizing
formula that can be shared with all African American couples.
People are looking for how to make their career-family choices
compatible. However, many do not simply want to know how they can have it all;
they also want to know how they can enjoy all that they have. My hope is that my
research will help provide a practical guide towards this end.
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Creator Stewart-Thomas, Michelle (author)

Core Title Dual devotions: African American clergywomen and work-family dilemmas

School Graduate School

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Sociology

Degree Conferral Date 2006-08

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Black studies,OAI-PMH Harvest,religion, clergy,sociology, individual and family studies,women's studies

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c17-138043

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Legacy Identifier 3287753.pdf

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Document Type Dissertation

Rights Stewart-Thomas, Michelle

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

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