She Preached the Word: Women's Ordination in Modern America

by Benjamin R Knoll, Cammie Jo Bolin

She Preached the Word is a landmark study of women's ordination in contemporary American congregations. In this groundbreaking work, Benjamin R. Knoll and Cammie Jo Bolin draw upon a novel collection of survey data and personal narrative interviews to answer several important questions, Who supports women's ordination in their congregations? What are the most common reasons for and against women's ordination? What effect do female clergy have on young women and girls, particularly in terms of their psychological, economic, and religious empowerment later in life? How do women clergy affect levels of congregational attendance and engagement among members? What explains the persistent gender gap in America's clergy? Knoll and Bolin find that female clergy do indeed matter, but not always in the ways that might be expected. They show, for example, that while female clergy have important effects on women in the pews, they have stronger effects on theological and political
liberals. Throughout this book, Knoll and Bolin discuss how the persistent gender gap in the wider economic, social, and political spheres will likely continue so long as women are underrepresented in America's pulpits. Accessible to scholars and general readers alike, She Preached the Word is a timely and important contribution to our understanding of the intersection of gender, religion, and politics in contemporary American society.

Genres: Religion

288 pages, Hardcover

Published July 2, 2018

Reviews

[Blair Hodges · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two social scientists try to figure out why 75% of religious Americans say they support ordaining women to leadership while only 1 in 10 actually worship in a place with a woman as the main leader.

What reasons do people give for supporting or opposing women's exercise of religious authority?

What makes someone more or less likely to support women's ordination?

How do women leaders impact women? Men?

Some predictable answers and some not so predictable. I hope to write a nice summary up later. Meantime, I recommend this book.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really appreciated this book reporting on a sociological study of support for and influences of women congregational religious leaders in all major religions across the US. I'll share just a few interesting findings:

Results suggest that having an influential female congregational leader as a girl/youth is associated with higher levels of both personal (including self-esteem) and economic empowerment for women as adults. However, as the authors point out, "men are not disempowered by the presence of female clergy, but women are disempowered by the absence of female clergy in their youth."

Not surprisingly, the vast majority of interviewees/survey respondents hold the same opinions on female ordination as the official policies of their congregations.

In congregations with current female leaders, the large majority of both theological traditionalists and theological modernists support women clergy (i.e. exposure matters).

Predictably, politics also influences this. Conservatives/Republicans were more likely than liberals/Democrats to oppose female ordination, but only in congregations led by men. Meaning that conservatives/Republicans also support female clergy when they are in congregations where they are exposed to it.

[Pam Argot]

I enjoyed the book but I was disappointed that the author didn't talk about first woman in the US who was Antoinette Louise Browns. She was ordained in 1853. Also the author forgot to highlighted that Holiness Church were ordained women in the mid 1800s. The Wesleyan ordained there first woman in 1860.