The Preacher's Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities

by Kate Bowler

From the New York Times bestselling author of Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved, a fascinating look at the world of Christian women celebrities

Since the 1970s, an important new figure has appeared on the center stage of American evangelicalism--the celebrity preacher's wife. Although most evangelical traditions bar women from ordained ministry, many women have carved out unofficial positions of power in their husbands' spiritual empires or their own ministries. The biggest stars--such as Beth Moore, Joyce Meyer, and Victoria Osteen--write bestselling books, grab high ratings on Christian television, and even preach. In this engaging book, Kate Bowler, an acclaimed historian of religion and the author of the bestselling memoir Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved, offers a sympathetic and revealing portrait of megachurch women celebrities, showing how they must balance the demands of celebrity culture and conservative, male-dominated faiths.

Whether standing alone or next to their husbands, the leading women of megaministry play many parts: the preacher, the homemaker, the talent, the counselor, and the beauty. Boxed in by the high expectations of modern Christian womanhood, they follow and occasionally subvert the visible and invisible rules that govern the lives of evangelical women, earning handsome rewards or incurring harsh penalties. They must be pretty, but not immodest; exemplary, but not fake; vulnerable to sin, but not deviant. And black celebrity preachers' wives carry a special burden of respectability. But despite their influence and wealth, these women are denied the most important symbol of spiritual power--the pulpit.

The story of women who most often started off as somebody's wife and ended up as everyone's almost-pastor, The Preacher's Wife is a compelling account of women's search for spiritual authority in the age of celebrity.

Genres: Nonfiction, Religion, History, Christian, Christianity, Audiobook, Womens

368 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2019

About the author

Kate Bowler, PhD is a New York Times bestselling author, podcast host, and a professor at Duke University. She studies the cultural stories we tell ourselves about success, suffering, and whether (or not) we’re capable of change. She is the author of Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel and The Preacher’s Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities.

After being unexpectedly diagnosed with Stage IV cancer at age 35, she penned the New York Times bestselling memoir, Everything Happens for a Reason (and Other Lies I’ve Loved) and her latest, No Cure For Being Human (and Other Truths I Need to Hear). Kate hosts the Everything Happens podcast where, in warm, insightful, often funny conversations, she talks with people like Malcolm Gladwell and Anne Lamott about what they’ve learned in difficult times. She lives in Durham, North Carolina with her family and continues to teach do-gooders at Duke Divinity School.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

My review appears at Fathom Mag

In 2002 Rosaline Wiseman published a book decoding the secret hierarchy of teenage girls. It became a popular read among parents because Wiseman’s research consisted of inviting young girls across the country to describe their social ecosystem. From that research, she developed a taxonomy of the mysterious habitat of teenage girls. Although Queen Bees and Wannabes aimed at helping parents, it gained a much wider readership and even inspired the fictional movie Mean Girls. I read the book as a teenager, not as a parent, and found myself easily thrilled by categorizing every girl I knew. Suddenly I had a map for the land I’d wandered in for years.

I had a similar experience between the pages of Kate Bowler’s new book, The Preacher’s Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities. As a preacher’s wife myself, I did not read it as a spectator, but as an insider. I immediately recognized the opportunities and frustrations Bowler describes. I, too, have wrestled with my own ambition and uncertainty over the roles I’m supposed to play in the conservative spiritual tradition I love.

Bowler begins her book with two questions that frame its aim: “How do women (in the church) learn their spiritual roles? What parts are they allowed to play?” To hear from the women themselves, they describe their rise to celebrity as one of effortless ease, but Bowler deconstructs five repeated themes that allowed for their platforms as evangelical women. She devotes a chapter to each in the form of roles: preacher, homemaker, talent, counselor, and beauty. Her research shows that even in denominations that prohibit ordination for women—perhaps especially in those denominations—women find alternative ways to get on stage. The women Bowler studies created their own opportunities by appealing to both evangelical expectations for women and taking advantage of marketplace demand. If a woman is willing to become what evangelical consumers want, she can gain prestige, brand power, and even wealth.

Is there a place for ambitious women in the church?
In a way, Bowler uses the “preacher’s wife” as an archetype: a sanctioned female evangelical who—through her beauty, talent, homemaking skills, or proximity to power—has influence. Preacher’s wives possess an intrinsically elevated status. They have a built-in audience and often embody what women can aspire to without subverting the authority of their denomination. Michelle Van Loon acknowledges the crux of the issue for many evangelical women: “As ambitious evangelical women haven’t had a clear ladder to climb, those with leadership desires have had to figure out how to vault themselves onto the rungs in American Christian-acceptable ways.” The preacher’s wife offers a vision for the roles available to other women in the congregation, showing the way toward the main stage.

Yet success in the evangelical marketplace comes at the cost of higher expectations, a pitfall noted by several women in their interviews with Bowler. Most notable for me was the story of Jennifer Knapp, a singer-songwriter who became an instant evangelical celebrity—one of my personal favorites—not long after her conversion in college. She found it surprising how her fans expected her to become a poster child for purity culture, so much so that a committee of record studio executives once debated whether a guitar strap across her chest would be too suggestive for an album cover. Such conversations shed light on the unique demands placed on women in the evangelical marketplace.

Bowler packs her book with vividly captured characters, from her detailed portrayal of Tammy Faye Bakker looking “like a scoop of pink sherbet in her matching rose dress and heels” to the unnamed woman who makes a dark joke about conference attendees “just wishing they could get a life-threatening disease right now and write about it.” Evangelical women may not personally relate to all of the chapters, but a contemporary audience is sure to recognize “The Counselor” types—women who “instead of standing on their credentials” choose to “justify their authority on the grounds that they stood on the ultimate foundation of psychological insight—experience.”

Bowler deserves credit for introducing the differing ways these roles play out in diverse congregations, specifically noting how expectations vary for preacher’s wives in historically black churches. Surely her work marks the beginning of exploring how expectations on evangelical women influence a variety of church and parachurch settings. But readers should be aware that she tends to lump together trends across various denominations that may not consider themselves as having much in common, like prosperity churches, evangelical churches, and mainline traditions.

Success with Something to Say
It’s tempting for a researcher to stand at a distance from her subjects, but Bowler gently inserts herself into the narrative. Rather than making dismissive asides about the plight of other women, she recognizes that she is not immune to her categories. Her own experience is a testament to how a personal tragedy can become a boon for a speaking career, as her popular book Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved detailing her stage four cancer diagnosis prompted a flood of speaking invitations. In fact, she begins her book with “A Personal Note” recalling an event where a fellow speaker said, “You’re only famous because you’re dying, right?” Bowler responded, “Actually, it’s because I have something to say.” A woman with any amount of influence may find it uncomfortable to see herself as a beneficiary of the trends Bowler dissects, instead preferring to believe that she, too, is here because she has something to say.

And yet, can any woman really know what factors led to her success? Can any researcher fully determine the strange brew of circumstances that create a following? Surely no woman wants her career reduced to a category, but Bowler asks her readers to acknowledge truths that have perhaps gone unspoken: attributes like musical talent and beauty often provide women with opportunities to be on stage; that spilling secrets about personal tragedies or confessing from the stage can evoke an audience’s trust and build a brand; that women can, and have, leveraged an idealized femininity to increase their status. Perhaps from her own experience, Bowler describes “the great juggling act of female celebrity” as “the double act of perfection and relatability.” There are serious personal costs to public ministry and women would be wise to consider her insight.

What Bowler does not offer are solutions. In fact, she isn’t even clear on which trends she sees as problematic. Instead, she offers a broad, historical interpretation of the ecosystem inhabited by evangelical women across denominational boundaries, one that should spark a great deal of reflection and conversation among women who consume and create content through the evangelical marketplace.

Like my young adult self, I have found Bowler’s categories transforming how I see the culture I both inhabit and observe. I can look around and recognize women who have charted these pre-approved paths to gain a following. But instead of using these labels to dissect the motives of others like I did in high school, I’ve found them instructing me to consider how such pathways to credibility have tempted me. They are less a criticism of ambitious women in the church as they are a warning to ensure that any successful platforms are coupled with actually having something to say.

[Bronwyn Lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, brilliantly researched, and more than a little uncomfortable to read - Bowler has named much of the confusing terrain surrounding christian women leaders and cast light on its shadowy parts.
It was probably beyond the scope of an academic work, but what I found missing from the book was acknowledgement of the inner world and motivation of some of the women described. I don't believe Beth Moore, for example, set out to build an empire or become a celebrity (as the marketplace model might suggest of an entrepreneur). The size of her ministry speaks more to the size of the need than the size of her ambition, and I would have liked to see acknowledgment of possibility that the ministry has grown perhaps even with personal reluctance, or sacrifice, and as steps of obedience or faithfulness (or that it's grown because of the favor of God!) In the absence of a allowing space for generosity of motive, it rather made her (and others) look like opportunists.
Having said that, though - it's a VERY WORTHWHILE and important read, and necessary and helpful milestone in mapping the landscape of women and evangelicalism right now. Very grateful for Bowler's thorough and thoughtful engagement on this topic.

[Gretchen Rubin]

A thought-provoking look at celebrity evangelical women. Elizabeth and I are going to interview Kate Bowler for the Happier podcast, and while her other book (see below) is more directly related to happiness, I found this book fascinating.

[Sarah Powers · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book really brought home for me two things. First, how bizarre and weird and antithetical to traditional faith is the phrase and striving for "celebrity Christian". Secondly, I thought this book was an interesting reflection, though not explicitly stated, on the weird relationship between American Evangelicals, consumerism and capitalism.

[Alisa]

I’ll eat up any sociological look at american evangelical culture. It is fascinating to be able to take a step back and look from the outside in at a subculture that I know myopically well.

I think Bowler did a good job of interviewing and including women from the various sub sub evangelical groups, like Black, Hispanic, and LGBTQ+ celeb women. The names I recognized are from white circles so it was interesting to learn about some of the differences and similarities.

As you might expect, celebrity evangelical women are highly influential for trend shaping, yes, but also for money making. They drive millions of dollars in women’s focused books, conferences, materials, and a more elusive to measure contribution to the perfect wife of a celebrity preacher, who would appear incomplete and untrustworthy without a woman tucked in the crook of his elbow. Their physical image and media presence, Bowler shows, is highly curated to walk the tightrope of aspirational yet not so perfect that they are unrelatable, modern and empowered yet always boasts her primary role is wife-mother-homemaker, stylish and trendy but modest, open and vulnerable but only publicly confesses easily forgivable sins (eg “doubting God” vs say, watching porn). In the end, their influence is borrowed from a male counterpart, like a father or husband, and if that connection is severed, their influence quickly dries up. Bowler makes the point well in the conclusion when she says that the time of women’s leadership has arrived, but the time of women’s leadership in theology hasn’t.

[Robert D. Cornwall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up in the Episcopal Church, which back then didn't ordain women (I had moved on right before they changed the rules), and then joined a church that was part of a denomination founded by a woman (Aimee Semple McPherson), but which had ambivalence about women in leadership (a lot of submission talk). Over time I ended up in a denomination -- the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) -- that has elected as its General Minister two women. I am a married preacher, so my wife could be called a "Preacher's Wife." In other words, the topic of Kate Bowler's book titled "The Preacher's Wife" caught my eye (thanks Kelly Hughes for the review copy).

The subtitle of the book is instructive: "The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities." In evangelical circles, women face the challenge of navigating barriers that most women in Mainline circles don't have to deal with (at least not in the same way). That said, many evangelical women have found ways of exercising influence even though power might be circumscribed. It's not an easy life, and it's easy to criticize from outside. Fortunately, Kate Bowler writes about this topic with a great deal of empathy. We see in the text how Bowler, who is an Associate Professor of the History of Christian in North America, spends time getting to know some of the persons she features in the book, helping us understand their realities. It's not always pretty. She also writes from a bit of experience growing up in conservative Mennonite circles where women were taught to submit to male leadership. Added into this work is her own experience of becoming a woman celebrity after the publication of her memoir about her cancer. So she writes: "Celebrity Christian women must live in the ambiguity of competing claims on their lives." There is the spiritual need to transcend worldly concerns while being "products of institutional and cultural expectations with long-standing customs and prescriptions as well as a marketplace propelled by an exacting pragmatism that presses them toward results-driven metrics and messages." (pp. xii-xiii).

The title of the book reminds us that in evangelical circles the pinnacle of power for women likely involves being the wife of the senior pastor. Sometimes she might have a very visible platform -- Victoria Osteen -- or she may be in the background, perhaps serving as producer of the show. Often she will be the leader of the women's ministry of the church. Very few women make it to the top on their own.

The focus of the book is on women who are involved in mega-ministries, primarily megachurches -- churches over 2000 in membership. The roles women play in these ministries differ from tradition. So, in Southern Baptist life women are not allowed to serve as pastors. In prosperity churches, they tend to have a prominent role standing by with their husband as co-pastor (though still focused on women's ministry). There are a few women who venture out beyond the congregation, but many like Beth Moore speak predominantly to women audiences (Beth Moore has been in the news later because John McArthur told her to go home). Ironically Moore is probably the best known Southern Baptist bible teacher, but she can't be ordained! So, what we have here, as Bowler notes is an "exploration of the public lives of America's Christian female celebrities." (p. 5).

One thing that Bowler brings out is that white evangelical women have circumscribed roles, they have done a better job of marketing themselves. Besides Barbara Brown Taylor, who Bowler notes shy away from public life, there are few Mainliners who one could say are celebrities. Few if any fill arenas like Beth Moore or Joyce Meyer. So, here is their story laid out for all to see.

The chapters being with "The Preacher." The opening lines introduce us to Beth Moore, the biggest name among evangelicals -- at least among women. We encounter Joyce Meyer, a prosperity preacher who draws huge audiences and sells tons of books. This leads to the question, what is the proper role for women in ministry. What kinds of institutional power are allowed? This chapter explores the question of women in leadership, including ordination. She notes that women have been elected to leadership as heads of Protestant mainline churches (Sharon Watkins was the first in 2005). Nevertheless, few mainliners have made it in the marketplace (Nadia Bolz Weber being one of the few).

This conversation leads to the next, to the role of women as "homemaker." This is the traditional role. The dutiful wife who stands by her husband's side. In this chapter, Dorothy Patterson, wife of Paige Patterson, stands out. Though she has a Ph.D. in theology, she used her influence in SBC circles to reinforce the image of homemaker, going so far as to wear hats as a sign of her submission to her husband. This chapter explores the reaction to feminism in western culture, how traditional roles were reinforced and how women like Phyllis Schafly and Beverly LaHaye led the effort to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment. At the same time, in evangelical circles, the rise of "women's ministry" was seen. This emerged in part as women's mission societies disappeared. Whereas women once organized to evangelize the world, new ministries emerged that were focused on the home, on domesticity. It is here that the role of co-pastor arises. In some circles, the preacher's wife was given the title co-pastor with the responsibility of organizing the women's ministries. Her role was in a sense sanctified by her husband's leadership (some circles call this "covering."

Chapter three focuses on "The Talent." This is where celebrity really comes into play. We encounter people like Tammy Faye Baker and Jan Crouch, who play significant roles in the TV empires that they founded with their husbands. These women moved from behind the scenes to the mainstage. It's a generational thing in many ways. Then there are the gospel stars, like Mahalia Jackson and Aretha, along with CeCe Winans and my many more, who were known for their music. The earliest stars were African American, but then the "pop princesses" emerged, women like Amy Grant (whose own story of rise and fall is intriguing) and Rebecca St. James. These women were talented and beautiful (beauty is a key element in this story). Music and stardom, these created avenues for women.

Chapter four -- The Counselor -- is intriguing. There is an appetite among evangelical women for stories of vulnerability. Women speakers, most without any credentials, tell their stories of emerging out of bad situations, often abuse or addiction. Bowler writes "by the 1990s, the most famous Christian women in ministry were famous not for what they had accomplished, but for what they had endured." (p. 155). They gathered crowds and sold books, but at what cost? This is a rather sad chapter, but an important one. Self-disclosure has its role, but when does it go too far?

Beauty is an important attribute in these circles. Physical attractiveness plays a significant role in mega-ministry. Women must navigate difficult pathways, where they combine modesty (no cleavage or short skirts) with attractiveness. This chapter reminded me of my high school days when in our church the young women were being taught how to use makeup to beautify themselves while at the same time not causing us guys to stumble. It's a difficult road to walk. Concern for weight is also part of this story, for Christian women should be "slim for him." In other words, if your man wanders, you are at fault for you have let yourself go. Thus, it's not surprising that among the women celebrities were the winners of beauty pageants, including Miss America. In these circles it is difficult to be single -- why can't you get a man? You must stay "forever young" -- something difficult for all of us!

Women have found ways of being present and even "succeeding" but is it sustainable? Men continue to dominate and women have few opportunities to move beyond standing her by her man. Some have risen to the top, but as Amy Butler discovered, even in the most progressive of churches, it can be difficult to be a woman in leadership -- thus, she resigned (something that occurred after the book went to press). In other words, though Bowler concludes with the story of Butler putting on Harry Emerson Fosdick's robes and declaring that they fit, maybe they didn't fit as perfectly as she had thought. So, even in progressive circles women struggle to find their way.

I found the book fascinating. In part that is due to my fascination with Aimee Semple McPherson, who pioneered celebrity in the 1920s, and used it to found a denomination. Because of my background in circles like the ones described, I know many of these stories, or at least their foundations. Then, there is my role as a male pastor -- what is my responsibility to encourage women to break through the glass ceiling?

Overall I loved the book, though I found parts of the story to be sad and disturbing. But then that should be expected from a book like this. Bowler writes well -- after all she wrote a best-selling memoir. So the book is accessible, even though it is a scholarly work. There are a few points I might quibble about. One has to do with the classification of Cynthia Hale. She is listed here as pastor of a "pentecostalized historic black church" rather than as a mainline pastor. I understand that she may have a charismatic bent, but she is an ordained Disciples of Christ pastor and her church is one of the largest in my denomination. So, I wondered about that. In her timeline in one of the appendixes, she lists important points along the way for women in ministry but neglects to list Sharon Watkins's election in 2005 as General Minister of the Disciples, the first woman to lead a mainline Protestant denomination. This oversight may be linked to the smallness of my denomination, which may explain the classification of Cynthia Hale. These are small things, but for me they are important. Nevertheless, this is a most worthy book to be explored. It succeeds in large part because Bowler writes with empathy for the women who populate this story.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This felt like an expose of much of Christian culture for the last 40 years (in the USA) and what we’ve expected our women speakers and writers to do—sometimes without pay and increasingly in an insecure economy. Ironic that places where women are allowed to have authority (mainline churches) they don’t have celebrity but the places like conservative circles which don’t allow female authority the women with influence frequently have to pander.

[Cara Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Needed this little gulp of theological nerdiness, because who doesn’t need to understand the precarious power of evangelical women celebrities?

[Bethany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. Relevant. At times heartbreaking. Impeccably researched. When women have a glass ceiling created by religious structures, they get creative: there’s no absence of power and influence, it’s just achieved by different means.

I appreciated the exploration of how this culture of evangelical women celebrities doesn’t exclusively extend to white women, but also to other races and genders (including a story of how life changed for a male church leader who transitioned to a woman). This tells me there’s so much more to explore on this subject, and it’s changing with our culture.

Dense, but highly recommended, especially if you have a little research nerd in you.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Preacher's Wife Kate Bowler explores how women in evangelical churches and circles have managed to carve out their own place in the world of the evangelical celebrity. While most evangelical churches don't allow women to be in positions of authority, many of the women in this book have managed to circumvent that rule, at least on the surface. But, because their power hinges on the men in their lives, that power is precarious and the double-standards and rules for women are overwhelming. Bowler explores the various ways evangelical women's precarious power plays out - the preacher, the homemaker, the talent, the counselor, and the beauty, but almost never in the pulpit or leading an entire church. The Preacher's Wife is meticulously researched, yet very readable. It took me longer than it should have to get through this book because it was also a hard read in a lot of ways. In the evangelical church there are two views of women: egalitarian (men and women are equal in all ways) and complementarian (belief that God has ordained men as the head of the family and the church and women cannot lead men in any way). I am firmly in the egalitarian camp, but I'm also an evangelical Christian. Reading about how so many evangelical churches continue to treat women as second class Christians is just hard to read for me. I truly don't understand why Christian women would work so hard to keep themselves in a lesser position when I do NOT believe that is what God intends for us. But, Bowler does a great job with this topic and it is very eye-opening. I'm hopeful that in another few decades we'll look back and see how evangelical women have made more strides in equality within the Church.

Some quotes I liked:

"For women, this is an era of almost - almost feminist, almost patriarchal, almost progressive, and almost regressive - and in these pages we hold the prism of their experiences up to the light. The lives of public women invite us to ask again what Americans expect from women in the spotlight; and whether they will ever grow used to women's presence in the main seats of power, in the pulpit, in the corner office, or in the White House. The women of megaministry are exceptional, but they are not simply exceptions. They are religious reflections of almost-mythic American ideals of women as wives and mothers, pillars and martyrs, in a culture divided over whether women should lean in or opt out." (p. 16)

"The roles of wife and mother took on a decidedly populist tone in Christian circles with the campaign to stop the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). In 1970, the National Organization for Women (NOW), founded by Betty Friedan, stepped up public pressure to amend the American constitution to include a ban on sex discrimination. Within two years the House of Representatives and the Senate had adopted an amendment that then had to be ratified by thirty-eight states. But by the mid-1970s, a vocal and well-organized STOP ERA effort effectively made celebrities out of two women who professionalized their roles as politically savvy mothers. Phyllis Schlafly, a lawyer and Catholic mother of six, found the Eagle Forum, and Beverly LaHaye, mother of four and wife of famous pastor Tim LaHaye, launched the Concerned Women for America..." (p. 73)

"'It's part of why our church doesn't allow husbands and wives to be on staff together. I think it's been a great thing because it prevents too much power from being concentrated in one place. It's also our rule that only one person from every family can be on staff, so a son can't be on the same board as his father, for instance.' Many of the largest non-denominational churches, especially from prosperity gospel traditions, did not have strong governing institutions outside of the pastoral family, and, as Donna [of Westover Church in Greensboro, NC] observed, this policy asked a great deal from both husband and wife." (p. 108)

"A counseling degree offered women in evangelical contexts a large measure of freedom. These degrees, or corresponding degrees in social work, qualified them for work in a variety of roles, from religious schools, private practice, children and family services, hospitals, and funeral homes to homeless shelters. In a congregational setting, the work of counseling did not seem to trigger the same concerns around authority and oversight." (p. 171)

"As bearers of children, women's bodies are gatekeepers of life and death. In a culture largely reluctant to make news of miscarriage and stillbirth public, women's ministries became a sanctuary for the enormous range of emotions that arise when some lives begin and others end...The separate sphere of women's ministry was opened to reveal a place of holy sorrow." (p. 179-80)

"Likewise, Beverly LaHaye initially felt sorry for a woman being berated by her husband for looking tired on a date, but then sympathized with the husband for not having a wife with a little more pride in herself. 'What a pity to see a Christian woman who has developed her inner beauty but has done nothing to the frame she must house it in,' she fretted. The common argument given was that men were visual creatures, which made women's appearance a part of her wifely duties. Her beauty and sexuality were not her own...[and when male pastors cheated or pursued infidelity] There was always a woman to blame for a man who strayed." (p. 222-23)

"On a more basic level, these concerns about dangerous sexuality made it difficult for women to operate in ministry without fear of the 'appearance of evil,' a commonly used extra-biblical phrase to indict unsupervised male-female interaction. Though women were lauded as keepers of the home, they were often treated as temptresses. Take, for instance, the common practice of refusing to allow a man and a woman to be unchaperoned. Billy Graham famously made it a policy that he would never be alone with a woman other than his wife...However, in practice, it had two significant effects. First, the consequence of sex-segregated spaces was that women would find it very different to gain powerful mentors...Secondly, it sexualized interactions between the genders." (p. 227)

"As we have seen in each chapter, the heights to which Christian celebrity women could rise depended on their ability to master the rules of complementarianism and capitalism, finding financial stability without appearing to be theologically overreaching. Women found a public voice in credentialing themselves as wives, mothers, and homemakers. From Elisabeth Elliot to Joanna Gaines, audiences rewarded those who opened the door to let them into their famously Christian homes. The title of 'wife and mom' was so powerful that even the popular writer Rachel Held Evans was rejected by a Christian publisher on the grounds that, since she was not yet a mother, she could not write authoritatively about Christian womanhood." (p. 243)

[When Beth Moore responded to the Donald Trump audio tape of "grab 'em by the pussy."] "She [Tweeted]: 'Try to absorb how acceptable the disesteem and objectifying of women has been when some Christian leaders don't think it's that big a deal. I'm one among many women sexually abused, misused, stared down, heckled, talked naughty to. Like we liked it. We didn't. We're tired of it.'...For her boldness, she was asked by male evangelical leaders to repent, and she was deserted by some of her female supporters. Attendance at her events dropped, and some women swore they would never buy another of her bible studies again." (p. 245-46)

[Dru Lattin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bowler's carefully focused, but not altogether unbiased survey of women caught in the spotlight of ministry is essential for folks seeking to make sense of how the Western church got to where it is today. Making connections between celebrity, male dominance, gender theology, mass media, and purity culture, her keen historian's eye is a welcome addition to this field.

Three stars is not intended to damn this work with faint praise - this is a good book! But the topic is fairly niche, and her straightforward acceptance of LGBTQIA+ communities as legitimate in the church will offend some that would do well to engage with the topics she raises. I was left a bit off-balance by her shift back and forth between mainline, affirming churches and conservative evangelical churches. Again, I think the approach is valid, but it does take a nimbleness of thinking that I am still working on.

Essential reading for those who are doing a deep dive; for those starting in these topics, consider The Making of Biblical Womanhood or Jesus and John Wayne. For a theological, rather than primarily historical survey, I still think Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood is unrivaled.

Finally, I will forever love the first book I read from Bowler, Blessed. Check it out if you have the chance.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Life-altering
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Must-read
⭐⭐⭐ Good-to-read
⭐⭐ Not really worth reading
⭐ Not really worth the paper it was printed on

[Laura Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kate Bowler is so cool.

[Ethan Zimmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

An accessible and engaging foray into Kate Bowler's academic work. Very interesting and thought provoking anthropological study.

[Janay Cyphers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating. Love Kate Bowler's work.

[Melody Schwarting · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sheer level of research that Kate Bowler does astonishes me. She's venturing into fields that are not yet well-documented by other historians; she and Joshua Young have staggering amounts of data backing up their findings; and many of her studies are so contemporary they're hardly historical. (Was 2016 only 4 years ago? Still processing the march of time.)

Bowler's work is worth a skim for anyone who wants to think critically about evangelical celebrity culture (think "Who’s In Charge of the Christian Blogosphere?" by Tish Harrison Warren for Christianity Today). The Preacher's Wife contains a lot of pictures and interviews, which makes it fun to read. Examples are wide-ranging: my thesis subject, Angelina Grimké and her Appeal to Christian Women of the South, get a mention as an early example of evangelical female celebrity; Grimké was the first woman to address a US legislative body, and she and her sister Sarah were prominent abolitionists whose decision to speak in public led to the expected amount of masculine displeasure at the audacity of women speaking in public. But I digress.

Bowler puts to words what many of us have felt about being a Christian woman, and she backs it up with historical research. Beauty, vulnerability/authenticity, gender roles, and more get detailed examinations with examples of women whose "personal brand" dealt with those topics. However, Bowler's work is so fresh that she doesn't pause for lengthy reflections and analysis; it's mostly a collection of data, interviews, stories, and more, without a lot of critical synthesis. I don't find this to be a detraction from her work. As a historian I can sit with it more comfortably than a reader approaching The Preacher's Wife expecting to find some analytical nugget to discuss. Bowler's work answers "what's going on here?" rather than "what does it all mean?" She documents the phenomenon rather than analyzes it.

I'd heard from some readers that she didn't look at "good" examples of celebrity, which implies that the choice examples are "bad," but I didn't find that to be the case. Beth Moore, Christy Nockels, and other contemporary female leaders that I respect (even if I don't wholeheartedly agree with them on everything) are treated with dignity. Their own voices are given ample space in interviews. Bowler doesn't make moral judgments about leaders who've fallen from grace, respecting all of her subjects, even when her personal opinions about women's conferences that market makeovers are implicit.

The Preacher's Wife has given me food for thought about a lot of things, and I'm looking forward to mulling it over while keeping an eye on famous female figures in evangelicalism.

[Kirsten Kroeker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I greatly disliked this book - not the author's writing, or anything she could have changed - but the research findings and facts as they were presented. I think I was hoping more for a "rebel girls of the church"-style book, acknowledging the scarcity of female leaders in evangelicalism but pointing out all the places they'd had an impact regardless. Instead, it was a disappointing trajectory of one step forward, a dozen steps back as the church reacted against the culture and sought to put women in their place, so to speak. I think Bowler did a remarkable job narrating this trajectory, identifying key players, turning points and cultural triggers along the way. She was thorough in her research and writes her findings in an accessible way. I may not like the story, but I think it's an important one, and one that Bowler tells well.

I was disappointed with the cynicism (though it was often warranted) in the tidbits shared, often more about women's fight for survival in an arena where there was no welcome, than about hearts for the gospel and gifts of leadership, vision, preaching or such. Yet I was also impacted by the empathy in the stories about women doing their best in a difficult space to navigate. As a strictly academic endeavour, the emphasis was more on the platform, recognition or success women have had in the spotlight (mega-churches and media) of the evangelical movement than on their spiritual impact, advancing the gospel or meaningful ministries. Those are likely harder to study, but it left me wanting to hear that side of the story as well.

The result: to be a woman in significant leadership in the evangelical church, you need to be on the prosperity-gospel train, be the wife/daughter of a pastor/evangelical leader, be perfect yet relatable, attractive yet asexual, wear fashions a few decades behind mainstream culture, refer often to your "spiritual covering" (husband, father, spiritual mentor - so long as they are male), downplay (or don't have) any credentials and don't expect equal (or often, any) financial reimbursement for your lifetime of ministry. Of course there are outliers, but it was shocking to read the stats and watch the trends over the past century.

At the same time, men faced major barriers in their ministries without the faithful, supportive wife figure standing prominently in the background. Bowler paints a complex picture of what it means to be a women in the spotlight in the evangelical church and you can't help but pity anyone who finds themselves there.

Here's hoping these next few decades will launch a sequel with something to celebrate. In the meantime I am both thankful for the ministries of some leading women who have had a significant impact on my own life, and a little disillusioned with others who loved the platform more than they loved the Lord.

[Catherine McNiel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an important book, and I want everyone to read it. It shows how patriarchy has impacted both the church and women (who make up half the church). The focus isn't actually on Preacher's wives, but on the ways women in conservative Evangelical churches are kept from having institutional influence so instead find ways to influence in the marketplace... and all the trouble that comes before and after.

These dynamics are very real and deeply problematic, and this book is well-researched and presented. However, I felt that the wording in the book often subtly indicated that the responsibility lay with the women and not the structures of power. For example, the chapters have titles like the talent, the counselor, the beauty... in other words, putting those women at the center. The dynamic would shift slightly if the chapters were called talent, counsel, beauty ... In other words, putting the dynamics at the center. The many, many Evangelical women are presented two dimensionally, and we don't get a chance to see much of what happened under the surface to bring them where they are. The irony is, that this book is intended to highlight precisely those dynamics.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 // It’s important to note what this book is and what it is not. If you’re looking for a biblical argument for or against women in church leadership, then this is not your book.

However, this book IS a fascinating historical and sociological look at women in ministry from about the 1960s onward. Bowler is thorough and admirably covers a wide range of denominations and experiences (multiple ethnicities too!) I appreciated the respect that she showed all the women she interviewed, no matter if they were a prosperity gospel leader or conservative TGC writer.

The connections she makes between consumerism, celebrity, and power in both the complementarian and egalitarian camps is exactly the area of study I’ve been nerding out in lately. And a much needed commentary on today’s evangelical subculture.

[Alle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as I anticipated. The writing style was fine but I struggled to find the point… the book concluded without any specific call to action, it simply pointed out the issues we already acknowledge and then essentially summarized with “well this stinks”. I also didn’t like the lack of research on why these women acted how they did. Any basic foray into evangelicalism will show you they were often (though not always) complicit in taking the back seat.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much of this book is what I have lived and experienced growing up in American evangelical and Pentecostal culture in the 1990’s. It was uncomfortable for me to remember in many parts, and yet there glimpses of hope and equality laced throughout.

[Alex Strohschein · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the early days of Christianity to the present, women have been instrumental in the life of the Church. St. Paul writes to his protege Timothy “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you” (2 Tim. 1:5); Timothy’s faith was dependent upon his female family members instructing him in the ways of Jesus. From Timothy’s time to our present, women have served faithfully as mentors, "prayer warriors," missionaries, evangelists, and inspiring performers, even as they have had to contend with patriarchs who seek to limit and even silence women from speaking and teaching authoritatively.

This "struggle of the sexes" continues into modern times and in The Preacher's Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities, historian Kate Bowler explores how evangelical women navigated and negotiated their influence in Protestant Christian America. Each chapter relates to a particular role that evangelical women are known for - the preacher, the homemaker, the talent, the counselor, and the beauty - and features a charming array of images, many from the cover of leading evangelical magazines such as "Today's Christian Woman." Bowler aptly describes how these evangelical women were idealized:

"As icons of the middle class, these women were expected to embody its trials and triumphs. They must be hard-working but not competitive, polished but not fussy, wholesome but not perfect. And as famous women, they must do what all famous women do and pretend to be average, subject to the acid test of ‘relatability.’ Their stories should be peppered with mishaps—they broke the eggs bagging their own groceries, put their shirts on inside-out, and ruined their children’s Halloween costumes” (p. 13)

In the first chapter, Bowler dives into the pulpit, which may be the most contentious space for Protestant women in the Church. Although Protestant mainline denominations feature well-known female ministers, including the tattooed Lutheran “pastrix” Nadia Bolz-Weber and the revered Episcopalian priest and preacher Barbara Brown Taylor, the Protestant mainline did not initially welcome female ministers; in a curious historical reversal, the liberal denominations that balked at female ordination in the early twentieth century have come to overwhelmingly embrace female ministers while some of the conservative, revivalist denominations that had once been home to renowned female evangelists such as Phoebe Palmer and Aimee Semple McPherson gradually saw a decline in the number of female ministers (p. 38). The conservative resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention in the late twentieth century is further proof of women with pastoral gifts being denied the pulpit. This has often resulted in women who grew up evangelical becoming disillusioned with conservative Protestantism; in order to fully exercise their gifts, they are forced to depart their childhood denomination and move into the Protestant mainline, embracing liberal theology and social views and empathizing with other downtrodden groups (though there are evangelical denominations which support women’s ordination, particularly pentecostal and charismatic churches). Bowler states that “Female clergy, perhaps because of a sense of marginalization, have reported a greater sense of identification with African Americans and immigrants in their ministry than male clergy and have expressed a level of support for liberation theology, inclusive language, marriage equality, and abortion rights that was higher than that of men clergy (p. 42-43).

Additionally, Bowler explains how liberal and conservative Protestants divided in the mid-twentieth century, writing “postwar mainline Protestantism was united in its vision of the clergy as a highly learned figure with a ‘rational authority,’ rather than a person with charismatic authority centered on special gifts and personal talents. These priorities were echoed in mainline seminary coursework, which typically emphasized the study of scripture, theology, history, and pastoral care of the laity rather than the kinds of skills that engendered the entrepreneurship that was second nature to evangelicalism’s culture of Christian celebrity” (p. 49). Conservative evangelicals were populists, attracting a wider segment of the American public while liberal Protestants embraced scholarship and opted for influence among cultural elites (what has Billy Graham to do with William Sloane Coffin?), but theological liberals were also quicker to accept changes to gender roles, including opening up space for female clergy..

Women face other barriers to work in the Church. In many conservative denominations, women cannot teach or have authority over men; they cannot be an elder or deacon, let alone the lead pastor. Given that the average church congregation has roughly eighty people, many congregations are too small to have more than one church employee and thus by default, the sole staff member is typically male because he (supposedly) needs no oversight from the opposite sex (p. 58-59). Some women in egalitarian churches have “pastor” in their job title but many complementarian churches list female employees as “associate” or “director” of family or children’s ministry; these women are functionally pastors but complementarian legalism prevents them from receiving the title of pastor. Women on church staff are also often assigned to gendered work; it is much more common to see a female pastor of children’s ministry than a female executive or lead pastor (p. 60).

The next chapter, “The Homemaker,” focuses on women as the centre of the domestic sphere and family life. These women were content to remain at home, attending to household duties, raising their children, and instilling “family values” in both their loved ones and in the wider public at large, just as the culture was beset by divorce, abortion, and the liberalization of social mores. Bowler remarks that many women of this period “were one of two kinds of wives— women like Phyllis Schlafly, who billed themselves as mothers and housewives at the same time as they led causes outside the home, and women like Beverly LaHaye, the spouses of famous pastors who parlayed their fame into a new kind of career: the professional wife. The most formidable conservative female opponents of the feminist cause would say that they were nothing special, only a wife and a mother. But this language had taken on extraordinary power, particularly when it applied to a woman who knew how to stand by her man” (p. 79). One of the most contested teachings in the Bible is on women and “submission.” Bowler recounts how leading conservative evangelical women “Each...had her own brand of submission: Beverly LaHaye’s was political; Anita Bryant’s was bubbly; and Elisabeth Elliot’s was poetic as ever, even in the way she called the sexes ‘gloriously and radically unequal’” (p.81). Feminists objected to conservative notions of “submission” and implored women to take up careers in the public sphere in order to escape the domestic drudgery of the housewife.

Women once played a leading role in missions, both at home and overseas (one need only think of the likes of Amy Carmichael and Sophia Blackmore). At home, women administered the missionary organizations while overseas, female (often single) missionaries enjoyed remarkable independence from male overseers (women often have greater access to potential converts than men do, especially in cultures with sharply gendered spaces such as in the Middle East). Female missionary work was once regarded as a commendable position for Christian women. However, as women in the West moved into the public sphere to work, this led to the decline of women volunteering in ministry; with a 9-5 job at the office, they no longer had the time or the energy to serve in churches the same way their foremothers had done in the immediate postwar period and the reins of missions organizations were picked up by men who enacted policies aimed at curbing the freedom female missionaries had. Fundamentalists and conservative Protestants were often concerned that female missionaries, evangelizing in exotic lands and under harsh conditions, were doing work more suitable for men. Meanwhile, megachurch wives, who publicly epitomized femininity, began creating “women’s ministries” for their female church members, which also siphoned off resources from female mission work by focusing attention on the local congregation. (p. 84-90). Bowler remarks that Elisabeth Ellliot herself symbolized this shift; early in life she served as a missionary among the Quichua (the same indigenous people that killed her first husband) but as she grew older, she became more renowned for books on womanhood and dating such as Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under God’s Control (p. 89-90).

The third chapter deals with women as “the talent.” By this, Bowler refers to women who became influential due to their presence in front of the camera and on stage. This chapter reads as a series of profiles of interesting female televangelists and entertainers, including the famous and entrepreneurial founder of Eternal Word Television Network Mother Angelica, gospel star CeCe Winans, and contemporary Christian music stars such as Amy Grant, Rebecca St. James, and Jennifer Knapp. Many of these female performers became household names in evangelical homes, but they faced patronizing chaperoning from conservative church leaders and had their affairs arranged by male managers.

Women are often perceived as being more intuitive, nurturing, and gracious than men (which is probably true!). This makes them ideal as “counselors” or the even vaguer “life coach” (p.173-74). Women adopted this role less through professionalization and more through experience. Bowler explains that conservative Protestantism embraced the same psychological jargon that had filtered into popular culture and that this created an opening for women “to justify their authority on the grounds that they stood on the ultimate foundation of psychological insight - experience. Female celebrities billed themselves as veterans of life itself” (p. 154-55). Bowler continues “Very few women in Christian megaministry were credentialed counselors or therapists. But almost all acted as if they were. They gave advice on a wide range of topics, from self-esteem, healthy relationships, emotional management, and marital bliss to overcoming anxiety and depression. They boldly ventured into the dark recesses of the mind, crafting solutions for even the most severe mental illnesses that in fact required professional, medical intervention. More than this, they stood in front of thousands of listeners and unburdened their souls. And despite their posture as the counselor not the counseled, they whispered their deepest shames into the microphone” (p. 155).

Though questionable, these evangelical women were simply following in the footsteps of earlier female advice columnists such as Dorothy Dix who regularly fielded questions about a variety of different issues. For this pioneering generation of advice columnists, “Their ability to relate to their listeners or readers was deemed more important than esoteric knowledge...The everywoman was an expert” (p. 160). As well, there were some women serving in churches who did have professional counseling degrees and this offered them “a large measure of freedom. These degrees, or corresponding degrees in social work, qualified them for work in a variety of roles, from religious schools, private practice, children and family services, hospitals, and funeral homes to homeless shelters. In a congregational setting, the work of counseling did not seem to trigger the same concerns around authority and oversight. After all, in the sacred walls of the church, the titles like ‘pastor’ and ‘counselor’ did not compete with one another” (p. 171).

The well-publicized failures of televangelism’s male stars generated distrust towards many pastoral figures. Viewers had invited Jim Bakker and Robert Tilton into their homes only to see these spiritual authorities fall into scandal and sin. As Bowler writes, “In a world grown cynical from the hypocrisy of evangelical preachers, the answer was ministries that would highlight the failings of the speaker, rather than polish the tarnished brass covering of the feet of clay. The new saints of megaministry would prosper by confessing that they were never saints at all” (165). Female evangelical speakers wrote books and hosted conferences aimed at relieving their fellow sisters in the faith of feelings of shame, powerlessness, insufficiency, using their own struggles and triumphs as vulnerable, inspirational narratives. Many of these speakers had experienced heartbreak, divorce, severe illness, abrupt career change, or serious loss. In a remarkably telling anonymous confession “A popular pentecostal evangelist, who asked not to be named, offered the most helpful analysis: ‘Well, the first book can talk about a wild life before conversion. Then there is the initial crisis book where something has gone terribly wrong. Then there is a deepening in faith book where the problem is pretty small by comparison, but it serves as a teaching tool. And then, if you are still in ministry by mid-life, there is always a curveball that you can write about. Like an illness or a marital problem. That amounts to a crisis in your 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s’” (p. 190).

The last chapter is on woman as “the beauty” in which Bowler navigates the tricky terrain of physical attractiveness among evangelical women. Bowler’s exploration ranges from the crassness of Christian reality TV (“First Lady Ivy Couch of The Sisterhood was first introduced to audiences when her husband gave her a pair of handcuffs for some marital recreation; and Pastor Ben Tankard, whose prosperity-preaching family ministry was featured on the reality show Thicker Than Water, loved to joke about his sexy wife, Jewel, swinging from the chandeliers”), to entrepreneurial women such as Jen Hatmaker and Joanna Gaines who created their own brands, to female Christian fitness gurus who wanted to ensure that their bodies were worthy temples for the Lord. Conservative Christian women often found themselves in conflict with mainstream feminism; the former preached the comfort of domesticity and family values while the latter lauded women’s entrance into the public workforce and urged women to throw off traditional restraints. Yet Bowler explains that “The most powerful symbol of the culture wars against feminism was the satisfied housewife, the woman who knew her place in the kitchen and the bedroom. And no one advertised that contentment better than Marabel Morgan in The Total Woman, a runaway hit that earned national press coverage and a spot on the New York Times bestsellers list. Her famous advice to spice a marriage up by wearing nothing but Saran Wrap was echoed by a generation of other conservative women who, by innuendo or proclamation, communicated that they practiced what they preached. ‘Jim never knows if I’m going to be a redhead, a blonde, or a brunette,’ said Tammy Faye Bakker brazenly” (p. 220).


The Preacher’s Wife is a stimulating study of the various roles evangelical women play in their subculture. Bowler writes sympathetically about her subjects, relying on many interviews and providing copious endnotes. It’s hard to include everything in a single book but I wish Bowler had mentioned the Junia Project in her chapter on the preacher. Some of the women in the most precarious positions are those who champion women’s ordination on the one hand (viewed as progressive by conservative Christians) while remaining committed to biblical orthodoxy when it comes to issues of sexual morality (viewed as conservative by theological liberals). All in all, this book is a well written history of women’s roles in Protestant churches over the last four-five decades.

[Jenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

How much did I love this book? I highlighted the very first sentence of the pre-introduction. I highlighted and marked up (my kindle!) every single chapter. I even highlighted parts of the acknowledgements.

I grew up a southern baptist preacher's daughter and long-lived in the evangelical world that has strict rules and (small) departments women are allowed to "lead" in. It is a song and a dance and a mental gymnastics I am all too familiar with- that I have even mastered on some levels. Once, my mom was asking me why a bunch of my millennial girl-friends wanted to be "Christian speakers."

"What are they gonna speak about? What have they done? They just wanna go to a random conference and talk about Jesus?" (As a trained journalist, this did not make sense to her.)

"Maybe they just want to be preachers..." I guessed. "But they're not allowed."

That conversation was years ago, and we have often re-visited it with inquisitive and heated debates, mostly surrounded with the fatal question: why is it like this? This book holds the answers.

In five chapters, Kate Bowler highlights the roles that Christian women "get" to play in the (mostly evangelical) church-sphere: the preacher (wife), the homemaker, the talent, the counselor, and the beauty. She puts figures and numbers (my favorite!) to showcase how women are awarded less than their male ministerial counterparts in authority, education, pay, and privilege. She lays out the complicated, ever-changing formula for women to get (and keep) influence in the Christian-sphere.

I could tell stories about things in my church-raised past that made me wonder, or question, or roll my eyes. And while reading this, they all came back as an "Aha" moment: a piece of the puzzle I long needed to put together some understanding to the things I was taught.

I hope young women like me read this book. I hope male pastors read this book. I hope moms and dads and small group leaders and anyone who has influence over young girls in churches reads this book. It is important and true and necessary.

[Gizzard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed listening to this book, but I'm not sure I got a whole lot out of it. Criticism up front, in parts of this book, i got whiplash from the transitions between subjects. There were several times when i thought i missed a section of the book because the book just jumped to something completely different or went on a tangent about a specific woman.

This book discusses the way women participate in the ministry when current Christian dogma says they aren't allowed to be preachers. The book was published by an academic press, and if this book was a class, it would be "a survey" type class. It starts and ends with preacher's wives.

In between the book focuses on musicians, teachers, and the women who are on the speakers' circuit, some with tremendous influence. Although I didn't feel like I learned anything new about most of the women, even if I was learning about women's place. All sections touch on the constraints of being submissive to men. There are lesser discussions on the even more difficult paths for black women and people who are LGBT.

[Singer_of_Stories · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and challenging. A good look at the current role of women in American megachurches and the history of how they came to be in those roles. There were times listening through this book when I felt very heard and seen as many of the pressures I’ve experienced (in non-megachurch situations) were clearly articulated and explained. The book raises important questions: is the only role of women in ministry the role of wife, talent, counselor, or beauty (and occasionally pastor depending on the denomination but normally unpaid pastor’s wife with a million responsibilities)? And if not, what is women’s role in the church beyond women’s and children’s ministry, wife, or the rare missionary? Answering those questions, however, was outside of the book’s scope and will require readers to do their own research and arrive at their own conclusions.

[John Pawlik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly eye-opening and insightful book. It threw me into a world of complicated ministries I would never have had any insights into. Kate Bowler gives incredible insight into the particular realities and challenged faced by women who have chiseled out positions of authority in evangelical and other circles where they wouldn’t normally have existed, explores why conservative women seem even more able to gain a massive ministry following with more restrictions, and details the various way in which women with great talents for speaking and writing (and many other talents) have made ministry opportunities for themselves and the challenges they faced.

Accessibly written and very helpful.

[Thomas Creedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliantly written, entertaining book. Should cause some of us to have a good hard think. A few minor niggles but as a piece of theological storytelling/church history, it is excellent. Bowler manages to write well without belittling her subjects and holds the reality and hypocrisy of American evangelicalism up for the reader to examine.

[Katherine H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating and thought provoking look at women preachers, pastors, and evangelists of all kinds and what it takes for a woman to be successful in this sphere. Also an interesting review of the feminist movement and women's suffrage. I think I have more questions about how women can use their gifts in church than I did when I started.

[Emily Erickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was fascinating. I had a hard time putting it down. The first chunk was very academic. In fact, the whole thing was more academic than I expected...but in a very accessible way...not like reading a traditional textbook. I grew up in the evangelical church, so basically all of the women Kate Bowler wrote about were very familiar to me. I appreciated the way that she simply told the stories without offering her own opinion or analysis. I keep telling friends to read it and I may read it again.

[Jenna Watson]

Fascinating!!!

[Gretchen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of info and research which at times got a little boring.