Searching for a Priest ... or a Man? Using Gender as a Cultural Resource in an Episcopal Campus Chapel

Abstract

This paper examines an Episcopal campus chapel's search process for a new priest. I argue that gender, at the group level, is a fluid cultural resource that search committee members use in contradictory ways to select a male priest. I illustrate my argument using data drawn from twenty-eight in-depth interviews and participant observation (1994)(1995) of a search committee in an Episcopal campus ministry located on the grounds of a southeastern state university. My findings show that a patriarchal agenda can be upheld by a search committee without it ever being specified or codified. Well-intentioned search committee members routinely do gender even as they claim and believe they act in gender-free ways. The contribution this analysis makes to our understanding of congregational search processes and discrimination against female clergy is considered.

Gendered Organizations and Inequality Regimes: Gender, Homosexuality, and Inequality Within Religious Congregations

“…Acker () writes how organizations tend to abstract the idea of the “job” and begin to define an ideal worker that fits the “job.” More often than not, though, the ideal worker is male. This process is usually substructural and the gendered nature of the “job” is not recognized (see Fobes ). It is only within the last 50 years that a significant number of denominational bodies began to formally allow women to inhabit the role of head clergy (Chaves ).…”

“…In fact, many explicitly state their opposition to allowing women access to leadership positions, especially the position of head clergy. Furthermore, even those religious organizations that aspire to gender equality regarding leadership still perpetuate a gendered structure (Cadge ; Fobes ). Therefore, the gendered nature of religious organizations is most visible regarding allowing women to serve as head clergy.…”

Gendered Organizations: Progress and Prospects

“…Taken together, this body of scholarship defies attempts to generalize about how processes of gendering 'work' in a generic sense. Cadge (2004) has examined processes of gender inequality in Buddhist congregations organized by immigrants versus those in the USA (religion, see also Fobes 2001). Research in the sociology of sport has focused the construction of gender in settings as diverse as golf (McGinnis et al 2005), cheerleading (Anderson 2005;Grindstaff and West 2006), and gyms for women (Craig and Liberti 2007).…”

Are Rural Clergy Worse Off?: An Examination of Occupational Conditions and Pastoral Experiences in a Sample of United Methodist Clergy

“…Although the literature is too expansive to review here, the evidence to date suggests that women continue to face discrimination in the ministry. Even though many congregations overwhelmingly approve of their women pastors (Dudley 1996;Royle 1982), women can face discrimination in initially finding positions (Fobes 2001;Royle 1982). Studies also suggest that employed women pastors might encounter a number of unique challenges such as lower opinions of their sermons among male congregants (Maybury and Chickering 2001), and cultural and bureaucratic barriers to high-level positions, a pattern that seems to hold both in the Untied States and internationally (Cameron and Jackson 2008;Malogne-Fer 2008;Schmidt 1996).…”