Women make up 61 percent of all Americans who attend religious congregations, but they still struggle for their place in some denominations. A national study led by researchers at Hartford Seminary found that only 12 percent of the clergy in the 15 largest Protestant denominations are women. And some 112 million Americans belong to denominations that don’t ordain women at all, including Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Southern Baptists, Mormons, Muslims and Orthodox Jews.
But there are indications that times are changing. Just this month, the U.S. Presbyterian Church elected the Rev. Joan S. Gray as its “moderator,” a one-year position akin to being named ambassador. In recent years, both the Disciples of Christ denomination and the Central Conference of American Rabbis, a major organization of the 1.5 million-member Reform Jewish movement, have elected women leaders. The liberal religious group the Unitarian Universalist Association now has more women clergy than men; 60 percent of its active clergy are female, which is the highest rate in the nation.
Thirty percent of students enrolled in Master of Divinity programs are women. But according to Adair Lummis, coauthor of the recent Hartford Seminary study, it might be easier in 20 years for women to earn top positions like Jefferts Schori’s than to increase their presence as senior clergy in many local congregations, where congregants’ attitudes might still favor male pastors. The stained-glass ceiling “has certainly been punctured,” said Lummis. But it’s yet to completely shatter.
