Women with a Mission: Religion, Gender, and the Politics of Women Clergy by Laura R. Olson, Sue E. Crawford, and Melissa M. Deckman

 

In The Religious History of American Women, Catherine Brekus argues for the inclusion of women's history into larger narratives of American religious history. For Brekus, "many historians have written as if only male leaders-and a small number of elite female leaders, usually white Protestants-have had the political, economic, or religious power to bring about change."(1) These large, or perhaps grand, narratives of American religious history (as well as American history), in some ways, have remained impervious to the religious lives of women and their impact on their congregations, religious leaders, families, and wider social worlds. Unfortunately, the presence/influence of women has been overlooked, willfully ignored, or, perhaps, discounted as somehow unimportant because women have not historically gained entrance into leadership roles within their religious communities. Women have more often been the "people in the pews" rather than people of the pulpit. Some women have gained access to religious leadership, and they appear sprinkled in narratives as unique case studies or forerunners to change. In her work, Brekus and her contributors sound the call for inclusion as well as the embrace of women's history in religious history. How do our narratives change or remain the same with the entrée of women? What kind of stories bubble to the surface rather than remain hidden in the depths? Anthea Butler's and Laura Olson et al's works, in some ways, provide answers to this charge. Both Women in the Church of God in Christ and Women with a Mission present case studies of women's leadership primarily in Christianity (though Olson's work includes Reform and Conservative Judaism). These both examine how women become leaders, their styles of leadership, and how they understand their particular circumstances. Both works present a complicated relationship between gender and leadership that for historical actors and contemporary clergy can be fraught with tension, can provide empowerment, and can reify traditional gender norms.