Receptivity to Incoming Priests and the Gendered Dimensions of Clergy Authority

• In Event: 413 - Section on Organizations, Occupations and Work Refereed Roundtable Session. Table 01. Culture and Organizations
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 02. Gender

Abstract

Decades after the Episcopal Church opened ordained ministry to women, women’s professional attainment as priests continues to lag behind that of their male peers, particularly in their calls to serve parishes as rector. In times of leadership transition, congregation members show their receptivity to new leadership through material behavior. This project aims to understand how lay people’s perceptions of the ideal priest, as shown in their material behaviors, reflect changing cultural attitudes about gender and authority in a profession whose jurisdictional authority has been intensely challenged for decades. I use a unique dataset built from the Proceedings of Annual Convention from the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland in the years 1999-2011 to analyze how congregation behavior changes, taking clergy gender as an explanatory variable. The behaviors analyzed include: the calling of a new rector, church membership, and pledging moneys.

Author

• Catherine A. Crowder, University of California San Diego