Preliminary Results-1996

     Preliminary Results for Clergywomen’s Retention Study- 1996

The interviews of the United Methodist Clergywomen’s Retention Study are complete. While the interviews are still being coded and analyzed, the Shaw Center is pleased to present an update of the findings so far. We distributed 3000 surveys and received 1,388 back, a response rate of close to 50%. From the responses to the survey, one hundred-fifty women were selected for in-depth interviews; of those selected, 143 participated. The first section of the report focuses on the surveys, which identified certain issues expected to influence a woman’s tenure in the local church.

The next section of the report presents anecdotal evidence of possible trends that may be drawn from these interviews. We remind readers that this study was undertaken to investigate why more United Methodist clergywomen than men leave local church ministry, as determined by Rolf Memming (Memming/DOM Census).

THE SURVEYS

The survey information indicates that women leaving the local church fall into two general categories: (1) those who leave temporarily, then return; and (2) those who leave the local church and do not return. We emphasize that when women leave the local church with a low probability of return, they are not necessarily leaving ministry altogether, but may shift to another area of ministry other than the local church.

While we observed these two patterns of women’s leaving the local church, there appeared to be only slight differences between women who exhibit either pattern. Factors such as age and marital status exert little influence on whether the leave a woman takes is temporary or permanent. The differences will be spelled out further on in this report.   Memming’s work indicates that both male and female United Methodist clergy who graduated from a non-United Methodist seminary may be likely to leave the local church. Women in our sample did not follow that pattern. Neither growing up in a non-Methodist denomination nor graduation from a non-Methodist seminary had any correlation with leaving the local church either temporarily or permanently.

In the surveys, we found that a slightly higher proportion of ethnic minority women are less likely to return to the local church than their white counterparts, who tend to leave only temporarily. Unfortunately, only a very small number of ethnic minority clergywomen were interviewed. Therefore, information from that source will yield little insight into this difference.

Because anecdotal information suggests that clergywomen are questioned by their communities of faith regarding their reasons for seeking ordination, we examined the area of call to ministry both on the questionnaire and in the interviews. Eighty-one percent of all respondents reported that they sought ordination out of a call to ministry, whether to the local church specifically, to preach, or to ministry in general. However, a woman’s reason for seeking ordination did not indicate that she would later leave the local church temporarily. Interestingly, women who sought ordination for a reason other than a call of some kind tended to be less likely to return to the local church.

Next, we examined whether being in a committed relationship (e.g., married) and/or having a clergy partner would influence a woman’s tenure in the local church. Being in such a relationship was marginally associated with taking temporary leave from the local church. Not being in a committed relationship (e.g. never married, divorced), however, was marginally associated with permanently leaving the local church. This difference will be further explored using information from the interviews. While the associations are not statistically significant, they raise questions about isolation, and separation or divorce of clergywomen.

Clergy Couples

Based on anecdotal information, we expected a lower level of retention for those clergywomen with clergy partners. Having a clergy partner did increase the likelihood that women in this sample would leave the local church for some period. Specifically, women with clergy partners had a statistically significant likelihood of leaving the local church temporarily. That same relation, while elevated, was not significantly associated with a permanent exit from the local church.

The table on page six gives a jurisdictional distribution of those clergywomen in our sample who have temporarily left the local church and who are in some form of committed relationship. It also specifies the proportion of those clergywomen who have clergy partners. Exactly half of the women in the North Central jurisdiction who have temporarily left the local church were in committed relationships with clergy. Similarly, two-thirds of the women in the Southeastern jurisdiction who have temporarily left the church are in committed relationships with clergy. Overall, nearly 50 percent of all women who have temporarily left the local church were in committed relationships with clergy partners. These high proportions raise questions regarding the status and treatment of clergy couples across the church. We intend to address these more fully in the interview information.

Concluding this section, we examined the effects of having women in cabinet and in episcopal leadership on women’s retention in the local church. We have found no pattern at this point. The majority of respondents had never served with either a female District Superintendent or female bishop. Of the women who had permanently left the local church, a greater proportion had not served with a female DS, while service with a female bishop apparently had no effect on those who left permanently. By contrast, a slightly higher proportion of the women who had temporarily left had served with either a female DS or female bishop. This proportion, however, is not statistically significant.

THE INTERVIEWS

As the interviews are being coded, several trends have been pinpointed that stifle women in the parish, and in ministry generally; and that enable women to thrive in the parish, and in ministry generally.

The first issue had to do with boundaries; trying to find an appropriate balance between work and home, finding time for themselves, and not feeling as though they could say no. On the positive side, one interviewee responded to the question of how she takes care of herself as a minister by saying, “. . . it has really been a conscious effort on my part. I didn’t realize how totally exhausted I was until I took my leave of absence . . . and I said to myself then I will never again let myself get run down the way I was when I was pastoring churches.” She goes on to say: “. . .the hours you put in are very draining . . . and if you’re highly committed, which I was, giving the most you can give, you know, responding to every emergency, going above and beyond . . . you’re giving and you’re giving and you’re giving until there’s really nothing left.” Another interviewee responded to the same question, saying, “Obviously, you know, there’s some give and take, but I didn’t feel like I had any control over my life, and [I felt] that I was at everybody’s whim and everybody’s beck and call . . . I was set up in that by the larger church, as well as by the local church, and I decided that if that was what the expectation was, you know, for local pastors, that I couldn’t do that anymore. It wasn’t healthy for me.”

Another issue for clergywomen is dealing with family concerns; taking care of their children and husband, and sometimes a parent, in addition to their jobs. With a serious conviction about the importance of family, one interviewee said, “I think that women are going to continue to leave until they are allowed to take their families seriously . . . something has to be done to take families seriously_to be called to a clergy role to ordained ministry does not mean to be called away from our families . . . . I’m not saying there aren’t times that you aren’t able to be with your family and you need to go do something else. . . I’m saying there’s a balance . . . and unless conferences, local congregations, D.S.’s, bishops, people in leadership positions, take family seriously . . . women are going to have to take appointments with more limits, appointments beyond the local church that set some boundaries on time, part-time appointments in the church, that type of thing.”

Isolation seems to be a large factor in the retention of clergywomen. Being far away from other friendly clergy or clergywomen is a real frustration in the lives of clergy women. One woman says, “After three years out in the country with two parishes running back and forth, you know, eight hospitals in four counties, and we have those little country parishes, they’re all old and sick. I just . . . had nothing in common with anyone there. It was a very lonely place to be. I wanted to get back into the city, and was willing to do anything to do it.” Another interviewee tells a story of the way she was treated while in a small, isolated church. “There was a man in one of the churches who was convinced I was demon-possessed and spread that around. There was a Baptist church in that county that prayed, had a covenant service in which they decided to pray without ceasing until I left the county . . . And I did! Another minister at the very end of the county, a Church of the Brethren minister, also had a revival service in which he talked about things that were going on in the county that were signs of the devil, and cited me. So it was not the best location to be in ministry! . . . And that it was so far isolated from everyone I knew.”

A major frustration of clergywomen in the local church is not really feeling called to local church ministry, although they do have gifts that they use there. One woman in this situation stated,

“. . . my model early on as a young person was local church ministry, and then as I came into [this conference], I heard so much about ‘just focus on the local church_that’s what the Board of Ministry and the Cabinet want to hear.’. . . So I really did not look into actually going into anything else, although those feelings weren’t always inside me.”

Some women identify as a major problem a great deal of näiveté that does not serve them well, including not being aware of some realities of the system that later come back to haunt them. One interviewee who felt this said, “I thought all I needed was to be called by God and everything else would take care of itself.”

Not surprisingly, many women in the local church encounter gender stereotyping, either culturally, biblically, or both. When asked if she had experienced problems that she would attribute to being a woman in ministry, one interviewee responded, “Oh, yeah. Yeah. From my call on . . . From being discouraged to even consider it . . . From being looked at as misled or demon possessed . . . Disobedient. . . . That I’m somehow less of a woman because marriage and children weren’t my entire focus.”

One area of concern to women in the ministry across the board is lack of support from the District Superintendent, as well as lack of general support from the Board of Ordained Ministry and the cabinet. When asked if there were any problems in being a women in ministry, one interviewee said, “Oh, absolutely. The cabinet in this conference still views women as a liability. You are told every time the appointment process comes around that you are a problem. If you dare to be in a clergy couple, it’s an even worse problem, and they tell you that, too. In fact, the bishop, at his annual clergy luncheon, told us that publicly. I felt uneasy.” Another woman shared that, “One thing I found out is that once you go on Leave of Absence you are ignored by the church. I was taken off the mailing list; I didn’t even get information about conference events. After the first couple of months, no one even called. I felt cut off, that nobody cared a lot. I didn’t feel much support of the church.”

Women Who Stay

Regarding factors that enable women to stay in the local church, there are some rather striking differences in positive indicators among women who are currently pastors and who are in various kinds of extension ministries, as opposed to those on Leave-of-Absence or who have withdrawn or surrendered orders. Indicators most highly correlated both with staying in the local church and with staying in ministry are commitment, strong pastoral identity; personal, congregational, and systemic support; and community respect.

Many women in ministry cite that their strong sense of pastoral identity has enabled them to be in ministry. One interviewee said, “I see myself as a minister no matter what I’m doing…I’m not counseling [them] or anything, but they know that’s who I am, that’s what I am. And even if I were back in the classroom, I’d still be ministering to people, because that’s part of who I am.” Another interviewee said, “. . . one [thing] I learned from [my husband] is this concept of the ministry of presence. . . That you’re here. There’s just something about_it makes people more comfortable or more relaxed that I’ve come there. It’s a reminder that God is in the world.”

Another positive factor that clergywomen cite is the element of community respect that goes along with their positions. In response to the question of whether she experienced support as a woman in ministry, one interviewee said, “. . . I feel very affirmed. Some of the old die-hards that say, you know, women don’t belong in the ministry, are now coming up and treating me just like everybody else.” Another women said, “I’ve felt that I have been asked to do a lot of things beyond committees, and go to workshops, because I’m a woman pastor and because there aren’t many women pastors in the area. . . . In that way, I sense that the community at large has wanted to include women pastors in the things that are going on politically in this community.”

Unlike some responses mentioned earlier, some women cite system and congregational support as a positive side to their ministry. When asked if she had experienced support as a woman in the ministry, one woman said, “Yes, I have. From within churches and without. . . . I think that our denomination really has a great reputation that way. . . . I feel good about the cabinet. I feel good about my District Superintendent. . . . And I’ve had a lot of many, many positive experiences with parishioners around the fact of me being a woman in ministry. . . . Seeing that as a strength.” Another woman responded, “The Baptist church changed pastors…and they got a real conservative person in there, that kind of went on a public attack against me, and I didn’t feel–I mean, I was pretty secure myself. So that was not a threat to me, that I took it, but, boy, the church reacted, and those little old men just about had a cow. They were extremely protective and went to bat. That was kind of neat to see.”

While we are excited about the opportunity to share this information with the community, we are also looking forward to completing the study. When the coding and analysis of the 143 interviews are completed, more helpful information and insights will be available.

Jurisdictional Distrubution: Women who Temporarily Left the Local Church