Clergy Feminization: Controlled Labor or Transformative Change?

Abstract

Studies of secular occupations have suggested that sharp influxes of women, producing a demographic feminization, result in negative occupational effects that serve to reduce rather than enhance women's opportunities and attainment. Occupational feminization of the clergy has become a likely prospect in many denominations, as increasing concentrations of ordained women interact with ongoing retirements that are mostly male. In this study, the career trajectories of 1,373 Episcopal and 196 Unitarian Universalist female and male clergy ordained between 1920 and 1990 were compared using quantitative techniques. Clergy feminization trends tended to concur with those found in secular occupations. The results point to a persistent gender gap in attainment for Episcopal priests, and to a direct relationship between the increase in woman ordained annually and the emergence of occupational effects that serve to suppress or segregate women's labor into lower-level attainment patterns in both denominations.