Dual Ordination Tracks: Differential Benefits and Costs for Men and Women Clergy

Abstract

Although some religious organizations have had a sequential, two-ordination process for clergy, the implementation of two or more discrete ordination tracks is a recent development. In research on careers of 1,158 male and female clergy in two denominations that have instituted discrete ordination tracks — the Episcopal Church and the Unitarian Universalist Association — a similar relationship appeared between these newer ordination tracks and growing pressure toward clergy occupational feminization. The more recent tracks were sex-segregated, and there was evidence of occupational conflation between female clergy in both tracks that did not occur with the male clergy. The evidence suggests that dual ordination tracks may serve a dual utility, not only as an occupational response to socioeconomic changes within religious organizations but also to occupational feminization, in a manner that disproportionately concentrates male clergy in high-level positions.