In God's name: Calling, gender and career success in religious ministry

Abstract

This article uses a gender lens to examine how people with a calling conceptualize what career success means to them, that is, what work‐related outcomes they seek to accomplish in their career. Qualitative data were gathered from ministers of religion working for the Church of England, an organization where gender discrimination is deeply embedded. The findings show that people with the same calling may conceptualize their own career success in quite different ways. Many of the male and female ministers who took part in the study conceived their own career success in a way that reflected the gendered context of the Church of England. This suggests that gender is important for understanding how a calling is pursued in the workplace.