Prospects for Change? Structural, Cultural and Action Dimensions of the Careers of Pioneer Women Priests in the Church of England

Abstract

Like other organizations the Church of England has adapted to the greater and increasing involvement of women in paid work and other parts of the public domain. However, this has been a gradual, strongly contested and painful process for the Church. In 1986, it allowed women to enter the lowest rank of the clerical profession as deacons, and after many years of hard and bitter struggle the vote was won in the General Synod to ordain women to the priesthood.1 The first women priests were ordained in 1994. This article reports a study of 31 of the most senior and experienced Church of England women priests from dioceses across the whole of England.Women entering previously male‐dominated, or male exclusive occupations as in the case of the priesthood, are necessarily engaged in a process of change. The women priests in this study were active agents for change, they wanted to change the organization, both structurally and culturally. This article examines the question of whether these women ‘pioneers’ in the Church of England stand any chance of changing the organization and the occupation, or whether and to what extent they are changed themselves by needing to ‘fit in’. It will look at the structural and cultural factors, which may inhibit their agency or support it.