growth of the movement. Two Pentecostal denominations alone were founded entirely by women: the Apostolic Faith and the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. Routinization of charisma has occurred in both denominations as present leadership is in the hands of the founding mothers' sons. This paper explores Weber's (1963) insight that "the religion of the disprivileged classes, . . . is characterized by a tendency to allot equality to women." As a corollary, Weber contended that only in rare cases does this practice extend beyond the first stage of a religious community's formation. Thereafter, a reaction occurs against pneumatic manifestations of charisma among women, which come to be regarded as undesirable. When the symbolic function of Pentecostal leadership shifted in the 1920s from "prophet" to "priest," the number of women in leadership positions rapidly declined. The conclusion will be informed by a content analysis of the Minutes of the General Council of the Assemblies of God, the largest white Pentecostal denomination, and through statistical data regarding the sex ratio among four Pentecostal denominations. Women were instrumental in the founding and subsequent growth of the early Pentecostal movements, black as well as white. The first person in the movement's genesis to have the experience of the "baptism in the Holy Spirit," as evidenced by glossolalia, was a woman. Women founded separate denominations and served the movement in a variety of religious roles: as teachers, ministers, associate ministers, evangelists, and missionaries. Though best remembered for their roles in healing evangelism and missionary endeavors, many women were founders and pastors of the largest Pentecostal churches. Some important historical roots for these roles existed in earlier religious and social forces, but the uniqueness of the Pentecostal experience and theological importance of "a calling" were most responsible for the multiplicity of female roles in early Pentecostal expression. Early Pentecostal piety abounded with female mystical imagery. Also, as late as 1936 women were unusually visible in the movement's churches: (Bloch-Hoel, 1964:60)