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WOMEN IN THE MINISTRY
PERSONALITY AND BACKGROUND CHARACTERISTICS
OF A GROUP OF UNITED METHODIST CLERGY AND
THEOLOGICAL STUDENTS
By

Martha Orrick

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Psychology

1984

© Copyright by

MARTHA ORRICK
I984}

ABSTRACT
WOMEN IN THE MINISTRY
Personality and Background Characteristics
of a Group of United Methodist Clergy and
Theological Students
By
Martha Orrick

Until recently, professional roles in the Christian church have been
heavily sex-typed, with priestly functions reserved for men. Now that the major
Protestant denominations have lifted restrictions against their ordination, however,
increasing numbers of women are entering the ministry. To find out how these
women compare to women in other male-dominated occupations and to findings
on male clergy reported in the literature, two groups were administered the
Adjective Check List and the Bem Sex-Role Inventory: 114 male and female
theological students and 22 professionally employed women ministers. It was
predicted that the female subjects would Show characteristics traditionally
associated with opposing sex roles, such as dominance and nurturance, and that
a high proportion of them could be classified as androgynous. These predictions
were upheld. Researchers studying male clergy have frequently concluded that
they are feminine in orientation. Results for male subjects on the BSRI suggest
that they too may be better described as androgynous. Interview data from
the clergywomen are presented, reporting their experience as innovators and
identifying issues affecting their future. The nature of the ministry is discussed

in terms of Bakan's modalities of agency and communion.

For Jim

iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Research and writing for this dissertation was done after I left Michigan
State and moved to Colorado. Completing a doctoral program under these
circumstances, I discovered, requires three things: motivation on the part of the
' candidate, dependable support back on the campus, and people in the new location
who are willing to help when little of their self interest is involved. I had all
three.

Initially, my motivation came from my long-standing interest in the topic of
ordination for women. It was my fortuitous friendship with the Rev. Lois
Strohmeyer which turned my interest into a project. Through her I learned of the
numbers-and the calibre-of women entering the United Methodist Ministry, and
it was her encouragement and readiness to help with background instruction and
introductions which started me off. I soon found out that Lois, for all her
hospitality, was not unique. The other clergywomen I met and interviewed were
equally helpful. They took time out of busy schedules, welcomed me into their
homes, offered me lunch and produce from their gardens, and interviewed me
almost as thoroughly as I interviewed them. Relationships are indeed their
métier, as I hope I have conveyed in my report. The number of students who were
willing to perform a paper-and-pencil task with no reward was also encouraging.
Some of them sent notes back with their questionnaires expressing interest in the
study and wishing me well. With this kind of response, my energy and motivation
grew.

iv

In the course of solving problems away from the resources of MSU I got
crucial help from two men whom I came to think of as my shadow committee.
Dr. John Spengler, Associate Professor of Pastoral Care and Psychology of
Religion at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, reviewed my proposal and
graciously provided a cover letter for the student questionnaires. In addition, he
made astute suggestions for improving my approach and gave me access to results
from his own surveys of Iliff students over the past decade. Dr. Frederick Keller,
Coordinator of Academic Computing at The Colorado College in Colorado Springs,
not only made it possible for me to use the college computer for analyzing my
data but personally initiated me into. the wonders of its use. This represented a
considerable contribution of time on his part, for which I am immensely grateful.

At the University, I depended on Suzy Pavick, assistant to the Associate
Chairperson, to take care of administrative details which I could not attend to in
person. She did this with great good nature and efficiency and thus relieved me of
a number of potentially time-consuming tasks.

Then there was my committee. How many candidates for a degree can say
of their dissertation defense that they wish it had lasted longer? As a member of
both my master's thesis and dissertation committees, Dr. Albert Aniskiewicz has
been a steady source of support and quietly incisive questions. Dr. Elaine
Donelson was a late addition, and I am only sorry that I didn't get to take greater
advantage of her own work on religion and the psychology of women and her
ability to challenge my thinking on these subjects. As a student of his, I knew
first hand of Dr. Lawrence O'Kelly's wide-ranging knowledge and his undiminished
enthusiasm as both teacher and learner. His imminent retirement became one of
the spurs for completing this dissertation. I am proud to have had him on my

committee and I wish him well in whatever he pursues next.

I am fond of saying that the smartest decision I made in graduate school was
to ask Dr. Norman Abeles to be chairman of my master's and doctoral
committees. In the course of my training I have worked with him as student,
research assistant, supervisee, clinic intern, and degree candidate. He has guided
me through the shoals of these endeavors with unfailing acumen, practicality,
administrative ability, and good humor, becoming in the process not only my
mentor but my professional model. I hope and trust that our association will not
end here.

The dedication is to my husband, James Malcolm. Having read by now untold
numbers of acknowledgments which close with a tribute to the author's spouse, it
gives me great pleasure to write that Jim has not typed manuscripts for me, has
never edited my drafts, has offered no critiques of my ideas, and is in no way to
be considered a co-author of this work. .He has simply stood by during the ten
year process of turning myself into a psychologist, accepting my absences,
providing encouragement, expressing pride, and offering me the gifts of his
affection, his wit, and his talents as a cook. I suppose I could have done it without

him, but it wouldn't have been much fun.

vi

VI.

VII.

VIII.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables
Women and the Church: Historical Background

Men in the Ministry, Women In a Man's Field:
A Literature Review

Hypotheses and Predictions
Methods

Results and Analysis

Interviews with the Clergywomen
Summary and Conclusions

Androgyny and the Church Reconsidered:
A Discussion

References

Appendices

vii

Page

viii

27
29
37
76

92

97
101

106

3.

4.

LIST OF TABLES

Comparison of Percentages of Subjects Classified as Feminine,
Masculine, Androgynous, or Undifferentiated on the Bem Sex-Role
Inventory; Stanford Normative Sample vs. Female Theological
Students.

Comparison of Percentages of Subjects Classified as Feminine,
Masculine, Androgynous, or Undifferentiated on the Bem Sex-Role
Inventory: Stanford Normative Sample vs. Male Theological
Students.

Comparison of Percentages of Subjects Classified as Feminine,
Masculine, Androgynous, or Undifferentiated on the Bem Sex-Role
Inventory: Stanford Normative Sample vs. Female Ministers.

Comparison of Mean Raw Scores on the Bern Sex-Role Inventory:
Normative Samples vs. Female Ministers and Male and Female
Theological Students.

Mean Standard Scores on the Adjective Check List for Female
Ministers and Theological Students, Tested for Significance
Against the Standard Mean.

Mean Standard Scores of Professional Clergywomen on Selected
Scales of the Adjective Check List Compared with Mean Scores
of Female Political Leaders and a Mixed Group of Female
Physicians, Lawyers, and University Professors.

Mean Standard Scores on the Adjective Check List for Male

Theological Students, Tested for Significance Against the
Standard Mean.

viii

Page

38

38

39

45

62

63

72

A woman should learn quietly and humbly. Personally, I don't allow women to
teach, nor do I ever put them in positions of authority over men--I believe
their role is to be receptive.

St. Paul's First Letter
to Timothy, 11:11-12
(3.8. Phillips translation)

Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hinder legs. It is not
done well, but you are surprized to find it done at all.

Boswell's Life of Johnson,
1799/1904, p. 309.

An exploration of women's part in the history of religion soon encounters two
constants: women usually outnumber men; men exercise the authority. For a
long time historians have been preoccupied with the authority, particularly
with clerical officialdom: the men who preached and administered the
sacraments, expounded theology, and ran the affairs of the larger organized
faiths. The preponderance of female communicants has been recognized but
seldom discussed, and their subordination has been taken for granted.

James, Women in American
Religion, 1982, p. l.

CHAPTER I
WOMEN AND THE CHURCH: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

American women have always been active and prominent in Protestant
Christianity and have usually made up the bulk of its membership. Their
roles, however, have been subordinate. They have been praised
for their piety, depended on for the religious education of children, even
exalted as the moral ennoblers of men. Authority has been withheld.

Successive feminist movements have attempted to raise women's status
in the church and increase their influence. As early as the 16305, there was a
movement of this kind among the Puritans. The spokeswoman was Ann
Hutchinson, who taught that individual salvation was not mediated by the minister
or demonstrated through works; it came through grace and the Holy Spirit. This
doctrine, as Dunn (1980) points out, is fundamental to the status of women: if the
individual can be directly inspired then women as well as men can receive the
gifts of the spirit. Ann Hutchinson's ministry ended in trial and defeat and the
Puritans reverted to traditional separations based on gender. Shortly after this,
however, in 1681, the Society of Friends began to hold women's meetings for
business affairs along with the men's, and by 17‘10 it was mandatory for women to
be represented among the elders of the Meeting. (Dunn discusses reasons why
these two sects, both arising out of the egalitarian reforms of English
Protestantism, took such different paths in the New World.)

The inclusion of women within the structure of the church remained
unique to the Friends. In other denominations, where clergy held central

authority, women tended instead to organize alongside the institution in societies

2
formed to promote Christian works and values. These expressions of American
voluntarism were a feature of 19th Century Protestantism and included the
Women's Christian Temperance Union, the Young Women's Christian Association,
and the powerful women's missionary societies (see Brereton 6c Klein, 1980; Ryan,
1980; Welter, 1980).

Another route to influence was through the founding of sects. Mary
Baker Eddy and Aimee Semple McPherson are familiar examples of women who
drew great numbers of followers through the eloquence of their preaching and the
power of their personalities. Women have continued to be most conspicuous in
pentecostal and evangelical groups where the charismatic gifts of healing and
speaking carry their own validation. James points out, however, that even in the
case of the sects, once they become organized denominations, women's leadership
tends to diminish (1980, p. 22). The women's missionary societies met a similar
fate. The female leadership of these highly successful fund-raising and
proselytizing organizations lost both power and influence when they were
consolidated with denominational missionary boards in the 19205.

Women working in lay ministries within the church have generally been
less effective than those working outside it. Several of the larger Protestant
churches have experimented with lay orders, such as the diaconate for women in
the Lutheran, Methodist and Episcopal churches, but these have never attracted
women with leadership abilities. Brereton and Klein estimate that there were
never more than two thousand deaconesses at any one time among all the
denominations combined (1980, p. 179).

Despite a gradual increase in paid roles for women in the church during
the years following World War I, the only place where a woman could function as

an autonomous professional remained until very recently the mission field. Welter

3
(1980) traces the process. At the beginning of the movement, women went into
the field only in the role of the missionary's wife, who might occasionally teach
but whose primary duty was to give her husband support. Single women were first
recruited for their access to females, since it became apparent that in other
cultures, as in the United States, women were the strongest influence in the
religious life of the community. As these women missionaries expanded their
activities, the movement began to attract others with professional training.
(S)ing1e women found in the missionary field a rare combination of church-
and socially-sanctioned activity and freedom. The woman doctor found a far
more interesting practice, an opportunity to perform operations, to study
rare diseases, and to escape a professional life as a poorly paid listener to
female complaints, her probable lot had she remained at home. (p. 121) '
By 1893, the proportion of women among active missionaries was more than
6096, a proportion which was maintained for the next seventy years. In 1962,
Drakeford estimated their number at two thirds of those working abroad for the
church.

Welter questions whether women's entry into the mission field
represented "less a victory than a strategic retreat by the opposition" (p. 111).
She names three phenomena associated with the admission of women to an
occupation from which they have previously been barred. First, there is a need
for personnel in some area closed to men; second, the work itself has become less
prestigious or less rewarding for men; third, there is a desire "to maintain the
rhetoric of certain institutions without any concomitant wish to bother with the
substance" (ibid.). All three of these are well illustrated in the missionary
movement of the 19th century.

From this brief history, two things should be evident: attempts to
reform women's role in the church are not new, and their outcome has always

been the same. The institution may have been altered in the process but the gains

for women have been neither substantial nor lasting.

4

In the current era of feminism and revival in the churches, the symbolic
issue and the strategic goal has been ordination. In theory, this has always been
open to women in denominations in which the local church is autonomous. In
practice, few women have been ordained; fewer still have held the post of pastor,
or leader of a congregation. The American Baptist Convention, for example, gave
official approval for women's ordination before the turn of the century.
According to recent figures, however, of 6,609 ordained ministers in this
denomination only 248, less than 14%, were women (Howe, 1982, P. 140). National
census figures for 1910 list 685 women clergy, or 0.596 of the total. By 1970, the
figure had risen to 6,314, still no more than 2.9%. Four per cent was the overall
figure estimated by Jacquet (1977), based on a study for the Yearbook of
American and Canadian Churches. The majority of these were from pentecostal
groups, or from organizations such as the Salvation Army; only 17.4% belonged to
one of the ten major Protestant denominations.l

Among the mainline churches, the United Presbyterian church and the
Methodist church both gave clergy rights to women in 1956; the Lutheran Church
in America authorized ordination in 1970; the Episcopal church gave its approval
in 1976. Of these, the United Methodist church (as it is known since merging with
the Evangelical United Brethren in 1968) has the greatest number of women
clergy; a demographic study published in 1980 (Hale, King dc Jones) listed 838
nationwide, of whom 87% were serving in the local church as pastors or associate
pastors. Although Jacquet, in his 1977 summary, predicted a slow growth in the

employment of women as parish ministers, a recent increase in the numbers of

 

1Up to date figures on the number of ordained women in the United
States are surprisingly hard to come by. The 1980 census figures had not been
released at the time of this study. The most recent totals available through
the National Council of Churches were those in the 1977 report by Jacquet.

5
women entering seminary suggests that pressure for these jobs may soon become
acute. At the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, for example, which prepares
ministers for the United Methodist church, the enrollment of women in the Master
of Divinity program rose from 1596 in 1971 to 3096 in 1978 and then to l+096 in
1981.

In making ordination their goal, the current generation of religious
feminists has already set itself apart from earlier movements. The missionaries
exercised their freedom at a distance from their society and its norms; the
deaconesses deferred to the authority of men; the founders of the 19th century
women's organizations worked essentially for the support of institutions which
remained governed by men. The women now seeking professional roles in the
church, on the other hand, are aiming for its central structures; they include
scholars and theologians as well as pastors and administrators. Their quest, as
Brereton and Klein point out, goes beyond "women's issues"; it is directed at
redefining the exercise of authority in the church in favor of less directive styles
(1980, p. 190). In this sense, the theological issues which motivated Ann
Hutchinson in 1630 remain at the heart of women's relation to the hierarchy.

In spite of their apparent success in breaking through barriers to their
full participation as clergy, the question arises as to whether, as in the case of the
missionaries, women are being allowed into the ministry at a time when its
prestige as an occupation is declining, its employment opportunities are becoming
constricted, and our public debates honor the rhetoric, but ignore the substance,
of the teachings of the church. Societal factors bearing on this question are
beyond the scope of this review. The focus here is on the women themselves.
Few in number, unique among women professionals, they are still an unknown

quantity in the equation.

CHAPTER II
MEN IN THE MINISTRY, WOMEN IN A MAN'S FIELD:
A LITERATURE REVIEW

Almquist and Angrist (1970) call women in atypical, or stereotypically
masculine, occupations "unconventional choosers." For women to seek ordination
represents what is perhaps, in a Judaeo-Christian society, the ultimately
unconventional choice. What kind of women are they?

In surveying theories which attempt to account for atypical career
choice, Almquist and Angrist find two types, which they call "deviance" and
"enrichment." According to the deviance hypothesis, if a woman is both invested
in her career and drawn to a masculine field, then she herself must be
masculinized. Something in her upbringing must have led her to reject the
feminine values of home and family. According to the enrichment hypothesis, the
unconventional chooser's life experience has not been deviant, in the sense of
abnormal; it has simply been more extensive. The range of a woman's choices
appears wider to her, either because she has had the example of teachers or
family members, or because she herself has had greater opportunities to explore
the world of work.

To date, there have been no published psychological studies of women
ministers to suggest which type of theory best accounts for their choice. There
are two bodies of research, however, which may help to clarify questions for
investigation: that on men in the ministry and that on women in male-dominated

occupations.

Men in the Ministry

The first thing which strikes one in reviewing the literature on male
ministers is that a large proportion of it appears to follow a deviance hypothesis.
On the basis of his MMPI studies, Bier referred to clergymen as "the most deviant
portion of an already deviant population (college and graduate school men)" (in
Bloom, 1971, p. 51). Bowers (1963a) coined the word "set-apartness" to describe
their status. Clergy themselves seem painfully aware of being different.
Siegelmann and Peck (1960) report that a major dissatisfaction named by the
ministers they interviewed had to do with being regarded as only "more or less
human", belonging to a "third sex."

In summarizing the research on these men, we find three general
features: first, there is at least a rough consensus on certain common personality
factors; second, there are apparent inconsistencies, with attempts at reconciling
them based largely on theories of neurotic conflict; finally, there is considerable
disagreement on the question of clergy mental health.

One of the largest areas of agreement concerns needs in relation to
others. Ministers are found to be extroverted (Nauss, 1973), affiliative (Byers,
Forrest 6c Zaccaria, 1968), high on sociability (Cockrum, 1952; Lonsway, 1969). In
some reports, this orientation toward others appears as a strong need for approval
(Childers 6c White, 1966). Schroeder (1958) calls his group of theology students
conformist. Siegelmann and Peck (1960) describe their ministerial group as
exhibiting a strong need for attention, acceptance, and approval. "The minister is
person-oriented and he prepares himself intensively for the task of convincing
others that his, or the church's, value system is the one in which to believe. When
people do not agree with him, his basic ability and self-assurance are threatened.
He is dependent on personal acceptance and recognition . . . He thus becomes

anxious, when his ideas, with which he identifies, are threatened" (p. 329).

8

Nurturance, the concern for others, and the desire to help people figure
prominently, as might be expected (Siegelmann dc Peck, 1960; Byers et. al., 1968;
Lonsway, 1969). There are frequent references to dominance in conjunction with
affiliation (e.g. Byers et. al.). Siegelmann and Peck observed the desire to
dominate others, but described it as taking a subtle form, of which the minister
himself might not be aware. Their subjects voiced disapproval of open control of
others, yet the interviewers became convinced that the minister "has such a
strong desire . . . to influence people to think as he does, to accept his beliefs, to
recognize the church as the only truth and the only way of life, that there is an
important element of attempted control or domination of people's attitudes. He
sincerely desires to help others. He does not seem to be aware that part of his
observable motivation is a personal need to impose his own, personal outlook on
all about him" (p. 320).

In apparent contradiction to these findings on sociability, affiliation,
nurturance, and need for approval, runs a parallel list of findings that clergy also
tend to score above average on autonomy and isolation (Byers, et. al., 1968;
Schroeder, 1958). Interpreters of these disparities generally ascribe them to
unconscious conflicts. Booth (1955) says that the "average" minister reaches for
relationships in the attempt to repress tendencies to withdraw. Bowers calls the
clergy "lonely, set-apart people. Even the healthy, fulfilled, successful ones
remember the loneliness of their childhood. Many of their histories show an early
experience of loss or abandonment" (1963a, p. I). As a clinician treating religious
personnel in her practice, she came to believe that many of her patients had gone
into the ministry in search for love. "Never having experienced sufficient human
love, they hope to find love in God" (1963b, p. 12). Siegelmann and Peck also

heard references to an unhappy childhood. They speculate, like Bowers, that early

9
losses have left these men with feelings of insecurity and needs for succorance
and support. Helping and pleasing others is seen as a way to get their needs met.

Bloom, in his review Who become clergymen? (1971), claims that many
of them show a tendency to merge, or closely identify, with their congregations.
They participate in parishioners' life events in a "parafamilial" role, he says, in
hopes of overcoming the separateness of the ministerial role. He cites a
particularly provocative study by Schroeder (1958), who found similar motivations
between theology students and physical science students: both groups showed
signs of discomfort in close personal relations. Bloom's comment: "It may be that
the scientists have made the decision not to resolve their problem of set-
apartness by merging with others, but by retreat into the world of science, and so
remain separate, aloof, and intellectual. The clergyman, on the other hand, tries
to resolve the problem by the tendency to merge, to be involved, and, as so many
clergy have put it, to help others" (p. 64).

A second area frequently referred to as conflictual is that of impulse
expression. Stern (1954) calls difficulty in reconciling impulse expression with
conscience "the characteristic disturbance" of the small sample of students he
studied in depth. This appears to have been as true of the "ideal" students
selected by faculty and peers as it was of the students rated "undesirable."
Booth (1955) says that the average minister deals with his aggressive tendencies by
subordinating them to conscience, or by expressing them in relation to impersonal
causes. Dodson (1955) reports that seminary students handle their hostility in
intropunitive ways, and Schroeder (1958), in calling his group of theological students
passive and conformist, interpreted this as a reaction formation against hostility
and rebelliousness. Bloom observes that this is another case of how the church may

provide a setting in which some measure of resolution of internal conflicts can be

10

achieved. "(A)ggression for the greater glory of God, the church, and its ideals,
becomes aggression for which one cannot be blamed or punished. One is doing it
because he is an idealist, not because one is self-seeking. The clergyman can be as
hostile as he wants to, he can express all of the aggression he wants to, but he
avoids any kind of direct, open retribution" (1971, pp. 67-68). In the same vein,
Bloom quotes Dittes' observation that "the conflict over dependence versus
independence, over authority, over the expression or inhibition of hostility would
all seem to find particularly successful compromise solutions in a clergy role
where both dependence and independence can be especially well expressed or in
which hostility can be condemned and love extolled--in a hostile, prophetic
manner" (1). 66).

As with aggression, so with sex. Dodson finds seminarians
"uncomfortable" with sexual feelings (1955). Schroeder's findings also suggest this
(1958). Bowers refers to problems with exhibitionism and homosexuality which
may cause clergy to seek psychiatric help (1963b). Christensen (1963) believes
that religion may be used unconsciously as a means of attempting to resolve
sexual conflicts, "usually in terms of an inhibitory type of control" (p. 3).
Siegelmann and Peck (1960) report that among the three vocational groups they
tested, the ministers scored highest on "vicarious sexual interest", but add that
this was not out of the average range.

The hallmark of clergy test scores, and one finding on which there is
virtually no disagreement in the research, is their peak on the Masculinity-
femininity scale of the MMPI. Nauss (1973) lists eleven studies which give MMPI
scale scores for a variety of sample groups, both Protestant and Catholic. In all
of them, Mf is the peak score. In ten, T scores fall between 60 and 65, in the

remaining study between 55 and 60.

ll

Interpretation of clergy Mf scores varies. For some (e.g. Bloom, 1970),
they suggest that although a feminine interest pattern cannot be assumed to mean
homosexuality, it may point to some conflicts in this area. Cardwell (1967)
disputes this. She did an item analysis of the Mf responses of a group of theology
‘ students, in order to trace the sources of elevation. She found that items related
to sexual identification contributed hardly at all; the final scores reflected high
means for item groups related to denial of masculine occupations, to altruism, and
to cultural, literary, and artistic interests. Furthermore, she points out that two
items on an HSX (homosexuality) subscale were "I pray several times a week" and "I
go to church almost every week"--hardly deviant activities for seminarians.

The second distinguishing characteristic of clergy MMPI profiles is a high
K score (T=55-60 in the majority of the studies surveyed by Nauss). The K scale is
generally assumed to measure the tendency to be defensive and to deny
psychological problems. Percentages of K are therefore routinely added to scores
on the clinical scales in order to compensate for the inclination to conceal or
distort. Elevated K scores are part of the evidence given to demonstrate the
pathology of the clergy.

Kania (1967) tested the validity of this assumption in regard to seminary
students. He obtained measures of adjustment, dogmatism, self-disclosure,
defensiveness, and anxiety, and correlated these with the students' K scores. His
conclusion is that theological students display what he calls "healthy
defensiveness", in that their K scores were not only positively related to
defensiveness but also to lower dogmatism, greater self-acceptance, better
adjustment, lower anxiety, less guilt-proneness, and more ego strength. He
therefore recommends that K corrections not be added to the clinical scales for

this population, since they may distort the profile. He suggests that similar tests

12
of K need to be made with other groups. "Defensiveness in normal populations,"
he concludes, "does not appear to be the same as defensiveness in abnormal
populations" (p. 19)-

Another proposal for modifying the MMPI for use with religious
personnel comes from Bier (1971). He addressed himself to the problem of
screening out candidates for whom the Catholic priesthood is not an appropriate
way of life, citing figures to show that over a 57—year period only 25-35% of those
who entered seminary had completed their training and been ordained. Working
with a celibate population, he accepts the proposition that mental health is
relative. He then sets out to identify those items which discriminate within the
seminary group, rather than between the seminary group and others from whom
they clearly deviate. His adapted version of the MMPI eliminates items relating
to sex and religion, which obviously carry unique meanings for this group. The
remaining items do differentiate between well-adjusted and poorly adjusted
seminary students. While this may seem to beg the question of the pathology of
religious commitments, perhaps Bier‘s point is well-taken: "If there prove to be
areas of adjustment in which the seminary group differs from the general
population, it is important that a seminary candidate be judged, in respect to his
mental health, by these modified norms, for this is the specialized way of life to
which he proposes to apply himself. It can scarcely be doubted that what is
unsatisfactory adjustment in one way of life may be very acceptable in another"

(p. 587).

Women in Male-dominated Occupations
Personality characteristics: Research, perhaps more than we would like to
think, tends to follow—or even to promotenthe ideologies of its time. The

type of deviance hypothesis evident in many studies of male clergy done in the 505

13

and 60s--often traceable to the constructs of psychoanalytic theory--was also
to be seen in studies of professional women made during the same period. Looking
back on earlier attitudes, Almquist and Angrist (1970) cite an unpublished paper by
Rossi in which she reports a negative relation between the salience of career and
family: the more "masculine" the field and the higher the woman's aspirations, the
less likely she was to place a high value on home and family. Hoyt and Kennedy
(1958), comparing homemaking and career-oriented women on the Edwards Personal
Preference Schedule, found the career-oriented women below average on the
Heterosexuality scale, which they interpreted as a need to avoid relations with
the opposite sex. The homemaking group, for their part, were well above average
on succorance, which the authors define as the need for affection and acceptance.
Other high scores in the career group were on achievement, endurance, and
intraception or the need to understand. It is a mark of change that we view this
now with a sense of approval; it is instructive to read the comments following the
article, made by a member of the Harvard University Health Services. He saw
the intellectual interests of the career women as secondary, a form of defense
against the heterosexual conflicts pointed to in the low score on that scale. The
succorance need, which was so strong among the homemaking women, he called a
"warm reaching for people." Helson (1972), in her discussion of this study, points
out that if men were being evaluated by the succorance scale it would have been
called "dependence"--and indeed this is exactly the interpretation given of this
scale in assessments of male clergy (see, for example, Siegelmann 6c Peck, 1960).
Helson's overview of the changing image of the career woman points to
certain historical necessities behind some of the attitudes of the post-World War
11 period. Following World War 1, she reminds us, the career woman had a certain
limited glamour. It is true that in movies of the twenties and thirties she appears

as daring, unconventional, sexually liberated. But even where the idea of a

l4

woman working was approved, it was necessary to the image that she be single:
unmarried, widowed, or working only until she got married. Helson suggests that
in order for our society to become comfortable with the idea that a woman could
have both a career and a family, it may have been necessary to go through a
period in which this was permissible provided the roles of wife and mother were
clearly put first. To illustrate this, she cites Vassar researches which identified
two types of college students: the high achievers, and the underachievers with a
future family orientation. Although there was some positive acknowledgment of
the first group, the highest praise, she says, went to the second group, who were
considered to be taking the healthier course, that of integrating their intellectual
abilities into their feminine role.

New social pressures, says Helson, stimulate new lines of research, and
women psychologists are now "working away like billboard artists" at revising the
image of the career woman. Profession by profession, the studies are
accumulating: on the woman Ph.D. (Astin, 1969); on women in medicine
(Cartwright, 1972; Kutner dc Brogan, 1980); on lawyers (Epstein, 1968); on
mathematicians (Helson, 1971); on politicians (Constantini dc Craik, 1972; Werner
6r Bachtold, 1974); on psychologists (Bachtold 6: Werner, 1970, 1971); on business
executives (Hennig, 1973; Morrison 6c Sebald, 1974). In addition, there are studies
in which subjects are selected not from a particular occupation but on the basis of
atypicality of choice (Almquist 8c Angrist, 1970; Tangri, 1972; Patrick, 1973;
Standley 6c Soule, 1974; Feulner, 1979). A review of this literature is offered by
Lemkau (1979).

Several features of this research stand out. First, the findings do not
lend much support to the deviance hypothesis. Second, there is considerable

congruence among the findings on personality traits, regardless of the field.

15
Third, there also seem to be at least a few background characteristics which
predispose a woman for a serious commitment to a career.

In regard to the deviance hypothesis, Almquist and Angrist (1970) found
no significant differences between career and non-career groups on the frequency
of their dating or their involvement in student activities, although the non-career
women were more likely to be engaged, married, or going steady by their senior
year (embarking on their; career, as it were). Tangri (1972) also found no
difference in a group of role innovators' romantic and friendship relations with
men. Feulner (1979) surveyed 173 women attorneys, university professors, and
physicians in the St. Louis area. As a group, she found them to be above the
average on scales relating to self-confidence and personal adjustment. Those who
were married reported stable marriages, with a high proportion of these being of
an "intrinsic" style, one which emphasizes the importance of the relationship
between the partners over "utilitarian" concerns. Hennig (1973) found that her
group of successful women executives showed high self-esteem, derived, she
concluded, from warm, supportive childhood relations with their parents.
Bachtold and Werner (1974) found that their group of women legislators resembled
the norms for women in general on sociability, ego strength, sensitivity, and trust.
Profiles of women psychologists, on the other hand, studied by the same authors,
did tend to diverge from that of the average woman (Bachtold 6: Werner, 1970).
Although there were no significant differences from the norms on ego strength
and self-control, as evidence on the l6PF, the psychologist sample did differ
significantly on the other 14 variables, with many of these differences being in
the direction of superior functioning, such as higher self-confidence and lower
anxiety.

The only contradictory findings, suggesting poorer adjustment, come

from Helson's study of highly creative women mathematicians (1971), who

16

appeared to be more depressed and socially withdrawn than a comparison group.
Constantini and Craik's sample of women politicians (1972) also tended to score
considerably higher than male politicians on a "counseling readiness" scale, which
suggests some anxieties about themselves on their status. Apart from this scale
score, however, these women did not differ from female norms on
heterosexuality, nurturance, or affiliation, and did show somewhat higher mean
scores on self-confidence and personal adjustment. Helson points out that the
mathematicians, although high on some indicators of disturbance, did not show
correspondingly low scores on ego strength. In fact, she sees this combination--
psychological difficulties accompanied by superior resourcesuas a hallmark of the
creative person.

In brief, it appears that women committed to male-dominated careers do
not differ from other women in their overall adjustment, although in some
instances they may actually be better-adjusted and in others there are some
indications of role strain. Where they do differ, rather consistently, is in what has
been added to the profile of a normal woman rather than in what is deficient--as
the enrichment hypothesis would predict.

There is a considerable degree of consistency among assessments of
professional women when it comes to personality characteristics related to
competence. As might be expected, they score high on achievement and
independence (Helson, 1971; Cartwright, 1972; Tangri, 1972; Feulner, 1979). In
some cases, the independence may include a certain aloofness, as was found in
both the mathematicians (Helson, 1971) and psychologists (Bachtold dc Werner,
1970). Compared to other women, role innovators see themselves as more
dominant, more assertive, even more aggressive (Bachtold 6: Werner, 1970;
Constantini dc Craik, 1972; Morrison 8: Sebald, 1974; Feulner, 1979). They score

correspondingly lower on variables related to submissiveness, such as deference,

17
abasement, or succorance (Cartwright, 1972; Constantini dc Craik, 1972; Feulner,
1979). These women appear to achieve their goals by direct means.

Several cautions need to be kept in mind in accepting these findings.
Virtually all of these studies rely to a large extent on self-descriptions, usually by
way of checklists. Only in one of the studies listed above (Helson, 1971) are the
ratings made by observers rather than by the subjects, and then it is by an
intuitive, not criterion-based, standard. There is an inevitable tendency in
referring to results of this kind to take the label for the fact, and to assume that
a subject who describes herself as dominant would also display dominance by
behavioral measures. A second assumption too readily made is that categories on
different scales which have the same or similar titles—-such as the dominance
scales on the Adjective Check List and Edwards' Personal Preference Scale--are
interchangeable and can be interpreted as such, whereas there is evidence that
when the scales are used together the correlations may not be high (see Megargee
6: Parker, 1968). Nevertheless, in spite of these important qualifying factors, the
evidence is that various groups of professional women do describe themselves in
ways that differ consistently from the self-descriptions of women who have made
more traditional choices, that these descriptions tend to confirm one another
across studies, and that there are no important contradictory findings.

Background: There are certain common features in the backgrounds of women
in male-dominated professions. Many of them are firstborns, for example. Astin
(1969) found that 4796 of the Ph.D.s she surveyed were the oldest children in their
families. Helson (1971) found that very few of her creative mathematicians had a
brother. Hennig (1973) interviewed 25 out of 100 women presidents and vice-
presidents of major business firms and found that afl of them were firstborn and

that none had a brother. In the one study available on the background

18
characteristics of female clergy, it was found that 24% were only children and
29% were the oldest children in their families (Hale, King dc Jones, 1980).

Women in the professions are generally believed to come from families
which are at least comfortably off and to have parents who attained a higher than
average level of education. This is borne out by most of the studies under
consideration. Cartwright (1972) reports that over two thirds of the fathers in her
sample of women in medicine had a college education and 40% of them had
followed it with some graduate work or professional training. Of the mothers,
43% had completed college, 17% had some kind of postgraduate education. In her
study of women in graduate schools of law, medicine, architecture, and the
sciences, Patrick (1973) found that 59% of their fathers had graduate or
professional degrees, in addition to 14% with undergraduate degrees. Fully one
half of their mothers had a college degree or above. Similar trends are reported
by Astin (1969), Epstein (1968), and Hennig (1974).

Professional women also tend to have professional parents. Fathers with
professional status were reported for their samples by Epstein (19%), Patrick
(28%), Helson (76%). Fathers in business at the managerial level were also
reported by Patrick (40%) and Epstein (50%). All of Hennig's successful women
executives had fathers who were also in business. Among the more academically
oriented professions, there is a high proportion of women who were either born
abroad or have parents who were born abroad. Of the lawyers interviewed by
Epstein, for example, 46% had foreign-born fathers, 43% had foreign-born
mothers. A similar background is reported by Ph.D.s by Astin (1969) and for
mathematicians by Helson (1971). In non-academic professions, the trend is
reversed. Half of the women politicians studied by Constantini and Craik (1972)
were at least third generation American. All of Hennig's executive sample were

American born (1974).

19

A variable of particular interest to researchers involves the employment
history of the professional woman's mother. Tangri (1972) found a strong relation
between the mother‘s current employment and the choice of an innovative career
by the daughter (p<.001). There was also a significant relationship between the
daughter's choice and whether the mother had also chosen a field in which women
were in a minority (p (.025). Among Epstein's lawyers, 67% had mothers who were
employed, 20% of them as professionals (1968). Patrick (1973) also found a
significant difference on this variable between her professional and homemaking
groups: 47% of the professionals had working mothers, with 21% in professional
occupations as against 10% of the homemaker mothers. Almquist and Angrist
(1970) found that 66% of their career salient group had mothers who were
employed. The exception to these findings is Hennig's. She states that only one
of the mothers of her successful executives had pursued a career (1974).

In a related study, Hansson, Chernovetz and Jones (1977) found a relation
between sex role and whether or not the subject's mother worked outside the
home. A significantly higher percentage of female subjects classified as either
masculine or androgynous in their sex role orientation had working mothers, as
compared to those classified as feminine.

Finally, there is the question of relations with parents and parental
identifications. Here the findings are not uniform. Hennig (1974) believes that
family dynamics constituted the major difference between a group of top women
executives and a group who did not rise beyond middle management. She
summarizes the family constellation as one which provided the young daughter
with positive support for autonomy and exploration, without devaluing her
femaleness. The women who later became presidents or vice-presidents

remembered their childhood relations with both their parents as warm and close;

20
they particularly regarded their fathers' readiness to share interests with them as
an important influence. Helson (1971) also finds differences between more and
less creative mathematicians, but in this case it was the comparison group, the
less creative, who described their homes as secure and warm. The more creative
women were more alienated; they tended to identify with their fathers, but
received little affection from them. More of Epstein's (1968) lawyers felt closer
to their mothers than their fathers and also tended to identify with their mothers.
Tangri's role innovators among college Students showed no clear identification
with either parent. She describes them as having "substantial cognitive distance
from both parents, warm feelings toward mother, but some perceived similarity to

father" (1972, p. 185).

Clergywomen: A New Group of Women Professionals

Based on the studies described above, what characteristics might we
expect to find in women entering the male-dominated profession of the ministry?
Since a theological education requires that they meet high academic standards,
we might expect them to score high on measures related to achievement and
endurance. In addition, they must be prepared to surmount opposition to their
choice of career, whether from friends, family, or those within the church who do
not accept the validity of ordination for women. It seems likely therefore that
they will share with other professional women a higher than average degree of
dominance and perhaps also of aggression. Given the pastoral nature of their
chosen work, it is not likely that they will score below the norms on affiliation
and nurturance. Indeed, the women ministers surveyed by Hale, King and Jones
(1980) gave the pastoral functions of counseling the sick or bereaved as one of
their major motivations for entering the ministry, second only to preaching the

gospel. Hale et. al. do not inquire into relations with parents. They do find, as

21
mentioned above, that 53% of the women were either only children or firstborns.
They also report that almost half have family members in the ministry; 28% of
them are married to ministers.

Since there are remarkably few signs of maladjustment among the other
groups of role-innovative women studied to date, we may assume that
clergywomen will also tend to be self-confident, with good ego strength. It would
not be surprising, however, to find them showing some signs of role strain. Hale
et. al. note the "superwoman complex" referred to by several of their respondents.
In addition to combining, in many cases, the roles of wife, mother, and
professional, they are under pressure from the expectations of their
congregations--the proclivity for "setting apart" the clergy, which clergymen have
so often complained about.

Studies of men in the ministry call attention to the "feminine" pattern of
their interests. This is particularly evident in their MMPI profiles. Among the
studies of women which have been cited above, only one gives MMPI scores:
Helson's investigation of women mathematicians (1971). If it ‘is true, as is
sometimes claimed, that women in male-dominated professions tend to be
somewhat masculine in their interests, then we might expect to find a
corresponding elevation on the Mf scale. In fact, both of Helson's mathematician
groups, the creative and the less creative, show mean scores a few points l_>_e;_l_o_w_
average—that is to say, if there is a tendency, it is toward a more rather than less
feminine orientation.

These mild indications to the contrary notwithstanding, there is some
evidence for the presence of masculine characteristics among women in
occupations considered masculine. In the traditional view, descriptors such as
"aggressive", "assertive", "clear-thinking", "confident" apply to men rather than to

women. Indeed, they are all adjectives on the masculinity scale of the Adjective

22
Check List. They are also words which are repeatedly used in describing women
who have been successful in the world of work.

In attempting to predict the sex role orientation of women ministers,
therefore, we have several alternatives: (1) they will be predominantly feminine,
following the pattern of the mathematicians; (2) they will appear comparatively
masculine, on account of high scores on competency variables; (3) they will show
features of both. The third alternative is the one this study will explore: that a
vocation in the church permits the expression of both masculine and feminine
qualities and will therefore attract individuals who display some of the

characteristics associated with the opposite sex as well as their own.

The Idea of Androgyny

Conceptualizations of sex role are the social reflection of profound
dichotomizations of experience. There have been numberless attempts to name
these divisions of task and spirit. Parsons and Bales (1955), in one of the more
enduring sociological formulations, called the two aspects instrumental and
expressive. Instrumental, or prototypically masculine activities, are those related
to the achievement of a goal; expressive, or feminine, activities focus on
emotions and relations. Gutmann (1965) contends that the customary situations,
the milieux, of men and women are fundamentally different and therefore require
different standards of ego development and ego strength. The masculine world is
a1locentric—other-centered—which means that it is impersonal, unpredictable,
inconstant, open. Effective action in this world requires objectivity, the ability to
delay, to plan, to shape one's own order in the context of the uncontrollable order
of what is other. The feminine world is autocentric, ordered around the self. It is
familiar, personal, constant, enclosed. Meaningful interactions in this world have

to do with cyclical rhythms, reciprocality, shared emotions. Order is intrinsic.

23

Still another way of framing the same dichotomy is Bakan's concept of
agency and communion. Agency refers to existence as an individual, communion
to the participation of the individual in some larger organism.

Agency manifests itself in self-protection, self-assertion and self-expansion;
communion manifests itself in the sense of being at one with other organisms
. . . Agency manifests itself in isolation, alienation, and aloneness;
communion in contact, openness, and union. Agency manifests itself in the
urge to master, communion in noncontractual cooperation. (1966, p. 14).

It is Bakan's thesis that "unmitigated agency", which expresses itself in
exploitation and untrammeled instrumentality, is what is meant by the term
"evil," and that the human task is "to try to mitigate agency with communion."
Block (1973) describes what this means for individual men and women: for men
"that self-assertion, self-interest, and self-extension are tempered by
considerations of mutuality, interdependence, and joint welfare"; for women,
"that the concern for harmonious functioning of the group, the submersion of self,
and the importance of consensus be amended to include aspects of agentic self-
assertion and self-expression" (p. 515). This, in essence, is the androgynous ideal:
that members of each sex should temper their role performance with some of the
virtues belonging to the other.

The assumption that home and career are antithetical arises from the
belief that society needs the instrumental and expressive functions to be divided,
and that women, by reason of the child-bearing function, carry the natural
responsibility for the expressive. For a woman to exercise an instrumental role is
therefore, by this line of reasoning, to behave in a way which is unnatural or
abnormal. Nowhere has this been more succinctly expressed than by an

anonymous chief engineer quoted in the Harvard Business Review (Bowman,

Worthy 6t Greyser, 1965, p. 172):

24
The requirements for a manager—toughness and concern only for the dollar-
do not and will not ever mix with the cultural idea ascribed to (but not
necessarily found in) females. Someone has to stand for the things spiritual,
i.e. kindness and tolerance. So, as a culture, all of us look to women to
personify this.

Rating scales for assessing masculinity and femininity have generally
followed the same assumption: that these are mutually exclusive qualities, at
opposite poles of a Single continuum. Inevitably, the more one has of one, the less
one has of the other. Items on these scales have therefore been selected
according to their frequency of endorsement by either men or women. In recent
years, however, the idea that certain personality traits properly belong to one sex
or the other has been challenged, notably by Constantinople (1973) and by Bem
(1974), who is responsible for popularizing the term "androgyny." According to
this increasingly accepted view, masculinity and femininity are not polarities. To
be clear-thinking need not rule out being sympathetic; to be actively engaged in
seeking a goal need not preclude the ability to be emotionally expressive. There
is therefore, under this formulation, the possibility of a third type, the
"androgynous" person, who ascribes to socially desirable qualities which may have
been sex-typed for either men or women. The items on Bern's Sex-Role Inventory
were selected not by frequency of endorsement but by the extent to which they
matched the cultural stereotypes of sex roles. As scales of masculinity and
femininity, they are free to vary independently, so that each subject can be given
ratings on both masculine and feminine dimensions. It is the way in which these

two scores are related to one another which determines the subject's

classification.

Androgyny and the Christian Church
A case can be made that the church, by its very nature, exemplifies the

dialectic between agency and communion. To the extent that it is

25

institutionalized, hierarchical, prophetic, and power-seeking it is agentic. Yet its
scriptures exalt the values of communion, of interdependence, of the sacrifice of
self-interest. Historically, these polarities have been in contradiction more
often than they have been integrated, and it is this split which has been reflected
in the subordination of women within the church. Bakan says, "One of the
fundamental points which I attempt to make is that the very split of
agency from communion, which is a separation, arises from the agency
feature itself, and that it represses the communion from which it has
separated itself" (1965, pp. 14-15). To the extent that women represent what is
affective, noncompetitive, intimate as opposed to public, they have been
relegated to secondary positions. One of the crucial questions for
the future of the church, as many thoughtful people see it,
is whether the entrance of women into more influential roles foreshadows
the lifting of this repression, the potential integration of communion
with agency. Failing this, clergywomen must either adopt or continue to be
devalued by the dominance of agentic structures. An allied fear, for some, is that
if the larger society retains an imbalance in favor of agency, then a church which
restores communion to a more visible status will simply become less influential or
less prestigious.

When one looks at the personality profiles of male ministers, one
wonders whether they have not been victims as much as women. Is it possible
that what has been called a feminine interest pattern in these men is, by another
view, androgynousness? The current resurgence of feminism has given women an
ideology by which to understand and defend their aspirations; men have lacked a
comparable source of support. Without encouragement to see their feminine
aspect as a positive, even a necessary, value, perhaps they have experienced it
instead as a conflict. This is one alternative explanation for the signs of stress

conspicuous in so many of the reports.

26

A single study will rarely answer such broadly speculative questions. The
thesis to be examined here is nonetheless that the role of minister requires what
is in many ways a unique combination of feminine and masculine qualities, which
can be related to ideas of agency and communion. It is likely that it appeals to
androgynous persons of both sexes, and that this is one source of the feminine
interest patterns commonly seen in test profiles of male clergy. We may expect
that women who seek this role will also tend toward an androgynous personality
style, in that they will show socially desirable characteristics commonly sex-typed

as masculine, without any loss of desirable characteristics sex-typed as feminine.

CHAPTER III

HYPOTHESES AND PREDICTIONS

Hypothesis One: A career in the ministry offers scope for the expression
of both agentic and communal values. It is therefore likely to attract men and
women whose personalities combine masculine and feminine qualities.

Prediction 1: A significantly high proportion of a group of women
ministers will be classified as androgynous on the Bem Sex-Role Inventory. The
same will be true of seminary students preparing for the ministry, whether male
or female.

Hypothesis Two: Women who seek roles in the church formerly reserved
for men will show agentic, or masculine, qualities of the type found in women in
other male-dominated occupations.

Prediction 2: On the Adjective Check List, female ministers and female
seminary students will score significantly above the norms for women on scales
measuring achievement, dominance, and endurance.

Prediction 3: On the Adjective Check List, female ministers and female
seminary students will score significantly below the norms for women on scales
measuring deference and abasement.

Hypothesis Three: Women choosing the pastoral role of minister will
retain qualities associated with the modality of communion and the traditional
idea of femininity.

Predictim 4: On the Adjective Check List, female ministers and female
seminary students will not score significantly below the norms for women on

scales measuring nurturance and affiliation.

27

28

Hypothesis Four: Men choosing the pastoral role of minister will also
display qualities related to the modality of communion.

Prediction 5: On the Adjective Check List, male seminary students will
score significantly above the norms for men on scales measuring nurturance and
affiliation.

Hypothesis Five: At the present time, the awareness of cross-sex
identifications are likely to create greater intrapersonal conflicts for men than
for women.

Prediction 6: On the Adjective Check List, female ministers and female
seminary students will score significantly higher than male students on the scale

measuring personal adjustment, relative to the norms for their sex.

CHAPTER IV
METHODS

Subiects

Subjects for this study were drawn from two populations: students at the
Iliff School of Theology in Denver and women serving appointments in the Rocky
Mountain Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Students: Names and addresses were obtained from the 1981-82 Iliff
student directory. A mailing was sent to all students, male and female, listed as
being in either the Master of Divinity or Master of Arts in Religion programs.
This excluded non-degree students, candidates for doctoral or other academic
degrees, and students listed but on leave of absence. The total mailing went to
195 students. Ten packets were returned for various reasons, such as the student
having withdrawn since publication of the directory. Response to the first mailing
was 114 (61.62%). A follow-up letter to those who had not responded gained
another 17 replies, for a total response of 131 out of 185, or 70.81% of those
surveyed.

Fifteen of the student responses were from students working toward the
degree of Master of Arts in Religion. This degree is for those who are seeking a
theological education without intending to be ordained. It was originally thought
that this group might serve as a comparison to ministers in training (the M.Div.
program) but the number responding was too small for meaningful analysis. These
questionnaires were therefore removed from the sample. Two incomplete or
inaccurately completed questionnaires were also dropped, leaving a final sample
of 114 students (65 males and 49 females), all working toward the Master of

Divinit de ree.
Y 8 29

3O

Clergywomen: The list of ordained women in the Rocky Mountain
Conference published in June, 1982, includes 28 women appointed to serve as
ministers in a local parish (out of approximately 268 positions). Three of these
women had just graduated from Iliff and had been contacted earlier as part of the
student sample. Two were lay pastors, one was a student associate, and one was a
minister of another denomination. The remaining 21 women were contacted by
letter requesting an interview. One of the District Superintendents in the
Conference is a woman. She and a woman currently awaiting appointment were
also contacted, for a total of twenty-three. The letters were followed by a
personal phone call. Twenty-two women were reached in this way and all agreed
to the interview. The twenty-third was not available, due to an extended illness.
The final sample therefore includes all but one of the women active as ministers

in the Rocky Mountain Conference at the time of the study.

Procedures

The mailing to the students included (I) a letter introducing the study
and asking for their participation, (2) a background questionnaire inquiring into
such variables as marital status, previous occupations, professional goals, and role
models, (3) the Gough-Heilbrun Adjective Check List, (4) the Bern Sex-Role
Inventory, and (5) the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. These were to
be filled out anonymously and returned to the author. Copies of this material are
included in the Appendix.

Each of the clergywomen was interviewed personally by the author.
These interviews were semi-structured, following an outline which included all of
the variables on the student questionnaire, plus additional topics relevant to the
ordained ministry. Subjects were also invited to introduce topics of their own.

(See the Appendix for a copy of the interview outline.)

31

Interviews were conducted at a time and place convenient to the subject,
generally at their church office or in the home provided for them as part of their
appointment. Interviews lasted anywhere from one to two hours, depending on the
time available and the talkativeness of the subject. All interviews were tape
recorded, with the subject's permission. At the conclusion of the interview, each
of the women was given a set of the three personality inventories, to be returned
by mail to a third party. Responses on these were kept anonymous; no attempt
was made to draw connections between the views expressed by individual women

and their responses on the personality scales.

Instruments

Adjective Check List (ACL): The Adjective Check List was developed at
the Institute for Personality Assessment and Research at the University of
California at Berkeley and published in 1949. It has since been used, according to
the latest edition of the manual (Gough dc Heilbrun, 1980), in nearly 700 studies.

The ACL consists of 300 adjectives, common in everyday language,
which can be checked or left blank. The subject uses these for self-description.
There are no upper or lower limits as to the number which may or must be
checked, and there are no restrictions against checking adjectives which may
seem to conflict with one another. The manual provides for 37 scales which can
be abstracted from the list. Twenty-eight were scored for this study. These include
four scales assessing the subject's modus operandi in responding to the task,
fifteen scales drawn from Murray's need-press theory of personality, and nine so-
called topical scales, derived from no single theory, reflecting additional
characteristics such as personal adjustment and masculine and feminine

attributes.

32

Scores on the ACL are adjusted according to the sex of the respondent
and the total number of adjectives checked. Raw scores are converted to
Standard scores, with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10. Standard
scores for males are based on the scores of seven subsamples tested in a variety
of studies, including high school, college, graduate, and medical students, smaller
groups of delinquents and psychiatric patients, and a mixed group of 1,986 adults,
drawn from surveys and studies of specific professions. The total normative
sample for males equals 5,238. The normative sample for females is drawn from
similar studies and totals 4,144.

As might be expected, the internal consistency of the ACL varies
according to the scale. The manual cites alpha coefficients ranging from .53 (for
female subjects on the Counseling Readiness scale) to .95 (for males on Favorable
Adjectives Checked). The median alpha for females is given as .75, for males as
.76. Test-retest coefficients also vary widely. On the scales used in this study,
they range for males from .41, on Feminine Attributes, to .77 on Aggression, with
a median of .65. For females, test-retest data yield a low of .45 on three of the
scales, including Feminine Attributes, and a high of .86 on Exhibition. The median
for females is given as .71. These figures are not high, but are acceptable. The
authors of the check list point out that variability over time may reflect changes
in the subject as well as errors in the instrument and as such are a meaningful
variable (Gough dc Heilbrun, 1980, p. 30).

The advantages of the ACL for this study are several. It is the
instrument used in the number of studies relevant to the hypotheses. These
include Helson (1971), Cartwright (1972), Constantini and Craik (1972), and
Feulner (1979). Especially where mean scores are reported, this makes it possible

to compare the sample groups in this study with samples of women in other

33
professions as well as with norm groups. In addition, the ACL is readily
acceptable to subjects, being non-intrusive and easily filled out.

The disadvantages of the ACL are inherent in the check list method
itself. It is a self-description measure, which means that assumptions regarding
the congruence of the subject's presented self-image with actual behavior are
risky. This needs to be kept in mind while interpreting scores. Nevertheless, the
checking of the adjectives is itself a form of behavior which varies meaningfully
across groups, and self-image and self-identified perceptions of sex role are of
interest to this study.

The interpretation of scores follows the descriptions provided in the
manual for high and low scorers on the various scales. These descriptions,
according to the authors, have been derived from a combination of sources:
(1) correlations with Q-sorts made by observers of subjects under study at the
Institute for Personality Assessment and Research; (2) correlations with other
items on the check list; (3) consideration of the items contained in the scales
themselves; (4) the personal experience of the authors with the instrument, in
both clinical and research settings.

The Bern Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI): The Bem Sex-Role Inventory was
developed by Sandra Bem at Stanford and published in 1974. Its purpose was to
present scales in which masculinity and femininity could be treated as independent
rather than bipolar dimensions of personality. It consists of 60 adjectives or short
phrases. Twenty of these refer to qualities traditionally typed as feminine,
twenty to qualities typed as masculine, and twenty considered neutral as to sex
role. The subject is asked to rate the extent to which these descriptions apply to
himself or herself on a seven-point scale, from "never or almost never true" to
"always or almost always true." Separate scores are calculated for each subject

on masculinity and femininity. The neutral items are not scored.

34

Analysis shows the BSRI to be internally consistent, with coefficient
alpha no lower than .75 (for one of the female samples tested) and as high as .90
(for a male sample). Test-retest data over a period of four weeks range from .76
to .94 for various groups.

Mean raw scores on the BSRI can be used to classify subjects into four
types of sex role identification: masculine, feminine, androgynous, and
undifferentiated. Methods for doing this have been controversial. Bem's original
method called for computing a t ratio as the index of androgyny, based on the
difference between masculinity and femininity subscores. This method, however,
did not disciminate between subjects who scored high on both scales or low on
both. Agreeing with Spence, Helmreich, and Stapp (1975) that only those persons
should be called androgynous who show high levels of both masculinity and
femininity, Bem now recommends that subjects be classified on the basis of a
median split. Those who score above the median on masculinity and below it on
femininity can be considered to have a masculine sex role identification; those who
score above on femininity and below on masculinity can be considered feminine.
Subjects scoring above the medians on both subscales are designated androgynous,
while those with both scores below the medians are called "undifferentiated."
Median figures for performing this classification can be derived from the sample
under investigation or from the normative sample. Bem's original sample
consisted of 340 female and 476 male members of an introductory psychology
class at Stanford, 1978. Median scores for this sample are reported in the manual
and were used for classifying subjects in the present study. Bem also reports
mean scores from other representative groups, including a sample of "adults" aged
31-65. Unfortunately, medians are not given for this group. Abrahams, Feldman,
and Nash (1978), in their study of adults before and after marriage and children,

have demonstrated that sex role identifications may shift over time and ought not

35

be treated as stable traits. In their samples, the change was in the direction of
more traditional attitudes, as subjects grew older and took on the roles of parents.
A similar pattern is suggested in the mean scores reported by Bern (1981, p. 8):
femininity scores for the women tend to increase with age, with only minimum
changes in masculinity subscores. The scores of the male samples fluctuate less
over time. Neugarten (1964) did find an increased tolerance for dominance in
women and for nurturance and affiliation in men as a function of aging, but this
only began to be apparent in a 55-70 year old age group: subjects between the
ages of 40 and 54 maintained traditional attitudes. As Motowidlo (1981) has
pointed out, what is needed for the Bem inventory are standard cutting scores, so
that changes of this kind can be measured against an empirical norm. Until this is
accomplished the medians from Bern's samples can only be considered provisional
norms. The available evidence suggests, however, that younger men and women
are less rather than more sex-typed in their self-assessments (Abrahams, et. al.,
1978).

Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (SDS): As a check on the test
behavior of the subjects, they were also asked to complete the Marlowe-Crowne
Social Desirability Scale (Crowne dc Marlowe, 1960). This scale consists of 33
statements, 18 of which are keyed "true" and 15 of which are keyed "false". To be
qualified for inclusion in the scale, according to the authors, an item should refer
to a behavior which is "culturally sanctioned and approved but . . . improbable of
occurrence" (ibid., p. 350). For example, the first item reads "Before voting I
thoroughly investigate the qualifications of all the candidates." A "true" response
is considered to be governed by its social desirability rather than by the subject's
actual behavior. An attempt was made, in constructing the scale, to avoid items
with pathological implications, since, as the authors maintain, it may be difficult
to tell in such a case whether subjects' replies are attributable to social

desirability effects or to a genuine absence of symptoms.

36

The internal consistency coefficient of the SDS is reported as .88, with a

test-retest correlation of .89, indicating a stable measure.

CHAPTER V

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

Tests of the Hypotheses

Hypothesis One: The first hypothesis maintains that the professional
ministry calls on a combination of attributes belonging to both masculine and
feminine sex roles, as these are conventionally defined. It therefore predicts that
all three groups will contain a significantly high proportion of individuals whose
self-descriptions classify them as androgynous on the Bem Sex-Role Inventory.

Classifications were obtained through a median split. The manual for the

BSRI provides medians from the 1978 Stanford normative sample, based on the
combined raw scores of both male and female subjects. The median raw score on
femininity is 4.90; the median raw score on masculinity is 4.95. Subjects whose
mean raw scores fell above the median on femininity but at or below it on
masculinity were classified as feminine. Those with mean scores above the
median on masculinity but at or below it on femininity were classified as
masculine. Those with both scores above the medians were classified as
androgynous; those with both scores below it were classified as undifferentiated.

Tables 1, 2 and 3 present the results, compared with the results for the
normative samples.

If the medians of the original sample are used as criteria, fully a third
more of both groups of theological students can be classified as androgynous.
Among the clergywomen, almost twice as many qualify as androgynous on the

basis of a median split. Hypothesis One is therefore supported.

37

38

Table 1. Comparison of Percentages of Subjects Classified as Feminine, Masculine,
Androgynous, or Undifferentiated on the Bern Sex-Role Inventory;
Stanford Normative Sample vs. Female Theological Students.

 

 

Sam 1e Classification

Fem. Masc. Andr. Undiff .

 

Stanford normative

 

sample, females 39.4% 12.4% 30.3% 17.9%
(N=340)
Female theological
students 26 . 5% 14 . 3% 40 . 8% l8 . 4%
(n=49)

2

x = 8.16, with 3 df, p<.05

Table 2. Comparison of Percentages of Subjects Classified as Feminine, Masculine,
Androgynous, or Undifferentiated on the Bem Sex-Role Inventory: Stanford
Normative Sample vs. Male Theological Students.

 

 

Sam 1e Classification

Fem. Masc. Andr. Undiff.

 

Stanford normative

sample, males 11.6% 42 . 0% l9 . 5% 26 .996
(N=‘176)

Male theological

students 13 .896 35 . 0% 30 . 8% 20 . 0%
(n=65)

 

x2 = 10.58, with 3 df, p<.025

39

Table 3. Comparison of Percentages of Subjects Classified as Feminine, Masculine,
Androgynous, or Undifferentiated on the Bem Sex-Role Inventory: Stanford
Normative Sample vs. Female Ministers.

 

 

Sam 1e Classification

Fem. Masc. Andr. Undiff.

 

Stanford normative
sample, females 39.4% 12.4% 30.3% 17.9%
(Nz340)

Female ministers
(n=22) 27.3% 13.6% 59.1% 0.0%

 

x2 = 49.11, with 3 df, p 4.001

40

It will be evident from examining the frequencies that there is very little
difference between the norm groups and the groups tested for this study in the
proportion of subjects with cross-sex identifications; there is no more than a few
percentage points difference between the samples in the numbers of males
classified as feminine and the number of females classified as masculine. The
increase in the proportion of subjects classified as androgynous reflects a
decrease in the women classified as feminine and the men classified as masculine.
There is also, in the case of the male seminarians and the female ministers, a drop
in the percentages of subjects in the undifferentiated category. These shifts will
be discussed in the following section.

Hypothesis Two: This hypothesis asserts that women in the professional
ministry will be likely to show the agentic, or masculine, qualities identified in
previous studies of women in male-dominated occupations. The first prediction
following from this hypothesis expects that the female students and the female
ministers will both score significantly above the norms for women on the
Adjective Check List scales for Achievement, Dominance, and Endurance.

The mean score for the female students on the Achievement scale is
56.31 (s.d.=6.94). On a standard scale with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation
of 10, this score corresponds to a percentile rank of 74. The student sample is
skewed, with 77.6% of the scores higher than the mean of 50. The difference
between their mean score and the population mean of 50 is significant (t=6.36,
p<.OOl).

The mean score on the Achievement scale is even higher for the
professional clergywomen: 3?: 57.32 (s.d=5.78). This is at the 77th percentile.
Only two of the women in this group have scores lower than 50. The difference
between the mean of this group and the population mean is significant (t=5.93,

p<.001).

-‘

41

The mean score of the female students on the Dominance scale of the
ACL is 55.02 (s.d=8.80). This corresponds to the 69th percentile. Almost three
fourths of the female students' scores fall above the mean of 50 (73.5%). The
difference between their mean score and the population mean is significant
(t=3.99, p<.001).

The results for the clergywomen are equally strong. Their mean score on
Dominance is 56.68 (s.d=7.62). This falls at the 75th percentile. The difference
between this mean and the population mean is significant (t=4.11, p< .001).

The mean score for the female students on the Endurance scale of the
ACL is 54.86 (s.d.=6.68). This places them at the 69th percentile. Three quarters
of them (75.5%) score above the mean of 50 and the difference between this mean
and their mean score is statistically significant (t=5.09, p<.001).

The mean Endurance score for the clergywomen is 53.82, which places
them at the 65th percentile on this scale. Two thirds of them (68.2%) score
higher than 50. The difference between their mean score and the population mean
is also significant '(t=3.12, p<.01).

The first prediction under Hypothesis Two is fulfilled. Women seeking or
performing professional roles in the ministry do show significantly high levels of
motivation for Achievement, Dominance, and Endurance, as these are measured
by self-descriptions on the Adjective Check List.

A second prediction under Hypothesis Two sets forth the expectation
that women in ministry who are high on dominant, agentic characteristics will
show correspondingly low needs for Deference and Abasement.

The female students score below the population mean for Abasement:
T: 46.65 (s.d.=9.16). Two thirds of the students score below the standard mean of

50 and their mean score puts them at the 37th percentile on this scale. The

42
difference between their score and the population mean is significant
(t=-2.56, p< .05).

The clergywomen's mean on the Abasement scale is lower still: Y: 45.14,
s.d.=9.00. No less than 77.3% of this sample have a score below 50. The
percentile rank for the group's mean score is 31. The difference between the
population and sample means is significant (t=2.54, p <.05).

Results on the Deference scale are less unequivocal. Once again both
female groups score below the standard mean, with mean scores that are almost
identical: ‘1': 47.33 for the students (s.d.=9.24) and 7.: 47.23 for the clergywomen
(s.d.=8.62). These scores fall at the 39th percentile of a normal distribution.
Sixty-eight percent of the clergywomen's scores and sixty-one per cent of the
students' scores are less than 50. The difference between the mean score for the
students and the population mean is significant (t=-2.03, p<.05) but this
significance does not hold for the smaller group of clergywomen.

This prediction is therefore only partially supported. Both the women
seminarians and the working clergywomen score significantly lower than women in
general on the Abasement scale of the ACL. However, on the Deference scale,
only the students' mean score differs significantly from the norm.

Hypothesis Three proposes that in spite of the high degree of agentic
qualities, such as Dominance, shown by women in the ministry, they will also
retain some of the traditionally feminine qualities associated with the modality of
communion. Specifically, it is predicted that they will not score below the norms
for women on the ACL scales for Affiliation and Nurturance.

As the results show, these two groups of ministerial women score
significantly m than women in general on these dimensions. The mean score
for the female students on the Nurturance scale is 54.35 (s.d.=6.69). This is at the

67th percentile. Some 73.5% of this group have scores higher than 50. The

43
difference between their mean and the population mean is Significant (t=4.55,
p<.001). The score for the women ministers is similar: 7.: 54.91 (s.d=5.69). The
mean score is at the 69th percentile and 68.2% of the scores are higher than 50.
This too is statistically significant (t=4.05, p<.001).

The same holds true for Affiliation. The female students, with a mean
of 52.57 at the 60th percentile (s.d.=8.53), show a significant deviation from the
norm (t=2.11, p<.05). The mean score of the clergywomen is even higher:
'32“: 54.73, s.d.=6.96. This corresponds to 3 percentile rank of 68. A full 81.8% of
the clergywomen's scores are higher than 50. The difference between the means
is significant (t=3.18, p<.01).

The third hypothesis is therefore supported.

Hypothesis Four concerns the males in the sample. Since it is believed
that the ministry represents an androgynous profession, it is proposed that male as
well as female clergy will display some of the qualities of the opposite sex, as
these have been traditionally understood. Prediction five states that the male
students will score significantly above the norms for men on the scales for
Affiliation and Nurturance. This prediction is upheld.

The male theological students Show a mean of 54.89 on the Nurturance
scale of the ACL (s.d=7.98). The percentile rank for this score is 69; 74.3% of the
men Score higher than the norm. This is significantly higher than the population
mean of 50 (t=5.15, p<.001).

The results are similar for their Affiliation scores. The mean score is
the same, 54.89, but variability among the male students is slightly less
(s.d.=7.65). Again, over 70% of the group score above the average on this scale.
The difference between their mean and the standard mean is significant (t=4.95,

p<.001).

44

The final hypothesis, Hypothesis Five, is speculative. Suspecting that
cross-sex identifications are likely.to be more acceptable to women than to men
at the present time, given the prevailing values of feminism, this hypothesis
suggests that the men may Show signs of greater intrapersonal conflict. In the
prediction, this is tied to the ACL scale for Personal Adjustment. This prediction
is not supported by the data.

All three groups in this study score well above the norms for the
Personal Adjustment scale. In the case of the male students, the mean score of
54.59 falls at the 69th percentile. There is a significant difference between this
score and the standard mean (t=6.l9, p<.001). Other ACL scales concerned with
self-acceptance yield similar scores; on the scales for Self-Confidence and Ideal
Self, the scores for all three groups are once again well above average.

Contrary to expectations, therefore, the men in this seminary group
present themselves as better adjusted than the male population at large and no

less well adjusted than women entering or engaged in the same profession.

Additional Data Supporting the Hypotheses

In addition to comparing percentages of subjects classified according to
sex role, it is also instructive to examine the mean raw scores on the BSRI. These
are compared in Table 4 with normative samples from the Bem manual.

First of all, it is apparent that all three groups--male and female
seminary students and female ministers—could be classified as "androgynous," in
that their mean scores fall above the medians given by Bern for Masculinity and
Femininity raw scores: 4.95 and 4.90 respectively. However, although the raw
score means lie above the medians, they do not differ significantly from the
norms for the sex role which matches their biological sex. That is to say, the men

do not differ from other men in their masculine identification; the women do not

Table 4. Comparison of Mean Raw Scores on the Bem Sex-Role Inventory:

Normative Samples vs.

Theological Students.

Female Ministers and

Male and Female

 

 

Femininity Raw Scores

 

 

 

 

Sample Mean Standard
Score Deviation
Stanford normative
sample, females* 5.05 0.53
(N=340) _
Female theological t‘0°65 n.s.
students 5.01 0.47
(n=49)
Stanford normative
sample, males 4.59 0.55
(N=476) _
Male theological t‘7'09 p<.001
students 5 . 02 O . 49
(n=65)
Stanford adult
females 5 . 11 0 . 46
(n=59) t:-l.54 n.s.
Female ministers 5.00 0.32
(n=22)
Masculinity Raw Scores
Sam le Mean Standard
Score Deviation
Stanford normative
sample, females 4.79 0.66
(N=340) _
Female theological t‘4°30 P <'001
students 5 . 15 0 . 59
(n=49)
Stanford normative
sample, males 5.12 0.65
(N=476) _
Male theological t..0.20 "'5'
students 5 . 14 0 . 65
(n=65)
Stanford adult
females 4 . 57 0 . 77
(n=59) t=7.18 p<.001
Female ministers 5.18 0.66

(11:22)

 

*Comparison groups are taken from the manual
for the BSRI (Bern, 1981, p. 8)

46

differ from other women in their feminine identification. It is the cross-sex
scores which distinguish these groups. The male theological students, without
appearing to think of themselves as less masculine, do not hesitate to describe
themselves in ways which are typically considered feminine as well. The same is
true for the women students and for the working clergywomen. They do not rate
themselves as less feminine, but their masculinity mean scores are significantly
higher than the masculinity mean scores reported by Bern. In all three cases, the
level of significance is high (p <.001).

A similar conjunction of scores can be seen on the Adjective Check List.
The clergywomen's score on the Feminine Attributes scale, 51.59,'does not differ
significantly from the population mean of 50, but their score on the Masculine
Attributes scale, 53.68, is significantly higher (p<.05). The same pattern holds
for the male students: their score on the Masculine Attributes scale is exactly at
the standard mean, 50.00, but their mean score on Feminine Attributes is higher
(p (.01). In this case, however, the female students' scores do not differ from
those of other females on either scale.

The findings that ministers differ from others not in their identification
with their own sex but in their added identification with the opposite sex supports
the belief that the ministry calls on both masculine and feminine qualities and is
likely to appeal to men and women with an androgynous personality style. This is
seen clearly in the scores of working clergywomen and male ministers-in-training
on the Bem Sex-Role Inventory and relevant scales of the Adjective Check List.
To a lesser extent, it is also seen in the scores of women in training for the
ministry. These patterns lend support to the enrichment hypothesis of innovative
career choice. According to this view, women making unconventional career

decisions are not deviant, in the sense of being less feminine than the average

47
woman; their experience has been enriched, so that they possess interests or
capabilities over and above the norm (Almquist dc Angrist, 1970).

Additional support for this interpretation comes from a comparison of
the frequencies in each of the four sex role categories. As noted in the previous
section, the predicted increase in the numbers of subjects in the androgynous
category, when compared with the Stanford norm groups, is largely due to a
decrease in the percentage of men in the masculine category and women in the
feminine category, that is to say, in the categories representing the conventional
stereotypes. This does not mean that there is less masculinity among the men or
less femininity among the women, measured overall. Since the androgynous
classification requires mean raw scores above the median on both dimensions, this
means that there are more subjects with high cross-sex scores _ih addition to high
scores on the qualities associated with their own sex.

This can be illustrated by comparing sums of the two frequencies. In the
normative sample of females, 39.4% were classed as feminine and 30.3% as
androgynous, for a total of 69.7% with femininity mean scores above the
median. Among the student women in this sample, the total is comparable:
67.3%, but the proportion of these classed as androgynous is significantly higher,
40.8%. Among the male students, there are 35.0% classified masculine and 30.8%
classified androgynous, for a total of 65.8%, as compared to total of 61.5% in the
normative sample of males. In the case of the clergywomen, the total percentage
with scores above the median on femininity is very high: 86.4%.

It is once again abundantly clear that the deviance hypothesis regarding
women in male-dominated occupations does not hold for these subjects. These
women are not less feminine in their identifications; they are more androgynous.
The corresponding statement can be made regarding the men: as hypothesized,
they are not less masculine than other men; they too are more androgynous in

their self-perceived sex role identifications.

48

An additional finding of interest is the fact that none of the
clergywomen were classified as undifferentiated. That is, none of their mean raw
scores fell below the median on both masculine and feminine dimensions (17.9% of
the norm group were in this category). Without other comparisons, it is not
possible to say whether this is due to the effects of maturing, of professional
experience, or of the continuing process of selectivity which will undoubtedly
reduce the numbers of women graduating from seminary who actually become
pastors. It does underscore, however, the impression gained from the interviews
that this is a highly individuated group of women, who present themselves in
strongly defined terms.

One final comment in this context. In discussing the scores on the Bem
inventory, there has been an implicit assumption that the subjects' self-ratings
have some correspondence to their personalities or their behavior. It is also
possible, of course, that it is the professional ideal rather than the individual
which is androgynous, that subjects think of themselves in these terms because
the idealized portrait of a minister combines qualities, such as strength and
compassion, which in the ordinary view have been apportioned to different sex
roles. Women might be particularly apt to ascribe to such an ideal since it is
consciously articulated in feminist discussions. What is interesting in the results
reported here is that it is not the women still in seminary, were feminism is very
much a topic of concern, who describe themselves in the most androgynous terms,
but the more experienced women, who belong to a different cohort. Again, one
can only speculate on reasons for this rather pronounced difference between the
professional clergywomen and both student groups. A relevant study here would
be one which administers the BSRI to a comparable group of professional

clergymen.

49

Background Characteristics1

1. The Students

Age: The mean age of the male students is 31.03, of the female
students, 35.67. The difference is statistically significant (t=2.89; p<.01). The
women are clearly entering training later than the men. Well over half of the
male students are still in their twenties as compared with hardly more than a
fourth of the females (58.46% vs. 26.53%).

Marital status: Forty-four of the 65 male students are married (67.69%).
Twenty-four of these have at least one child, with eight of them having a child
younger than six. All but two of the unmarried men are still in their twenties.
Two of the men are divorced, no more than 3% of the sample.

The picture is very different among the women. No less than 10 of the
49 are divorced (20.41%). In addition, one woman lists herself as separated.
Thirteen of the women students are single (never married). Only half of the
women students (51.02%) are presently married, as compared to two thirds of the
men (67.69%). The differences among these frequencies are statistically
significant (x2=9.02, with 2 df; p<.025).

Seventeen of the married women and seven of the divorced women have
children at home. For the majority of these, the youngest child has reached
school age, but four of the women students have at least one child under six. Five
of the older women have children who are grown (19 or older).

Education: An undergraduate degree is a prerequisite for graduate
training in theology. For 51 of the male students this is their highest level of non-

seminary education. Six list some graduate study without a degree; eight have an

 

1For more detailed data, see tables in the Appendix.

' 50
M.A. (several have more than one); there is one Ph.D. A higher proportion of the
female students have some education past the undergraduate level, but the
difference is not significant. Ten have master's level degrees, while nine more
have some graduate education without the degree. This amounts to 38.78% of the
women as opposed to 21.54% of the men.

Previous occupations: Eleven of the younger men list no previous
occupations. Another 22 of those under 30 list a variety of jobs of a type which
suggests a way of making a living more than a careerumarking time, perhaps, until
the decision, or the opportunity to enter seminary (clerical or construction jobs,
for example, or youth work for the church). No more than seven of the 38 men
under thirty list a career which requires training (among these are a social
worker, a teacher, and a diesel mechanic).

Among the 27 men who are 30 or older, the ministry is more clearly a
career change. Five have had previous careers in a profession or at top levels of
business management. Five others have held lesser management positions, five
have been teachers, four come from the corrections field.

Previous occupations listed by the women students cover most of the
fields in which women have traditionally been employed. Twenty-one of the 49
have been teachers, for example, four have been librarians, two have been nurses.
Sixteen have been in clerical or sales positions. Only one of the questionnaires
listed an executive career. Only one suggested a previous choice of the kind
typed as innovative or non-traditional: one young woman had worked as
a sheriff's deputy. Seven of the women students have worked in
counseling, social service, or other helping roles, and six of them have been
employed by the church at one time or another.

Role models: Douvan (1976) has commented on the effect of the lack of
role models for women in male-dominated fields. All subjects were therefore

asked to identify persons who had significantly influenced their choice of

51
vocation. Thirty-nine per cent of the women said they had had no role models (as
compared to 28% of the men). The percentages of those who named professional
role models were similar: 57% of the men and 54% of the women. In the case of
the men these were all clergymen. In the case of the women, only 16% had a
woman minister as a model. Thirty-one per cent of the women named a male
minister; six per cent named a woman in another profession.

Clergy relations: For men, the church has been one of the professions in
which family traditions run strong. Hale, King and Jones (1980) report in their
national survey of United Methodist clergywomen that 50% of them had relatives
who were ordained and 34% of them were married to ministers. The percentages
for this group of women are lower than the national figures. Twenty-eight
percent of the women students have clergy relatives, as compared to 47% of the
men. One of the men and two of the women are married to ministers. Two thirds
of both groups have no ordained persons in their families.

Parents' education: Any number of studies of the background of
professional women find that they are apt to have educated parents. Patrick
(1973), for example, in her study of women pursuing graduate degrees found that
59% of their fathers had graduate or professional degrees, another 14% had
undergraduate degrees, and 50% of their mothers also had a B.A. degree or higher.
This trend does not hold true for this sample of ministerial students. Only 29% of
the women's fathers and 22% of their mothers have a college degree or better.
Among the men, the figures are 40% for the fathers and 29% for the mothers.
Nine per cent of the men's fathers and ten per cent of the women's fathers have
no more than a grade school education.

For this group the ministry clearly represents upward mobility. Once
they complete the M. Div. degree, 72% of these men will be exceeding the

educational level achieved by their fathers. No less than 84% of the women will

52
have surpassed their father's educational level and 92% of them will be better
educated than their mothers.

Parents' occupations: Ten of the 65 men have fathers who are major
professionals or executives in large businesses. Nine of them are the sons of
ministers. Nine of their fathers are, or were, in lesser business positions. Six are
ranchers or farmers. The rest are clerks, salesmen, technicians, or workers.

Distributions among the women are similar. Eight have fathers who are
professionals or executives. Only two are the daughters of ministers (and one of
these is part-time, without seminary training). Eight of their fathers are farmers.
Six have small businesses of their own or are in middle management. The rest are
clerks, technicians and workers.

Twenty-eight of the men (43%) and 11 of the women (22%) call their
mothers homemakers. Of the 37 men who list an occupation for their mothers,
the majority name jobs with minor skill requirements, such as clerk or waitress.
Ten of the mothers were teachers, three were administrators of some kind, four
were nurses.

More than three fourths of the women have mothers who have worked at
some time. The largest number of these (12) were teachers. Five were nurses.
Two are designated ministers, but only one of these is a professional. Eight are
semi-professionals in lower level administration. The rest are clerical, sales, or
factory workers. Fifty-one per cent of the women say that their mothers were
employed all through their childhood; another 18% of the mothers worked for a
shorter period of time.

These figures make these women comparable to other professional
groups reported in the literature. Epstein (1968) and Almquist and Angrist (1970)

both report that two thirds of their career-oriented women had working mothers.

53

Birth order: Professional women tend to be firstborns. Hale, King and
Jones (1980) report 53% eldest or only children among the clergywomen they
surveyed. Standley and Soule (1974) report 57% among a mixed group of women
professionals. The percentages among this group of women in training are the
highest of all: six of them are only children and 28 are eldest children, for a
combined total of 69%. Only 38% of the male students are firstborns. This
difference is significant: x2=10.70, with 1 df; p<.005.

Relations with parents: Subjects in this study were asked to estimate
which of their parents they felt closer to while growing up and which they
believed they resembled most. Both sexes felt closer to their mothers and both
felt they were more like their fathers. Perhaps what is noteworthy in their
responses is that almost three fourths of the women felt some identification with
their fathers, either predominantly (35%) or in addition to their mothers (37%).
About half of the men acknowledged some cross-sex identification.

Bowers (1963) and Siegelmann and Peck (1960) refer to the unhappy
childhoods of many ministers and believe that the loss of a parent in childhood is
common. This is not borne out by the information given by these subjects. No
specific questions were asked concerning memories of childhood, but only four of
the women and four of the men had lost a parent at an early age.

Sources of difficulty and support: Subjects were asked to identify major
sources of difficulty and support during the period of their choosing and then
being trained for the ministry. The major source of support for the men is their
wivesubut for every three women who call their husband a source of support,
there is one who names him as a source of difficulty. Both sexes have found
support from family members, but the women have depended more on friends to
help them through. Interestingly, more of the women mentioned the support of

their home church or pastor: 35% of the women as compared to 11% of the men

54
called this a major source of support-—leading one to conclude that while some
women meet opposition to their ordination because of their sex, in other cases the
novelty of their choice may gain them extra attention or support. Although
"attitudes toward women in ministry" was the third most frequently cited
obstacle, the actual percentage of women who mentioned this was 14%.
Apparently, in 1982, this was no longer a major deterrent to entering seminary.

The highest place on both lists goes to the struggle with "self"--but
considerably more men than women put this down (28% vs. 17%). Money is a
greater problem to the men; time is a greater problem to the women. Perhaps
this reflects the stresses attendant on family roles: for men trying to support
families while they complete their training and for women continuing to manage a
home. If women find children a source of role strain, they also find them a source
of support. Eighteen per cent of the women called them this; none of the men
brought them up.

Vocational choice and career plans: Seventy-one per cent of the male
students say that they were in their teens or twenties when they felt called to the
ministry, and that they took active steps toward this career within three years
after that. For the women, there are two distinct patterns. F ifty-three per cent
of the sample began to prepare themselves for their career within three years, but
22 of the 49 women (45%) had waited ten years or longer.

Asked about their immediate career plans, a substantial proportion of
both groups expect to be employed in the parish ministry following graduation.
The women are less certain than the men, however, that this is the direction in
which they will go, 45% vs. 69%. This difference is significant (X2=6.83, with 1
df; p <.OOl).

Asked to describe their ideal job within the church, the percentage of

both groups naming the parish ministry drops considerably. It appears that many

55
of them expect that their first job will be in the local church but hope eventually
to exercise a more individual or innovative form of service, such as a Chaplaincy,
a special ministry (to the arts, or the handicapped, for example), or as pastoral
counselors.

Finally, the students were asked what they thought they would be doing
if the ministry had been closed to them for any reason. Two thirds of the women
and one half of the men named another helping profession. Five of the women
who named another profession said they thought they would continue to work for
the church in a volunteer capacity. None of the men named this option.

Summary: To summarize briefly, the women in this sample of students
preparing for the ministry compare to men in the same school as follows:

They are likely to be older than the men, and to have taken up
preparation for the ministry after a longer delay. They are much more likely to
be divorced. Like the men, two thirds of them can point to professionals who
influenced their choice of vocation, but only 16% of them had a woman minister
as a model. Thirty-nine percent of them had no model at all. Fewer of them have
had relatives who were ordained. In their families, they are much more likely to
have been eldest or only children; sixty-nine per cent of them had this status.
Like the men, they felt closer to their mothers as they were growing up, but
believe they resemble their fathers more. Like the men, they can point to support
from their spouses, but they seem to get more opposition from that source as
well. They feel more supported by their friends, their ministers, their home
church, and their children. Significantly fewer of them are planning to work in
the local church; many would prefer a Chaplaincy or a teaching or counseling role.
If the ministry had been closed to them, the largest proportion of both men and
women would probably be teachers, or, especially in the case of the women, go

into another of the helping professions.

56

These women resemble women in other male-dominated fields in that
they are likely to have had mothers who worked. They differ from them in that
they are much less likely to have had parents who were educated beyond high
school or who had professional careers. Of the mothers who worked, virtually all
of them were employed in jobs in which, traditionally, women predominate: they
were teachers, nurses, secretaries, and the like. None of them were themselves in
male-dominated occupations, and while their daughters may have made an
innovative choice in applying to be ministers, if this field had been closed to them

they, too, would return to more traditional careers.

2. The Clergywomen2

Background characteristics of the clergywomen will be summarized here.
A fuller discussion of these and other variables can be found in the following
chapter.

Age: The mean age for the clergywomen is 41.33 (s.d.=8.73). The range
is from 28 to 57, with the median at 40. Two of the women are still in their
twenties, seven are in their thirties, seven in their forties, and five are over fifty.
(One woman's age was not given.)

Marital status: Ten are married, three are single (never married), two
are widows, and seven (32%) are divorced. In addition, one of the women has
remarried following a divorce, and one of the others is presently separated from
her husband. Thirteen of the 22 (59%) have children at home. For the majority,
the youngest child is now in high school, but four of them have children of grade
school age, and for two of them the youngest child is still preschool. Four of the

older women no longer have a child living at home.

 

2For more detailed data, see tables in the Appendix.

57

Education: Fifteen of the twenty-two graduated from Iliff, seven from
other schools of theology. As undergraduates only one majored in religion. Eight
were education majors, two have science degrees, the rest majored in psychology
or one of the humanities. Four have master's degrees in addition to the Master of
Divinity Degree, and one has gone on to obtain a Ph.D. in theology.

Previous occupations: Their work backgrounds are dominated by
teaching and related fields. Nine of them have taught school--up to 17 years
before entering seminary—and one of them has been a school administrator at the
state level. In addition, three of them have held church staff positions in religious
education. One was a counselor, two were in business (one at the managerial
level), three were employed as technicians in scientific fields. The remaining two
women said that they had been self-employed, or had worked at "odd jobs", but
had no prior career as such.

Role models: Virtually all of the women first responded to this question
by saying that, at the beginning at least, they had no role models. The people
some of them went on to name were those who had helped or influenced them, but
who were not necessarily primary inspirations. Only four named clergywomen.
Three named clergymen (one said she gained a new image for the ministry by
knowing "some nurturing men"). The rest named family members, teachers, or the
like.

Clergy relations: Like the students, two-thirds of the clergywomen have
had no ordained persons in their families. Of those with clergy relations, the
largest number named husbands: three of the women are presently married to
ministers, two are divorced from ministers, and one is the widow of a minister.
Of the fifteen who said that none of their relatives had been ordained, seven

volunteered the information that they came from what they called "a strong

58
church family," in which lay participation in the work of the church was an
important value. Two of these have brothers who are also ministers.

Parents' education: The figures on parents' education are similar to
those for the seminary women: 27% of the clergywomen have fathers with a
college degree or better, as compared to 29% of the students' fathers. More of
the ministers' mothers have a B.A. or some education past the B.A. (27% vs. 22%),
but there are no graduate degrees among the ministers' mothers. All of the
clergywomen, in other words, are better educated than their mothers were.

Parents' occupations: Two of these women's fathers were professionals
(a dentist and a college chancellor). Another two, as noted above, were ministers.
Two can be classified as lesser professionals, one was in middle management.
Four were farmers, four were in sales and clerical occupations, two were skilled
workers, and five were semi-skilled.

Contrary to findings in the literature on professional women--and to
those on the female ministerial students in this studyuby far the majority of
these women grew up with mothers who did not work outside the home (15 of the
22, or 68%). Of the seven who did work, two were teachers, two were nurses, and
three did moderately skilled work such as hairdressing. Three of the women, in
answering this question, said that although their mothers were not employed, they
remember them as very active and influential volunteers.

Birth order: Two of the clergywomen are only children; nine are the
oldest in their families. This gives a combined total of eleven firstborns, or 50%
of the sample. This is considerably lower than the 68% figure for the women
students, but comparable to the national figure given by Hale, King and Jones
(1980) for UMC clergywomen (53%).

Relations with parents: Like the students, more of the clergywomen felt

closer to their mothers than their fathers while growing up, but the percentage is

59
notably lower (36% vs. 57%). A higher proportion said they felt close to neither
parent, and described independent, if not unhappy, childhoods. Again like the
female Students, more of the women consider themselves like their fathers. Ten
of the 22 (45%) said they were more like their fathers than their mothers; another
two thought they resembled both parents.

Sources of support and difficulty: These questions referred to the path
to ordination; later questions inquired into their working relationships and
relations with their present congregation.

Friends have been by far the greatest source of support for these women,
although a couple of them also said that they had lost friends who disapproved of
their decision to enter the ministry. As with the students, husbands have been
both a source of support and a source of opposition. The greatest source of
difficulty, however, has been money, time, or fatigue, the sheer effort required to
combine homemaking with professional training. "The male hierarchy" figures in
seven of the responses regarding difficulty, but home church or pastor account for
eleven of the responses concerning support.

Vocational choice and career plans: Four of the women say that they felt
a call to some kind of ministry while still in childhood, but did not "name" it until
later in life. Nine of them made the choice in high school or college; nine of them
came to the decision as mature women. Eight of the women stated that they
began to make plans as soon as the decision was clear and applied to seminary on
this basis. But a larger number, eleven, did not actually decide to seek ordination
until after entering seminary. This pattern will be explored in the chapter on the
interviews.

All but two of the women are presently serving in the local church.

Asked what their ideal job would be, seven of them replied, "I have it." Four of

60
those giving this response were pastors of their own church; three were associates
in a larger church with several clergy on the staff. Eight women said they would
like to be the senior pastor, with responsibility for their own congregation. One
would prefer a Chaplaincy. The remaining six described qualities of work or work
situations which were important to themusuch as "some place with a more open
social climate"-—but did not specify a role.

Asked what they thought they would be doing if ordination had been
closed to them, the largest number, eight (36%), said they thought they would
probably be in counseling. Another seven (32%) gave teaching as their probable
career. One chose medicine (the career she rejected to enter the ministry),
another would have remained in social work. The rest guessed that they would

probably be working for the church in some non-ordained capacity.

OtherFindings

1. Social desirability

The Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale was included as a measure
of test-taking attitude. No predictions were made concerning the results.

The mean score for the female students in this study was 14.8 (s.d =
6.08). On the scale provided by Crowne and Marlowe a raw score of 14 is
equivalent to a standard score of 48 (1964, p. 210). The male students' mean score
is 15.45 (s.d = 5.77), for a standard score of 50. The mean score for the
clergywomen is 14.70 (s.d = 5.08), which also gains them a standard score of 50.

Based on these scores, we can say that these subjects did not make any
greater attempt to give socially approved answers than the average respondent.
The assumption is therefore made that their scores can be evaluated on the same

basis as other groups reported in the literature.

61

2. Personality characteristics of women ministers, with comparisons to women in
other male-dominated occupations.

Table 5 provides the mean scores and standard deviations for both groups
of female subjects on twenty-eight scales of the Adjective Check List. These are
compared for significance against the standard mean of 50. A similar table is
provided (Table 6) which compares selected scale scores for the working
clergywomen with scores reported in two other studies of professional women:
Feulner, 1979, and Constantini and Craik, 1972.

For the purposes of this discussion, findings are grouped under three
variables commonly found in studies of professional women: those having to do
with achievement motives and competency; those concerned with their
femininity; and those related to their personal adjustment. In interpreting the
scores, it should be borne in mind that the average scores of the subjects in this
study fall within one standard deviation of the mean. That is, they are no more
than moderately high. The modal portraits offered by the authors should
therefore be tempered accordingly.

Achievement and competence: Gough and Heilbrun define the need for
achievement as "to strive to be outstanding in pursuits of socially recognized
significance" (1980, p. 8). They described the high-scorer on their Ach scale as

. . . a hard-working, goal-oriented individual, who is determined to do well
and usually does. The motive to succeed. seems to lie less in competitive
drives than in an insistent need to live up to high and socially commendable
criteria of performance. (ibid.)

Both the clergywomen and the women students are, as predicted under
the hypotheses, high-scorers on the Achievement scale—well above the norms for
their sex (p <.001) and well into the company of high-achievers described in the
literature on professional women. The mean score of the clergywomen is not

significantly different from the mean score reported by Feulner for a mixed group

62

Table 5. Mean Standard Scores on the Adjective Check List for Female Ministers
and Thglogical Students, Tested for Significance Against the Standard
Mean ( X =50).

 

 

 

ACL Scale _ Ministers _ Students
x s.d. x s.d.

Total no. of

adjectives checked 53 .18*** 6 . 66 53 . 20*** 10 . 34
No. of favorable

adjectives checked 56.66* 6.78 55.59* 7. 67
No. of unfavorable

adjectives checked 41 .86* 3.24 44.61* 6. 19
Communality 48 .73 7 .13 51.00 7 . 20
Achievement 57 . 32* 5 . 78 56 . 31* 6 . 94
Dominance 56 . 68* 7 . 62 55 . 02* 8 . 80
Endurance 53 . 82** 5 . 75 54 . 86* 6 . 68
Order 51.73 5.82 52 .52** 6. 53
Intraception 56 . 41* 6 . 70 56 . 67* 6 . 88
Nurturance 54.91* 5.69 54.35* 6.69
Affiliation 54.74** 6.96 52.57*** 6.96
Heterosexuality 54 . 46** 6 . 43 53 . 49** 8 . 97
Exhibition 50 . 86 8 .82 51. 85 8 . 64
Autonomy 50.91 7.62 51.00 8.93
Aggression 52.55 10.40 52.78 9.89
Change 52 . 32 7 . 30 53 . 10** 7 . 61
Succorance 41 . 50* 6 . 10 46 . 63** 8 . 20
Abasement 45 .14*** 9 .00 46. 65*** 9 .16
Deference 47.23 8.62 47.33*** 9.24
Counseling Readiness 49.14 7 .76 48.67 9 .03
Self-Control 48 . 46 7 . 96 48 . 49 9 . 54
Self-Confidence 57 . 77* 6 . 29 54 . 98* 8 . 34
Personal Adjustment 53.77** 4.87 53.80* 7.51
Ideal Self 59.50* 7.70 56.92* 6.76
Creative Personality 60.68* 7.02 57.49* 8.97
Military Leadership 52.32 6.21 53.86* 6.72
Masculine Attributes 53.68*** 8.07 50.80 9.19
Feminine Attributes 51.59 7.85 51.12 10.31

 

*p (.001
**p <.01
***p (.05

63

Table 6. Mean Standard Scores of Professional Clergywomen on Selected Scales
of the Adjective Check List Compared with Mean Scores of Female
Political Leaders and a Mixed Group of Female Physicians, Lawyers,
and University Professors.

 

 

Scale 5: Achievement

 

 

 

 

x x p
Orrick, 1983 Feulner, 1979
Clergywomen Mixed professionals
(n=22) 57.32 (n=173) 59.08 n.s
Constantini and
Craik, 1972
Political leaders
(n:93) 60.70 -2.74 .025
Scale 6: Dominance
Orrick, 1983 Feulner, 1979
Clergywomen Mixed professionals
(n=22) 56.68 (n=173) 57.94 n.s
Constantini and
Craik, 1972
Political leaders
(n=93) 61.23 -2.80 .025
Scale 10: Nurturance
Orrick, 1983 Feulner, I979
Clergywomen Mixed professionals
(n=22) 54.91 (n=173) 50.27 3.82 .01
Constantini and
Craik, 1972
Political leaders
(n=93) 51.53 3.03 .025
Scale 11: Affiliation
Orrick, 1983 Constantini and
Clergywomen Craik, 1972
(n=22) 54.73 Political leaders
(n=93) 50.30 2.93 .025
Scale 12: Heterosexuality
Orrick, 1983 Feulner, 1979
Clergywomen Mixed professionals
(n=22) 54.46 (n=173) 50.17 3.12 .025
Constantini and
Craik, 1972
Political leaders
(n=93) 49.41 3.68 .01

Table 6: (Continued)

 

 

x
Scale 17: Succorance
Orrick, 1983
Clergywomen

(n=22) 41.50
Scale 18: Abasement
Orrick, 1983
Clergywomen

(n=22) 45.14

Scale 23: Personal Achustment

 

Orrick, 1983
Clergywomen
(n=22) 53.77

64

Feulner, 1979
Mixed professionals
(n=173)

Constantini and
Craik, 1972
Political leaders
(n=93)

Constantini and
Craik, 1972
Political leaders
(n=93)

Feulner, 1979
Mixed professionals
(n=173)

Constantini and
Craik, 1972
Political leaders
(n=93)

46.31

42.30

41.39

51.32

55.58

-3.97

2.36

.025

nos.

n.s.

,01

65
of women physicians, lawyers, and university professors (1979). The clergywomen
are somewhat less achievement-oriented, however, than the women political
leaders studied by Constantini and Craik (1972).

Dominance is a quality associated with achievement and leadership.
Gough and Heilbrun define it as the need "to seek and maintain a role as leader in
groups or to be influential and controlling in individual relationships" (1980, p. 8).

The high-scorer on Dominance is a strong-willed, ambitious, determined, and
forceful individual, free of self-doubt in the pursuit of goals, and little if at
all inhibited by the disapproval or opposition of others. The high-scorer is
affiliative and adroit in directing the group's activities toward the attainment
of socially worthy objectives. (ibid., p. 9)

Again as predicted under the hypotheses, the scores of both groups of
women on Dominance are higher than those of women in the general population
(p <.001). The clergywomen do not differ from Feulner's women professionals in
this respect, although again they are less dominant than the politicians.

Predictions were also made concerning the women's scores on the ACL
scales for Deference and Abasement, predictions which were for the most part
supported. Gough and Heilbrun call Abasement the need "to express feelings of
inferiority through self-criticism, guilt, or social impotence." They call
Deference the need "to seek and maintain subordinate roles in relationships with
others" (p. 14). Women pursuing careers in the ministry are actively seeking
leadership roles and score, as expected, significantly below other women on these
scales. In this, the clergywomen especially resemble the political leaders, whose
scores on the Abasement scale are also considerably below the norm. They neither
feel nor act inferior, nor do they readily accept subordinate positions.

The clergywomen resemble the politicians as well in their scores on the

Succorance scale, which rank among their lowest. Succorance is defined as the

need "to solicit sympathy, affection, or emotional support from others" and the

66
low-scorer is described as "independent, relatively unbothered by self-doubt and
equivocation, and effective in setting and attaining goals" (p. 14).

Interestingly enough, in spite of their willingness to set themselves apart
in assuming a leadership role and their reluctance to Show dependency on others,
the clergywomen and the women students do not score significantly above average
on scales for Autonomy and Aggression. Presumably, their high levels of
nuturance and affiliation work against their withdrawing from others and treating
them as rivals. (It should be noted, however, that Aggression scores Show greater
variability among the clergywomen than any other scale.) It does not appear,
either, that the opportunity to perform or gain the attention of others is a
significant motivator for these two groups of women in ministry. Their scores on
Exhibition are at the mean for women in general.

Another scale which can be related to competence is the one known as
Creative Personality. This scale includes such adjectives as "clever," "interests
wide," "original," "resourceful," and "inventive." Gough and Heilbrun call the
high-scorer "venturesome, aesthetically reactive, clever, and quick to respond.
Intellectual characteristics such as breadth of interests, cognitive ability, and
ideational fluency are also apparent" (p. 18).

High-scorers will be seen as ambitious and assertive, impatient when blocked
or frustrated, quick to take the initiative and get things moving, and
stubbornly insistent on attaining their goals. (p. 19).

For both groups of women in this study, Creative Personaltiy is their
highest score, suggesting that their predominant qualities, as they describe
themselves, have to do with their intellectual capacities and the value they place
on ideas and the ability to express them. This seems congruent with the role of
minister, involving as it does the public explication of theological ideas. Support
for this can also be found in their high scores on Intraception, or the attempt "to

understand one's own behavior or the behavior of others" (p. 10). Intraception is

67
the third highest score for the women still in seminary and the seventh highest for
the clergywomen, differing from the population mean at p< .001.

Personal Adjustment: The emotional adjustment of career-oriented
women has received a good deal of attention, as exemplified in the argument over
deviance and enrichment theories of career choice. The Adjective Check List
provides several scales which are intended as indices of emotional health. The
Personal Adjustment scale, for one, is said to reflect adaptation and self-esteem.
The high-scorer on this scale

. . . has a positive attitude toward life, enjoys the company of others, and
feels capable of initiating activities and carrying them through to conclusion.
High-scorers do not possess psychodynamic self-understanding, but they do
appear to possess the ability to 'love and work', proposed by Freud as the
critical criteria of personal adjustment. (p. 17)

Both the clergywomen and the student women score significantly above
the standard mean on this scale. Their scores are also significantly higher than
those of Feulner's mixed group of professional women. The mean 'score reported
by Constantini and Craik for their group of women political leaders is higher than
those for the women in this study, but the differences are not significant.

Confidence is a necessity for professional women and appears in virtually
all summaries of their distinguishing characteristics. As measured by the Self-
Confidence scale of the ACL, these ministers and ministers-in-training have it to
a much higher degree than the average woman (p <.001) and in a measure
comparable to that of the other professional women whose ACL scores are
reported for this scale.

The high-scorers on S-Cfd are initiators, confident of their ability to achieve
goals. They are not above cutting a few corners to create a good impression,
£119: observers do see them as assertive, enterprising and self-confident. (p.

The Counseling Readiness scale is intended to tap the kind of insecurities

and dissatisfactions which commonly lead an individual to seek counseling.

68

Positive correlations on the Q-sort are with items describing anxiety, anomie,
gloominess, and a tendency to ruminate. The women politicians score high on this
scaleuhigher than a group of male politicians—suggesting that their position
places them under strain. The two groups of women in ministry, however, score
slightly below the mean, suggesting that they are generally at ease with
themselves. Support for this interpretation is also seen in their scores on the
Ideal Self scale, which measures congruence between image of the self and image
of the ideal. Their scores on this scale rank second highest of the 28 scales scored
for the study. Gough and Heilbrun compare high-scorers on this scale with high-
scorers on Personal Adjustment:

High-scorers appear to be characterized by interpersonal effectiveness and

goal—attaining abilities, as were high-scorers on P-Adj. In addition, there

seem to be elements of narcissistic ego-inflation. High-scorers on 155 Should

tend to be rated as well-adjusted by observers, on a par with high-scorers on

P-Adj, but as less likeable. (p. 18).

Related to their presentation of self as close to their ideal is the fact
that both groups of women checked substantially more favorable adjectives to
describe themselves (and correspondingly fewer unfavorable adjectives).
Compared to the average score on these two scales, the difference is significant
at p< .001. The authors of the ACL do not accept the proposition that this kind of
responding can be attributed simply to the desire to appear in a favorable light to
the examiner. They believe that favorability is itself a personality factor which
correlates with other attributes.

The method used to develop the scale (selection of the 75 most favorable
items on the list) suggested at least the possibility that high-scorers would be
egotistical, self-centered persons, indifferent to their own imperfections.
The description and other correlates of the scale, however, indicate that
these inferences are incorrect. High-scorers are seen as adaptable, outgoing
individuals, protective of those close to them, cheerful in the face of
adversity, and productive as workers. The desirability of their self-
descriptions, in other words, is not a fraud or self-deception; on the contrary,

high-scorers on Fav appear to be quite justified in ascribing these favorable
items to themselves. (p. 6).

69

Another dimension frequently used as an index of adjustment is
heterosexual relations. Both groups of women in this study score significantly
higher than the average on the Heterosexuality scale of the ACL. The mean
scores are 53.49 for the students and 54.46 for the working clergywomen (p <.01).
Constantini and Craik report a mean of 49.41 for their sample of politicians;
Feulner reports a mean of 50.41 for her group. Neither of these stores is deviant,
but the difference between them and the two minister groups' scores is significant
at p<.01, suggesting that these churchwomen are, if anything, more apt to be
oriented toward the opposite sex than other women professionals.

On all these counts, therefore, it seems that women pursuing
professional careers in the ministry not only match but exceed the levels of
adjustment shown by certain other groups of professional women as well as those
shown by women in the general population. These women see themselves as self-
confident, sociable, active, successful people, generally untroubled by
introspective self-doubt.

Femininity: A prime concern of investigators of career-oriented women
has been their femininity. Are they "normal" women? or are they imitators and
enviers of men?

The high score on Heterosexuality reported above is one indication that
these women are no less feminine than other women. Other indications are their
mean scores on the Feminine Attributes scale. Neither these means nor their
mean Femininity scores on the BSRI diverge from those of other women. They
tend to be slightly, though not significantly, higher.

Nurturance and affiliation—the desires to be with others and to care for
them—are associated with the idea of communion and qualities of traditional
femininity. Gough and Heilbrun define Nurturance as "to engage in behaviors that

provide material or emotional benefits to others." The high-scorer on Nurturance

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"appears to like people; to have a cooperative, unaffected, and tactful social
manner; and to be sympathetic and supportive in temperament" (p. 10). They call
Affiliation the need "to seek and maintain numerous personal friendships" (p. 10).
The high-scorer on Affiliation is comfortable in social situations, likes to be
with people, and adapts easily to the changing demands of group process.
Little if at all given to soul-searching, the high-scorer glosses over inner
complexities and prefers to take people and events at face value. (p. 11).

It is in their high scores on these two scales that the women in ministry
differ from the other professional samples for which ACL scores are available.
According to their self-ratings, they are more nurturant and more affiliative than
the political leaders and more nurturant than the lawyers, physicians, and
professors. (Affiliation scores are not given for Feulner's group.) They are even,
as reported above, more highly nurturant and affiliative than the averageuand
presumably more traditional--woman, lending support to the thesis that the
ministry will attract women with special combinations of masculine and feminine
attributes.

Summary: To summarize briefly, studies of women in male-dominated
professions such as medicine, law, and politics find them to be above average in
their self-confidence, self-esteem, and personal adjustment. They are
achievement oriented and independent, often dominant, sometimes aggressive,
and persistent in reaching their goals. They dislike subordinate roles and seldom
appeal to others for reassurance and emotional support. Apart from these
qualities—which have traditionally been called masculine—they do not differ from
other women in their interest in the opposite sex, their sociability, or their ability
to care for others.

Women pursuing career goals in the ministry, as represented by the
seminary students and clergywomen surveyed for this study, resemble other

career women in many respects. They too present themselves as confident and

well-adjusted, with high aspirations, the ability to persist, and a liking for

71

leadership roles. They are dominant rather than submissive, self-sufficient rather
than dependent. Where they diverge from the consensus on career women is in
their highly nurturant approach to others and in their high need for affiliation.
They have both these qualities to a greater degree than either the average woman
or the typical career woman. Besides their general tendency to involve
themselves in numerous relationships, the clergywomen may also tend to seek the
company of men more than other women. As a group, they also appear to be less
aggressive than other career-oriented women—although certain individuals among
them may be high on this quality.

3. Personality characteristics of male theological students

Findings on men in the ministry do not converge quite so consistently as
those on career women. Some outlines do emerge from the research, however,
sufficient for .a rough comparison with the subjects in this study. Table 7 gives
mean scores on the ACL for the male subjects in this study, tested for
significance against the population mean.

There is general agreement that ministers are highly affiliative. This is
true of the men in this sample, who score significantly higher than average on the
ACL Affiliation scale. There is also agreement on the finding that clergymen are
nurturant. This group's mean score on this variable bears this out; they differ
from the average man on this dimension at the level of p <.001. Another common
finding is that ministers are dominant and this, too, is seen in the significantly
high scores of these men on the ACL scales for Dominance and their significantly
low scores on Abasement.

Some authors believe that a distinguishing characteristic of ministers is
their need for attention and approval. Siegelmann and Peck, for example, call

them insecure men, "dependent on personal acceptance and recognition" (1960, p.

72

Table 7. Mean Standard Scores on the Adjective Check List for Male

Theologi_cal Students, Tested for Significance Against the Standard
Mean ( X :50).

 

 

ACL Scale x s.d.

 

Total no. of

 

adjectives checked 52.86** 7.71
No. of favorable

adjectives checked 55 . 11* 7 . 19
No. of unfavorable

adjectives checked 44.77* 5.33
Communality 50 . 88 6 . 84
Achievement 52 . 28 9 . 35
Dominance 52 . 92** 8 . 24
Endurance 52 . 06 9 . 07
Order 51 . 52 8 . 59
Intraception 55 . 17* 6 . 77
Nurturance 54 . 89* 7 . 98
Affiliation 54 . 89* 7 . 65
Heterosexuality 56 . 65* 9 . 62
Exhibition 51 . 52 8 . 87
Autonomy 49 . 22 7 . 96
Aggression 51 . 43 9 . 30
Change 50.92 8.27
Succorance 46 . 80* 6 . 92
Abasement 47 . 26*** 8 . 33
Deference 50 . 43 8 . 90
Counseling Readiness 46.62** 7.97
Self-Control 49 . 06 8 . 39
Self-Confidence 54 . 99* 8 . 20
Personal Adjustment 54.59* 6. 54
Ideal Self 56.15* 8.01
Creative Personality 54.03* 7.78
Military Leadership 51.79 7.56
Masculine Attributes 50.00 9.64
Feminine Attributes 53.68* 9.60

*p< .001
**p< .01

***p < .0 5

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329). At least in their self-descriptions, these men do not fit that pattern. Their
mean scores on Exhibition are no more than average and they score well below the
norm on Succorance, or emotional dependency and need for reassurance.

Some authors emphasize the "set-apartness" of the clergy and point to
above average scores on measures of autonomy and isolation (e.g. Byers, 1968, and
Schroeder, 1958). Autonomy scores are not elevated for this group on the ACL,
however. Others, in speaking of difficulties with impulse expression, talk of
repressed or displaced aggressiveness as an area of conflict (see Bloom, 1971). On
the ACL scale for Aggression, the mean score for this group is very close to the
mean for the general population, suggesting that they neither express nor deny
aggression to an unusual degree.

Much has been made of the elevation on the Mf scale of the MMPI which
is typical of clergy profiles. Many have interpreted this as a sign of homosexual
conflicts. The men in this sample have no hesitation in expressing either their
femininity or their interest in the opposite sex. Their Feminine Attributes score is
higher than the mean for men in general; their Masculine Attributes score is
exactly at the mean for other men; and their highest scale score is that on
Heterosexuality (-x-= 56.65, p<.001). While one interpretation might be that the
high Heterosexuality score represents a defense against feminine interests, the
general pattern also seems consistent with the hypothesis that male clergy may be
better termed androgynous than effeminate. Correlational studies by Volentine
(1981) found that individuals classified as androgynous on the BSRI tended to be
typed as feminine on the basis of their scores on the Mf scale of the MMPI. This
led her to conclude that this scale might better be considered a measure of F
rather than M/F.

Finally, there is the question of the adjustment—or maladjustmentnof

the clergy. On all the relevant scales of the ACL this group of men presents as

74
better adjusted than average. These scales include Self-Confidence, Personal

Adjustment, Ideal Self, Favorable Adjectives Checked, and Counseling Readiness.

4. A modal portrait of the clergy

Since standard scores on the ACL are computed from different tables for .
men and women, direct statistical comparisons of scores are not appropriate. It
can be seen, however, that the significantly high scores in both groups tend to be
on the same scales. There are no high scale scores for the men which are not also
high scale scores for the women. Nevertheless, there are two scales on which the
women score significantly above the norms for their sex but the men do not: the
scales for Achievement and Endurance. These are qualities which do not figure in
research on men in the ministry. Compared to other options open to men, the
ministry does not demand unusual levels of aspiration or persistence. For women,
it is another story. At the present time, it seems likely that only a high-achieving
woman will present herself for such a career.

Bachtold (1976) believes that characteristics which define a vocation
may be specific to the vocation rather than to the sex of the person seeking it.
She proposes, in other words, that men and women in a given field may differ less
from each other than from members of their own sex in another field.
Constantini and Craik provide an illustration of this in their study of political
leaders (1972). Men and women in this field obtain their highest mean scores on
the same three scales, with a rank correlation among all scales of .88.

Mean scores for the three groups in this study are ranked in the
Appendix. Calculation of Spearman's rank correlation coefficient between the
scale scores of male and female students gives a rho of .83. Between the
clergywomen and the female students the correlation is .93. The difference

between these two correlations is not significant.

75

Drawing on the self-descriptions of these three groups of clergy and
clergy-in-training, we can construct a modal portrait of a minister. She—or he
«is a highly self-confident, sociable individual who enjoys taking an ascendant role
in relation to others. This may be either as a leader or as a helper; both roles can
satisfy needs to dominate. Ministers prefer to present themselves to others as
socially at ease and successful. They avoid unproductive ruminations over their
own shortcomings and they seldom seek others out to ask for their reassurance. A
minister, whether male or female, values ideas and has the ability to express them
fluently. Without deviating greatly from the accepted values of the community, a
minister may be unconventional in one respect: in the possession and expression
of qualities traditionally assigned to the opposite sex. She may be dominant as
well as nurturing; he can be pastoral as well as prophetic. Whether it is the clergy
who have shifted, or merely the prevailing modes of description, the results of
this study suggest that an enrichment, rather than a deviance, hypothesis may

best explain the choice of a career in the ministry, by men as well as by women.

CHAPTER VI
INTERVIEWS WITH THE CLERGYWOMEN

Material from the interviews which can be quantified and compared with
the results of previous studies has been presented above. In the course of the
conversations, however, much emerged which was not anticipated and cannot be
counted. It was in the expectation of this that the clergywomen were interviewed
in person, rather than surveyed by mail, and that both subject and interviewer
were left free to depart from the outline. Since little formal research has been
published to date on women entering the ministry, it was hoped that an open

approach would help to clarify issues and identify areas for future investigation.

The setting

The Rocky Mountain Conference of the United Methodist Church covers
the states of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. The jurisdiction to which it belongs
has one of the highest percentages in the UMC of women among clergy under
pastoral appointment. This conference also includes one of the three UMC
clergywomen in the nation serving as a District Superintendent. Like Iliff, the
theological school from which many of its clergy have graduated, the conference
has recently taken a liberal and supportive stance toward the ordination of
women. Their experience in this region cannot therefore be assumed to
comparable to the experience of women in other denominations, or even typical of
United Methodist clergywomen in other parts of the country.

Pastoral appointments in the UMC are made by the bishop, in contrast to

other denominations in which the local congregation "calls" its minister. This is a

76

77
primary factor in the careers of women. Provided that the bishop is sympathetic,
it means that the introduction of women into pastoral roles does not wait on a
change of attitude in the local church. It has been said that within the next five
years, given the numbers of women entering training, a majority of the churches
in the Rocky Mountain Conference will have the experience of having a woman on
their ministerial staff—whether they want to or not. This has already produced a
situation which may be close to unique: one in which women are beginning to
constitute a significant portion of the working clergy in a mainline denomination
(approximately 10% at the time of the survey). These women and their
experience reflect, in other words, not so much things as they are but the shape of

things to come.

Present appointments

At the time of the interviews, thirteen of the twenty women working in
the local church were still in their first appointment since being ordained.
Traditionally, first appointments are of two types: either as an associate pastor
in a large urban or suburban congregation or as pastor (and sole minister) in a
small rural congregation.

Especially in the case of the rural churches, the guaranteed appointment
system is a mixed blessing—for both the women and their congregations. Many of
these churches are in communities of a few hundred people on the high plains of
eastern Colorado, where it may be 40 miles to the next town, and as much as 200
miles to Denver or Colorado Springs. Their populations tend to be both church-
centered and conservative, and not necessarily hospitable to innovation. From the
point of view of the women, in order to begin their career, the appointment
system may require them to move away from friends, home, and resources,

perhaps to move family with them, into some very small towns indeed. From the

78

point of view of the rural churches, the appointment system guarantees them a
pastor, without their having to compete with affluent urban congregations, but
they may be forced to accept one whom they consider uncongenial. The anomaly
arising from this practice lies in the fact that the quality and level of experience
of the women currently being ordained is highuwith the result that some of these
isolated parishes are presently better served than they have been in years. Noting
the situation, a wry saying has sprung up among the women in which they refer to
themselves as "a string of pearls across the plains."

Pastors: Of the eight women with current appointments as pastors, five
have rural congregations of this type. Three of these are "two-point charges," in
which the minister is responsible for churches in more than one town (anywhere
from ten to thirty miles apart). Two other women with appointments as pastor--
and longer tenure in the conference—now have congregations within commuting
distance of Denver. One woman, ordained some fifteen years ago, has become the
first to be named pastor of a church in Denver itself.

Pastors of a small congregation are responsible for all the functions of a
minister, including conducting services, teaching, counseling, pastoral care, and
the details of church leadership and administration. If there are other paid staff,
which is not necessarily the case, they are part-time secretarial or janitorial help
only. The minister must depend for other assistance on the willingness of church
members to volunteer their time. Only one of the women is in a position to have
clergy working under her: as pastor of a Denver congregation with 400 members,
she has two part-time student associates.

Associates: Twelve of the women have appointments as associates. Two
of these are serving with their husbands, one in a co-pastorate, one sharing a one-
and-a-half time position. The rest function as assistants to a (male) senior pastor,

and may be one of the several clergy on his staff.

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Associates tend to be filling well-defined slots, with primary
responsibilities limited to specific parts of the church's program. One is
designated a Youth Minister, for example; others may be titled Minister of
Education. Education, in any case, seems to be the province of most of the
women with associate status, whether or not it is their preferred specialty. Nine
of the twelve women with staff positions give this as their main responsibility.
Feelings about this are mixed. Seven of the women taught before entering the
ministry, either in school systems or in the church, and their interests continue to
lie in this area. A couple of them, however, chafe under the knowledge the
teaching remains within the traditional boundaries of "women's work" in the
church, and are hoping to be able to move out of these roles. "It's no longer my
main interest," one of them remarked, "but it was the job I could get."

Most of the associates also share other duties with the senior pastor,
such as counseling, hospital visiting, and preaching. Five of the twelve associates
are on a regular rotation for preaching, typically once a month. Only two,
however, play any significant role in the financial decisions of their congregation.
This remains, on the whole, a male prerogative. One woman--who in her secular
job managed a budget far larger than that of her present congregation—finds her
exclusion from this area particularly ironic. Another index of the status and
acceptance of women is the number of liturgical functions they are invited to
perform. Several of them are sensitive to the fact, for instance, that local
funeral directors will not accept them to officiate at services and may seek out
the minister of a more distant church instead. They acknowledge, however, that
in this, as in other matters, it is often hard to tease apart the effects of being
female and the effects of having junior status as an associate.

District Superintendent: In the United Methodist Church, the district

superintendent is a minister appointed by the bishop and serving directly under

80

him with administrative responsibility for the work of the church in a given
district. For the woman presently in this post in the. Rocky Mountain Conference,
this means overseeing some 47 churches in an area 600 miles across, visiting them
on a regular basis, providing pastoral support for their clergy, and raising funds
for the general work of the church through local pledges to the budget of the
conference. As she describes it, "I'm the cheerleader and the tax collector." As a
member of the bishop's cabinet, she also takes part in decisions governing clergy
appointments and church policy. The appointment is limited to six years, of which
she is currently in her fourth.

While the post of district superintendent is a significant one, in many
ways it is not in the direct line of competition where the hierarchy of clergy
appointments is concerned. Status in the Protestant ministry is more apt to be
tied to the size, wealth, and social status of one's congregation and the perceived
influence of its pulpit. Tradition in the UMC dictates that when a D.S. steps down
from this post he is awarded a major appointment of this type, as senior pastor of
one of the more conspicuous congregations in the conference. Many of the women
interviewed, in reflecting on the achievements—and limits to achievement--of
the women in their area, said they were waiting to see what kind of appointment
this woman would be given at the end of her tenure. They viewed this as a potential

benchmark of progress.

The road to ordination

Although the Methodist Church formally approved the ordination of
women in 1956, it was not until 1968, when the church joined with the Evangelical
United Brethren to become the United Methodist Church, that women were
brought under the guaranteed appointment system. Only two of the women

interviewed were ordained before that date. The majority of them (thirteen of

81
the twenty-two) were ordained no earlier than 1979. The contrasts. in the
experience of those ordained earlier and more recent graduates tells how rapidly
the situation is changing.

Early aspirants to the ministry found substantial obstacles in their path.
One was sent a form, along with her application to seminary, in which she was
asked to promise never to marry if ordained. One was offered ordination only on
condition that she not ask for an appointment. One waited five years after
ordination for her first job as a minister. None of these women had role models.
Indeed, one of them makes the remarkable statement that she had never even
' heard of a woman minister when it came to her that this was what she should be.
One says she had no opposition at all; even at her ordination, no one took her
seriously enough to imagine that she would ask for a job.

The women ordained from 1976 to 1978 also say they had no role models,
although they came to look to the few women ahead of them in seminary as
mentors. There were still stumbling blocks. Boards of Ministry, charged with the
responsibility of passing on the fitness of candidates for ordination, were still
uneasy about interviewing women. There are reports of offensive questions
concerning dating, plans for children, marriage relations. In some cases, there
was thinly veiled hostility. To one woman it was insinuated that if her husband
was willing to follow her to an appointment, he must be homosexual.

At the annual ordination ceremony in 1979, women were actually in the
majority. A few of those ordained at that time still refer to minor obstacles
which delayed, but did not prevent, their progress, but from this point on they are
much more apt to say that they had no major discouragements from sources
within the church. They are more likely to name difficulties in their personal

lives as impediments than institutional opposition.

82

Considering that most of the women say that initially they had no role
models, what led them to consider the ministry? Two of them suspect that some
of their motivation came from the experience of having favored brothers, making
them intent on proving their own worth. One says she was inspired by hearing a
bad sermon and thinking, "I can do better than that." Many of them can point to
family traditions. One comes from "a long line of ministers" and married a
minister herself. Another says that as a child she was told stories about her great
aunts who were missionaries. A couple of women from clergy families call them a
negative influence, an image of what they wished not to be. Nine of the
clergywomen said that their families were not church-goers at all and have been
somewhat confused by their choice of career. But five of them describe a family
atmosphere imbued with church commitment. "My father has taught Sunday
school for 55 years," said one with pride. The father of another had himself
entered seminary, but financial hardships forced him to leave. One has a mother
who has become a lay minister since her daughter's ordination.

For thirteen of the twenty-two women, going to seminary was part of a
clear career decision. Several of these speak of the ministry as one option among
several, a choice they came to after rejecting other careers. For others among
this group it was a natural outgrowth of an ongoing involvement in the work of the
church. Three had planned since high school to continue on to seminary after
college. The rest of the women tell a different story. I entered seminary, they
will say, "to learn more about my faith," "to improve my teaching," "to upgrade
my credentials." Once there, the encouragement of faculty, or the sheer presence
of other women, had an impact on them, and it was at that point that they

decided to seek ordination.

83

In other words, there seem to be three types of vocational choice among
them: there are those for whom the ministry is a first career, a course decided
upon early and pursued in a Straight line; there are those for whom entering
seminary represented a step in a planned change of course; and then there are
those, generally in their late thirties or early forties, for whom seeking a
theological education was itself part of a process of life change, which later led
to the decision to be ordained. For these last, especially, the history of their

vocational choice is closely intertwined with the history of their marriages.

Marriage and family

Marriage is a complex subject for these women. They spoke of their
own, or one another's, marriages tactfully but with a sad sense that this is an area
in which their experiences divide them.

Seven of the clergywomen have been married for ten years or more. In
their case, becoming a minister occurred in the context of a marriage which
began on a very different premise, and they are well aware of the adjustments
this has required their husbands to make. "He couldn't make a sandwich when we
got married," said one of them, "so you can see what that poor man has been
through." Four of these women say that their husbands have remained supportive
throughout the process. The other three say that their husbands encouraged their
getting an education, but were initially dubious about ordination. In some cases
the wife's decision has meant that the husband himself had to deal with opposition
from family or friends. One woman said that friends of her husband's began to
avoid him at work. Asked why, she thought for a moment and said, "I guess they
thought I would contaminate their women." Husbands who help with laundry or
children have become objects of curiosity, or have lost status in the eyes of other

men.

84

For at least six of the women, entering seminary coincided with marital
conflicts, ending, in some cases, in divorce. None of these women believes that
her decision, in and of itself, caused the breakup of her marriage, although they
are all well aware that the sequence of the events is open to that interpretation.
"Any change in me would have threatened him," said one. "It was the last straw in
a crumbling relationship," said another. Some of these women describe
comfortable, conventional lifestyles which they found increasingly unrewarding
but which their husbands counted on them to maintain.

For women without husbands, the ministry is problematic. Finding
acceptance as a divorced minister compounds the problems of being female.
Single women may find that for many men the idea of dating a minister is
somewhat daunting. Especially in small, isolated communities, they simply have
to do without male companionship. "Close relationships go on hold." A divorced
woman may express gratitude. for her children~and wonder what her life will be
like when they leave home. Another woman says poignantly, "I never thought I'd
have to do without so many things to be a minister."

At the time of the interviews, only ten of the twenty-two clergywomen
were married and living with their husbands. Many of the women, married or not,
worried about the implications of this, about the pressures of a job in which one
serves others and whether it is possible to continue to do it without support--or
impossible to sustain a marriage under such conditions. Some were acutely aware
that ministry has sometimes been feasible for men only because a wife functioned
as an unpaid co-worker. "I'm up against it all the time," commented one of these
single women. "I preach, I teach, and I'm also expected to make the crabapple
jelly and give the teas. Clergymen in the district who are married listen—but

they haven't had the experience of being alone, of not having support." "I believe

85
mutuality can work," she continued, "but finding someone who can fit into all this
is difficult."

For some the solution lies in a clergy marriage. Both women sharing
posts with their husbands expressed satisfaction, particularly concerning the
ability the arrangement gave them to divide tasks-at church and at home--
according to preference rather than sex role.

In any case, an itinerant system, in which clergy change appointments
with some regularity, has the potential for considerable stress on family life.
Where women are concerned, it may mean the choice between asking their
husband and children to move with them or turning down an appointment, with no
guarantee they will be offered another. Of the married women with rural
appointments, one is in the area where her husband has already worked for years,
one has a husband who is self-employed, one's husband is retired and therefore
able--as well as willing--to accompany her to her job. Children may be forced to
make a dual adjustment: first to the unfamiliar status of "clergy kid" and then a
rural school. In some cases, in order to avoid making this demand, the entry of a
woman minister into her profession may be long drawn out indeed. One 1981

graduate says she began her training in 1967.

Working relationships

Some of the questions asked in the interview had to do with the
difference being a woman made in their relations with their congregations, their
fellow ministers, or others in their community. In their responses, most of the
women named the positive aspects first. Ten of them said they thought they were
perceived as more empathic and more accessible than men on the staff, or than a
previous pastor. Their counseling loads reflected this response. Some said they

thought preaching was "heard" differently from a woman. A couple of them said

86

there were people in their congregations who valued the opportunity for contact
with a woman professional of any kind. In this respect, they believed they were
providing role models. Several mentioned personal benefits, such as the freedom
they experience in a role for which there are as yet no stereotypes. An example
given was that they had the impression a woman's emotionality was more
acceptable, so that they did not feel constrained from expressing personal
feelings. Some named advantages in relation to other women. "I've been in the
delivery room at the birth of a child." "Women can talk to me about sexuality,
something they have a hard time talking to a male minister about." They can be
acutely aware of the powerless position women have had in their congregations
and take it as one of their tasks to encourage them to take their own influence
seriously.

Many of the women remarked that although there may have been an
initial period of curiosity and awkwardness in relations with their congregation,
once they had settled into their jobs they felt their sex made relatively little
difference-much less than they had expected.

As to negative effects, the largest number of responses had to do with
the problems some parishioners had in adjusting to an unfamiliar situation:
meeting opposition to the Egg of a woman minister, for example; being rejected
for weddings and funerals; having difficulty in getting sufficient authority in the
governance of the church. Several of them referred to special problems in
relations with unpaid—or underpaid—women working for the church. Having given
their time for years, as helpmeet to a male, some of these women have a hard
time accepting a female in a leadership role. Three of the women found
drawbacks in the very supportiveness of their congregations; they appreciated the

affection, but recognized a patronizing, paternalistic element in it.

87

Some felt that they were apt to receive less in the way of resources or
staff support. As an illustration of this, one of them described an incident from
her internship, in which she and a fellow intern (male) both had lengthy seminary
papers due at the same time. It was his paper which the church secretary was
assigned to type, in spite of the fact that he was single and she was struggling to
maintain a home for her family while holding a job and completing her studies at
the same time. A single clergywoman may also receive fewer considerations in
the matter of housing, although the women themselves said that the security and
aesthetics of a home were a major psychological support.

Nine of the women working in multistaff situations said that they had
experienced no significant problems with their pastors or fellow associates. They
felt they had good support and cooperative working relations, and expressed good-
natured amusement at any lingering chauvinist attitudes. Those who had
experienced problems generally placed them in the past and attributed them to
feelings of threat. One clergywoman spoke of a previous pastor, for example, who
in their two years of working together never spoke to her in his office without his
secretary or some other third party present.

Relations with the community vary. Some of the women are actively
involved with local agencies and other clergy. They serve on boards or as hospital
chaplains, they organize assistance programs, they provide counseling services.
Others find themselves excluded from the fraternity of local clergy-not informed
about meetings, for example. One woman had the experience of becoming the
target of an organized campaign mounted by a group in her town who believed
that the ordination of women was against scripture. Members of her own
congregation were pressured to oppose her. The situation was never resolved and

she was forced to withdraw.

88
Relations with other clergywomen

Apart from personal relationships, contacts with other clergywomen
represent an area of uncertainty. Although a formally organized support group
exists, not all of the women are active in it-or even see it as desirable. In
responding to the questions, "Are you involved with other clergywomen in working
for change?" most of them gave variants of the same answer: "We've tried, but
we haven't succeeded very well."

A number of explanations were offered for their failure to maintain
contact as a group. Many of them cited factors of time and distance. They are
widely dispersed and on overloaded work schedules, making it difficult to
congregate. Most of them depend on personal networks of friendship, frequently
with women of their own seminary cohort. Some were dubious about the value of
a women's special interest group, saying that they thought it was more effective
to work within established church structures, alongside men. Several said they
made a special effort to serve on church commissions or to meet with other
clergy locally. One woman didn't see the lack of attendance at clergywomen's
retreats as a particularly bad sign. "We can pull it together if we need to-if
someone's in trouble."

Others reflected on more subtle reasons for their lack of cohesion. There
are complex personal histories among them, producing awkwardness or tension.
There is diversity among them in age, interests, marital status. Some feel under
criticism for career paths they have chosen, which may not "further the cause."
Some speculate on the extent to which the system itself, insofar as it is

competitive and hierarchical, breeds rivalry.

Strategies for change and models for ministry

Asked if they thought of themselves consciously as innovators, all but

one of the women unhesitatingly said yes. "Well, I think I must be," one of the

89
older ministers said, "when I think of all the things I've done that people said I
couldn't." They were then asked to describe the approach they used in working for
change. The answers to this question show a remarkable consistency. All of the
women can conceptualize and articulate their strategies clearly, and all of them
follow what is basically the same model.

They speak of the necessity of first accepting and understanding their
parishioners and their attitudes as they are, and of winning acceptance for
themselves before initiating changes. "I build relationships and trust first, one on
one, and then I use those people as change agents to influence others." They see
the process as a gradual one and avoid exhortations. "I confront, but selectively,
and only when the groundwork has been laid." In a particularly expressive image,
one compared herself to a sculptor. "1 chip away. Whenever I see an opportunity
to remove another little piece of marble that's in the way, I do it. And although I
see the form in the marble, I don't think it's always necessary to let them know
there's a statue in there. Until eventually they say, 'Hey, that looks like a . . .
whatever.‘ And then they think it's their idea. And that's fine." "There's a lot
you can accomplish," she concluded, "if you don't care who gets the credit."

This approach is consistent with their models for ministry. Asked how
they conceptualized the role for themselves, by far the majority picked some
version of an "enabler" or "facilitator" model. This model portrays the church as
a community within which individuals grow toward some potential with the
assistance of a guide-or gardener—or coach (the metaphors vary). Some
explicitly rejected popular older models, such as the shepherd (taking too much
responsibility for others) or the suffering servant (too much self-abnegation).
Although several made it clear that they believe there are times when an
authoritative stance is called for, and others balanced the modesty of the enabler

with a more confrontative or prophetic pole, their goals for their congregations

90
fit the enabler pattern. They want to see them share leadership, in what is known
in the church as "the priesthood of all believers." Even the women who brought
world issues into the conversation, such as hunger or disarmament, still proposed

to raise consciousness of these imperatives through personal approaches.

The issues

Looking to the future, these women have a great many questions about
their presence in the church. They feel, for example, that the major
confrontation with the hierarchy is still to come. They accept the secondary
positions which they presently fill as appropriate levels of entry into a new
profession. They are performing these jobs well, in some cases with distinction,
and they expect this to be recognized and rewarded. As their seniority increases
they expect to become eligible for more challenging, more conspicuous, more
central, or otherwise more desirable posts. They recognize that appointment
decisions are not made in a vacuum. There are a limited number of pastorates in
the front range cities where most of them would prefer to live. For every woman
who moves into one of these jobs, a man will be displaced.

There are profound dilemmas underlying these questions, which can be
expressed also as tensions between agency and communion. Some of the women
find that their values are well satisfied by the jobs they now hold. Those in
charge of small congregations were especially apt to say that their ideal job is
"the one I have." They welcome the variety, the autonomy, and the authority.
They value the intimate knowledge they have of their people and the close
relations their people can have with one another. They believe that a Christian
community is meant to be modest, non-competitive, mutually accepting, mutually
responsible. Many of them would wish to see these values more honored in the

connectional church, the church at large. They would like to see it become less

91

absorbed with status, more appreciative of cooperation. In a recurring image,
they would like to see it "more like a circle and less like a ladder." For them, the
entrance of women into priestly roles represents more than an expansion of career
options; they see it as an opportunity to modify masculine, agentic ideals.

For some of the women, however, the values of agency remain salient.
They see power as a significant variable and consider it the responsibility of
women to gain it and learn to use it. If the ladder is there, then women ought not
to be perceived as relegated to the bottom rung. If communion values are upheld
only at the lower levels of the system, they will continue to be deprecated, and
women along with them. One of them characterized the ideological splits among
them as "the radical feminists vs. the women who just want to do their ministry vs.
those who seem to be following male models." On this personal level, the tension

between agency and communion persists.

 

CHAPTER VII
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

This study started from the premise that the church is an androgynous
profession and that this will be reflected in the characteristics of men'and women
who take up roles as clergy. A survey of the literature on men in the ministry
yielded a. variety of findings with disparate conclusions but a general consensus
that clergymen Show stereotypically feminine qualities such as needs for
nurturance and affiliation, along with the masculine desire to dominate. The
finding of significant intrapersonal conflicts among the clergy is also common,
although some dispute this. In the absence of personality studies of women
ministers, the literature on women in male-dominated occupations was surveyed.
Findings on their characteristics were generally consistent: they tend to be high
on such traditionally masculine qualities as achievement, dominance, and
endurance, without being notably either high or low on feminine qualities of
nurturance and affiliation. Contrary to deviance hypotheses of innovative career
choice, professional women have also been found to be generally self-confident
and well-adjusted. Background characteristics predisposing women to innovative
career choices were also identified. These include family status as firstborns,
parents with high levels of education and professional achievement, and some
tendency (not universally found) toward identification with the father. A
particularly strong influence on women's commitment to careers has been found
to be the mother's employment outside the home.

Three types of predictions were made: (1) that both men and women

seeking or performing professional roles in the ministry would qualify as

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93
androgynous, as measured by the Bem Sex-Role Inventory; (2) that clergywomen
would be distinguished by their having combined nurturant qualities with the
achievement orientation of other professional women; and (3) that men in
training for the ministry would tend to show more signs of conflict than women.
These propositions were tested on two samples: a group of 65 male and 49 female
theological students, and a group of 22 clergywomen, 20 of whom are currently
employed as ministers in the local church.

The first two predictions were strongly confirmed by the data. All three
groups of men and women in ministry showed significant proportions of persons
classified as androgynous. In the case of the clergywomen, the percentage was
more than twice that of the norm group, amounting to nearly two-thirds of the
sample. Androgynousness was also implied in other findings. The male group,
while showing significantly high scores on a feminine attributes scale, did not
score below male norms on the corresponding scale for masculine attributes. The
clergywomen's scores showed a complementary pattern: higher than average
scores on masculine attributes, coupled with scores on feminine attributes
comparable to those of other women. These findings lend support to the
hypothesis that innovative career choices by women are the outcome of enriched
experience and a more diversified personality, rather than the expression of
deficiencies or deviant adjustments. They also suggest that the choice of the ministry
may reflect a similar disposition in men: the addition of feminine interests to a
masculine personality.

Both sexes' scores on the personality scales of the Adjective Check List
are consistent with a portrayal of the clergy as dominant, nurturant, affiliative,
and intraceptive. There are correspondingly low scores on needs for abasement
and succorance. These clergy dislike subordinate roles and seldom appeal to

others for emotional support. Compared to the norms for their sex, the women

’11

‘2

 

94
are more achievement-oriented than the men, but both men and women are highly
self-confident and present themselves as well-adjusted and generally untroubled
by self-doubts.

The final prediction was therefore not confirmed. On all the relevant
scales of the ACL, the men as well as the women scored significantly above the
average on personal adjustment. It can be argued that this may reflect a desire to
present oneself in a good light. Their mean scores on the Marlowe-Crowne Social
Desirability Scale contradict this interpretation; these subjects gave no greater
number of socially approved answers than the average respondent.

The background characteristics of the two groups of women match the
findings in the literature on only a few counts. A high proportion of them are
firstborns: half of the clergywomen and two thirds of the students. Both groups
of women show a tendency toward identification with their fathers. The student
women report the expected high number of working mothers. But by far the
majority of the clergywomen had mothers who were never employed outside the
home. For both samples, the ministry appears to represent upward mobility. In
contrast to studies showing that professional women tend to have highly educated
parents, the Master of Divinity degree makes 92% of the student women and 100%
of the clergywomen better educated than their mothers.

Additional findings from the background questionnaires and from
personal interviews with the clergywomen reveal characteristics which may
distinguish them as a professional group. First of all, in spite of their high
motivation for achievement and their choice of a career in a field historically
dominated by men, their biographies suggest that they belong in other ways to the
categories of "traditionals" rather than "pioneers" as these are defined by Rossi
(1965). The occupations in which they were engaged before entering training for

the ministry are those in which women traditionally predominate: elementary and

95

secondary school teaching, religious education, social work, library science,
nursing, secretarial work. If the ministry had been closed to them, most of them
would choose teaching or counseling as an alternative career. A second striking
feature of their histories is the number of them who are divorced (20% of the
students and 32% of the clergywomen). Less than half of the ministers are
currently married and living with their husbands. This raises questions concerning
the pressures of the ministry, which has been among the "two-person single
careers" in which the wife serves as an unpaid adjunct to her husband's
professional role. What readjustments are required if the same role is performed
by a single woman?

At the present time, in this sector of the church, the ministry holds a
strong attraction for women embarking on a second or late career. A substantial
part of both female groups turns out to be composed of women who are moving
into the ministry out of careers in teaching, or after a period spent as full-time
mothers, or following a divorce. Acceptance into the ministry is still a recent
phenomenon. As time goes on and it'becomes a more familiar option, it may
become easier to describe the nature of its selection by younger women. One of
the strongest impressions left by this survey is that a career in the ministry is
filling a distinct need for mature women and that it offers a satisfying solution to
some of the problems generated by role discontinuity.

A distinctive feature of women's lives over time is the regular
requirement placed on them to shift roles: from daughter to wife to mother, for
example. A working woman adds roles to the repertoire; a divorced or aging
woman loses roles which may have formerly provided her with status or feelings
of success, or which may have helped her meet the expectations of others. For
some of the women interviewed, the decision for ordination was not made until

after they were in seminary. Applying for a theological education may have

96
functioned as a means of easing a role transition. Seminary was an extension of a
familiar environment, the church; it anticipated entrance into a new role, through
preparation for ordination; and it provided a vocational opportunity for linking
achievement with skills and experience already possessed, involving caring
relationships with others.

The discovery that women making what has heretofore been a highly
unorthodox choice are, in fact, more like traditionals than pioneers leads to the
conclusion that one source of the appeal of the ministry for women may lie in its
gender-appropriateness. A congregation is one milieu in which successful
leadership can be exercised through the modality of communion. It exemplifies
the notion of the individual as a participant in a larger organism; it exists, by
definition, to heal separations. If this is the case, then the paradox lies not in
women preaching, as Dr. Johnson believed, but in the long held belief that this is

the divinely decreed province of men.

CHAPTER VIII
ANDROGYNY AND THE CHURCH RECONSIDERED: A DISCUSSION

At the beginning of this dissertation, it was proposed that the church
itself can be described as androgynous in that it contains in its structures and its
scriptures a continuing dialectic between the values of agency and communion. It
was proposed that at the level of its individual members, this dialectic would be
expressed in the personalities and self-descriptions of men and women choosing
the vocation of minister. This expectation has been fulfilled through the findings
reported above. What also emerged from the conversations with the clergywomen
who served as research subjects is a clearer view of how this dialectic interacts
with the issues surrounding women's participation in leadership roles in the church
and with the personal dilemmas of the women now taking up these roles in
increasing numbers.

It is Bakan's thesis that the Protestant ethic is agentic in spirit. The
Calvinist preoccupation with personal success as the mark of salvation makes
virtues of high initiative, control over others, and distrust of emotion and
interpersonal relations, of, as Bakan synthesizes it, "self-assertion,
self-expression, self-expansion" (1966, p. 16). This contrasts with scriptural
teachings which emphasize the communal ideal of sacrifice for the good
of others. It is in the nature of agency to split off and then expel, rather than
integrate, the values of communion. Insofar as women may symbolize or defend
these values, then agency demands that they be subordinated, trivialized, or
excluded. One way to understand the potential impact of women ministers on the

church is to describe their integration into its leadership structures as related to

97

98
the necessity of mitigating agency with communion, which Bakan calls the human
task.

The tension between the two modalities can be seen in the ongoing
dialogue among the clergywomen regarding the politics of advancement, which
frequently seems to pit the communal virtues of the local church against the
agentic preoccupations of the administrative hierarchies. This polarity recalls
Gutmann's ideas on the differences in the milieux of men and women (1965).
Man's world is allocentric. It is an impersonal world of open space which "can
only be articulated to the self through purposeful movement" (p. 234). Identity in
this world is achieved through instrumental acts. One has impact by imposing
some form of control through structures, schedules, artifacts. Woman's world is
autocentric, personal, intimate, affectional. Structure is intrinsic, revealed, and
need not be imposed. It arises out of seasons, rituals, domestic routines.

The local church exemplifies the autocentric milieu. It exists in
personal, contained space, with its own network of familiar relationships and its
own recurring rhythms of liturgies and life passages. This can be a deeply
congenial work setting for a woman. It is one reason a highly educated woman
can honestly say of her post in an unsophisticated rural community "my ideal job
is the one I have." No wonder women have made an evident success of some
notoriously difficult pastoral appointments. The nuances of this world are
familiar.

Away from this secure base, women may be aliens in the allocentric
world (so are men, but they accept alienation as a feature of its reality). Women
may distrust its values and question the requirement to learn its skills. They
would prefer to see it transformed. Otherwise, they'fear a divided system in

which the women tend the "families" of their congregations, with little influence

99
and low remuneration, while the men continue to do the public business of the
connectional church.

Elizabeth Douvan compares the Problem for a woman entering a male-
dominated field to the mobility problem faced by an immigrant. According to her
analysis, there are three routes open:

The first is to become just like the dominant group and abandon one's past. A
form of overlearning, we identify this solution clinically as identification
with the aggressor; in the particular case at issue here, it signifies a
defeminization or abandonment of feminine goals. The second adaptation is
deprofessionalization, the abandonment or de-emphasis of competence, and
the third is a trenchant, continuing effort to integrate professionalism and
feminine goals. (1976, p. 13).

For women entering the ministry, these routes may be represented by
the following choices: they can devote themselves to learning the existing means
for advancement within a competitive system, so that women will receive higher
status appointments (this may mean rejecting roles in Christian education, for
example, which are not on the advancement track); they can allow themselves to
become the "mascots" of their congregations, devaluing their professionalism and
reducing their threat (this is a particularly ready solution for younger women); or
they can persist in the never-wholly-successful attempt neither to withdraw from
the arena nor be dictated to by its values. Douvan calls this "integrating
identifications" and she acknowledges that it is not easy. "Such integration is
difficult, for it requires a willingness to remain forever marginal, to live between
and partake in two realities without negating or invalidating either one of them"
(p. 14).

The two realities for these women, it appears, are those of the
autocentric congregation and the allocentric institution. As clergy, they speak
clearly of the need for the institution to learn to mitigate agency with

communion. As women, their task has been the reverse, to learn to mitigate

communion with agency. The evidence of this study is that they have succeeded

100
to a considerable extent with the latter. Their profiles indicate that they have
integrated masculine and feminine qualities in their ideals and their perceptions
of themselves; their histories demonstrate that they have persisted in the agentic self-
assertion required to reach professional goals. The task before them is to extend
this understanding into their interpretation and enactment of their positions
within the church. The issues which trouble them, in which the two milieux are
often characterized as opposed rather than complementary, suggest that this
integration has not yet taken place. There is a sense, of course, in which
resolution of this dilemma can never be fully achieved (it is agency which seeks to
erase discrepancies and remove paradoxes), but the presence of women in priestly
roles in the church sharpens the engagement with these complex questions and

renews the potential for a higher, if not final, synthesis.

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APPENDIX A: LETTERS TO SUBJECTS

March, 1983

Dear Iliff Student:

I am conducting a study of men and women who are taking up a vocation in the
Christian church of the 80 s. This is part of the research I am doing for my
doctorate in psychology at Michigan State University.

My interest in this topic grows out of my own experience of having worked in a
church in New York City during the decade of the 605. It is my belief that, as a
result of changes which began then, many of the conclusions drawn from earlier
research with theological students may no longer hold true. Professional roles in
the church are not what they were, and I am interested in the perceptions of those
who are shaping the new roles—where you come from and how you see yourselves.

The material enclosed includes a background questionnaire and three brief
inventories. None of them is difficult to answer and they should take you less
than forty-five minutes to fill out.

All the information which you give me is anonymous and confidential. You are
not asked to sign your name to any of the forms. I hope this will encourage you to
be frank in your responses. You may notice a number on the return envelope.
This is to assist me in identifying which of you have returned the questionnaires,
in case a reminder mailing is necessary to those who have not. The envelope will
be discarded before the answers are read.

The results of the study will be made available to those of you who contribute to
it, in the form of a separate report.

I hope that you will be willing to participate in this. I believe that the outcome
will have some value, and the successful completion of my doctorate depends on
your help.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

Martha Orrick

April 1982

Dear Iliff Student:

About a month ago, I sent you a letter describing a study I am doing of men and
women entering careers in the Christian church. This is for my doctoral
dissertation at Michigan State University. I also enclosed three inventories and a
background questionnaire which I asked you to complete and return to me.

The response from the Iliff student body to date has been excellent. According to
my records, however, you are among those who have not yet replied to my
request. If you have been putting it off (as I sometimes do with questionnaires), I
ask you to fill out the forms now. It should take you less than forty-five minutes
to do so. A duplicate set is enclosed.

If you have some personal objection to taking part in such a study, I would
appreciate it if you would make a note of your reasons in the space provided for
comments at the end of the third inventory, and then return the packet to me.
This, too, is useful information.

Remember that all replies are confidential and anonymous. The number on the
return envelope is so that I will have a list of participants to whom I can send a
report of results. These envelopes are discarded before the questionnaires are
read.

I hope that you will be willing to participate. The more responses I have, the
more trustworthy the findings will be.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Martha Orrick

July, 1982

Dear Rev. :

I am writing to you concerning a study I am engaged in, a major focus of which
has to do with women in the ministry. This is part of the research I am doing for
my doctorate in psychology at Michigan State University.

My choice of this topic grows in large part out of my own experience. I spent
seven years as a church worker in New York City during the 605. I am also
interested generally in women who undertake innovative or creative careers.

There are two parts to my study which would involve you: an interview and the
completion of three Short checklists. The checklists can be filled out in 30-40
minutes; the interview takes roughly an hour and a half.

All personal information given to me will be kept anonymous and confidential.
For analysis, your responses would be pooled with those of other women, rather
than individually reported. At the completion of the study, I will send a summary
of results to those who have participated in it.

I hope that you will be willing to take part in this with me. I believe that the
results will have some value, and the successful completion of my doctorate
depends on your help.

I will be contacting you within the next week or so to see if we can set up a time
to meet.

Sincerely,

Martha Orrick

APPENDIX B: INSTRUMENTS

Directions: A list of 300 adjectives follows. Please read them quickly and put an
X beside each one you would consider to be self-descriptive. Do not worry about

duplications, contradictions, and so forth.
much time on any one adjective.

Work quickly and do not spend too
Try to be frank, and check those adjectives

which describe you as you really are, not as you would like to be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 absent-minded
2 active
3 adaptable
4 adventurous
5 affected
6____ affectionate
7_ ___aggressive
8 alert
9 ___aloof

10: ambitious

l 1_ anxious

 

12 apathetic
13 ___appreciative

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

14 ___argumentative
1 5'.— ___arrogant
16 __artistic
17 _assertive
18 attractive
19 autocratic
20 awkward
2 1 bitter

22 blustery
23 boastful
24 bossy

2 5 calm

26 ___capable
27 “careless
28 cautious

 

29 changeable

30 charming

3 1 cheerful

32 civilized

33 clear-thinking
34 clever

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

35 coarse
36 cold
37 commonplace

 

38 complaining
39 complicated
40 ___conceited

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4 1*confident

42 confused

43 conscientious
44 conservative
45 considerate
46____ contented

47 “conventional

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

48 cool

49 cooperative
50 courageous
51 cowardly

52 cruel

53 ___curious

54 :cynical
55— daring

56 deceitful

57 defensive

58 deliberate
59 ___demanding
60 _dependable
61 :dependent
62 :despondent

63: determined
64 :dignified
65_____ discreet

66 “disorderly
67 dissatisfied
68 distractible
69 distrustful

 

 

70 dominant
71 ___dreamy

72 dull

73 easy-going
74 effeminate

 

75 ___efficient
76 :egotistical

 

 

 

77____ __emotional
78— energetic
79. enterprising
80 enthusiastic
81 __evasive

82 _excitable
83 fair-minded
84 fault-finding

 

 

85 fearful

86 feminine
87 fickle

88 flirtatious
89 foolish

90 forceful

91 ofresighted

92 ___forgetful
93 __forgiving
94 formal

 

95 frank

96 friendly

97 frivolous

98 fussy

99 ___generous
100 ___gentle
101 gloomy

102 good-looking
103 __good-natured
104 ___greedy

105 handsome
106 hard-headed
107 hard-hearted
108 hasty

109 headstrong

l 10 healthy

1 l 1 __helpful

112 __high-strung

l 13__ ”honest

I 14 _hostile

1 l5 humorous

l 16 hurried

1 l7 idealistic

1 18 imaginative
1 19___im mature
120 impatient
121 :impulsive

122 independent
123 indifferent

124 individualistic
125 industrious
126 infantile

127 informal
128_____ingenious

129 inhibited

130 initiative

131 insightful
132 intelligent

I

133 interests
narrow
134__interests
wide
l35___intolerant
136 inventive

137 irresponsible
138 irritable

l 39 jolly

Continued on the back of the page

140 kind

14 l _lazy

I 42 ___leisurely
143 ___logical

 

l 44 __loud
145— __loyal

1 46 __mannerly
147 masculine
1 48 mature

149 meek

l 50 methodical
151 mild

l 52 mischievous
153 moderate
l 54 modest

155 moody

 

l 56 nagging
157 natural

 

 

 

 

1 58 nervous
159 noisy

160 obliging
161_obnoxious

1 62 :opinionated
163 __opportunistic
164opt1mist1c
165 _organized
166 _original

167 __outgoing

1 68 __outspoken
169 painstaking
170 patient

171 peaceable
172 peculiar

173 perservering
174 persistent
175 pessimistic
176 planful

177 pleasant
I78 pleasure-seeking
179 poised

180 polished

181 practical
182 praising

183 precise

184 prejudiced
185 preoccupied
186 progressive
187 prudish

188 quarrelsome
189 queer

190 quick

191 quiet

192 quitting

193 rational

194

rattlebrained

 

195
196

realistic
reasonable

 

 

197
198

rebellious
reckless

 

 

199
200

reflective
relaxed

 

 

201
202

reliable
resentful

 

 

203
204
205
206
207—
208
209
210

reserved
resourceful

 

responsible

_restless
_retiring
rigid

robust

rude

 

211
212

sarcastic
self-centered

 

 

213

self-confident

 

214

self-controlled

 

215
216
217
218
219
220

 

 

 

 

self-denying
self-pitying
self-punishing
self-seeking

selfish

sensitive

 

221

sentimental

 

222

serious

 

223

severe

 

224
225

 

sexy
shallow

 

226
227
228

 

sharp-witted
shiftless
show-off

 

 

229
230
231
232
233
234—
235
236—
237
238
239—
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247

 

shrewd

shy
___silent
:simple
_sincere
__slipshod
__slow

___sly
_smug
_snobbish
___sociable
:soft-hearted
:sophisticated
_spendthrift
__spineless
_spontaneous
_spunky
stable

 

steady

 

 

 

 

 

 

248 stern

249 stingy

250 stolid

251 strong

252 stubborn

253 ___submissive
254 :suggestible
255 sulky

256 __superstitious
257 ___suspicious

258 ___sympathetic
259 _tactful
260— tactless

261 talkative

262 temperamental
263 tense

264 thankless

265 thorough

266 thoughtful

267 thrifty

268 timid
269 tolerant
270 touchy
271 tough

272 trusting
273 unaffected

 

 

 

 

274 unambitious
275 unassuming
276 unconventional

 

277 undependable
278 understanding
279 unemotional
280 unexcitable
281 unfriendly
282 uninhibited
283 unintelligent
284 unkind

285 unrealistic
286 unscrupulous
287 unselfish

288 unstable

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

289 vindictive
290 versatile
291 warm

292 wary

293 weak

294 whiny

295 wholesome
296 wise

297 withdrawn
298 witty

299 worrying
300 zany

BEM SEX-ROLE INVENTORY

Directions: Another list of characteristics follows. Whether or not you checked
any of these words on the previous list, I would like you to use them now to
describe yourself, that is, I would like you to indicate, on a scale from 1 to 7, how
true of you each of these characteristics is. Please do not leave any of them
unmarked.

1 = Never or almost never true; 2 = Usually not true; 3 = Sometimes but
infrequently true; 4 = Occasionally true; 5 = Often true; 6 = Usually true; and 7 =
Always or almost always true.

Defend my own Adaptable F latterable
beliefs
Affectionate Dominant Theatrical
Conscientious Tender Self-sufficient
Independent Conceited Loyal
Sympathetic Willing to take Happy

a stand
Moody Love children Individualistic
Assertive Tactful Soft-spoken
Sensitive to needs Aggressive Unpredictable
of others
Reliable Gentle Masculine
Strong personality Conventional Gullible
Understanding Self-reliant Solemn
Jealous Yielding Competitive
Forceful Helpful Childlike
Compassionate Athletic Likable
Truthful Cheerful Ambitious
Have leadership Unsystematic Do not use harsh
abilities language
Eager to soothe Analytical Sincere
hurt feelings
Secretive Shy Act as a leader
Willing to take Inefficient Feminine
risks
Warm Make decisions Friendly

easily

MARLOWE-CROWNE SOCIAL DESIRABILITY SCALE

Directions:

Listed below are a number of statements concerning personal

attitudes and traits. Read each item and decide whether the statement is true (T)
or false (F) as it pertains to you personally.

I.

10.

ll.

12.

13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.

19.
20.
21.

Before voting I thoroughly investigate the qualifications of all
the candidates.

1 never hesitate to go out of my way to help someone in trouble

It is sometimes hard for me to go on with my work if I am not
encouraged.

I have never intensely disliked anyone.

On occasion I have had doubts about my ability to succeed in life.

I sometimes feel resentful when I don't get my way.
I am always careful about my manner of dress.

My table manners at home are as good as when I eat out in a
restaurant.

If I could get into a movie without paying and be sure I was not
seen I would probably do it.

On a few occasions I have given up doing something because I
thought too little of my ability.

I like to gossip at times.

There have been times when I felt like rebelling against people
in authority even though I knew they were right.

No matter who I'm talking to, I'm always a good listener.

I can remember "playing sick" to get out of something.

There have been occasions when I took advantage of someone.
I'm always willing to admit it when I make a mistake.

I always try to practice what I preach.

I don't find it particularly difficult to get along with loud mouthed,

obnoxious people.
I sometimes try to get even rather than forgive and forget.
When I don't know something I don't at all mind admitting it.

I am always courteous, even to people who are disagreeable.

Continued on the back of the page

22.
23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

28.

'29.
30.
31.
32.

33.

This is the last questionnaire.

At times I have really insisted on having things my own way.
There have been occasions when I felt like smashing things.

I would never think of letting someone else be punished for my
wrongdoings.

I never resent being asked to return a favor.

I have never been irked when people expressed ideas very
different from my own.

I never make a long trip without checking the safety of my car.

There have been times when I was quite jealous of the good fortune
of others.

I have almost never felt the urge to tell someone off.
I am sometimes irritated by people who ask favors of me.
I have never felt that I was punished without cause.

I sometimes think when people have a misfortune they only got
what they deserved.

I have never deliberately said something that hurt someone's
feelings.

* * *

write them here. Thank you again.

 

If you have any comments on this study, or any
guesses as to what specific questions it may have been designed to answer, please

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

1 would appreciate your giving me the following information about your personal
and professional history. Remember, all information is anonymous. Please
do not include your name. Thank you.

1.

10.

11.

Degree program you are enrolled in at Iliff:

 

Current year in this program:

 

Career toward which you are aiming:

 

Your denominational affiliation:

 

Your sex: male female

Your birth date (month/day/year): / /

 

Your marital status:

single (never married) separated widowed
married (living with spouse) divorced
- Number of children: Their ages:

 

Your highest level of non-seminary education:

 

college degree master's degree
graduate study major field:
no degree) doctor's degree

major field:

 

other training:

 

Please list any previous occupations (including homemaking):

 

Can you identify any important role models who influenced your choice
of vocation?

 

Please list, by relationship, any relatives of yours who are, or were, ordained
clergy (father, husband, uncle, sister, etc.):

 

What was your father's highest level of education?

grade school college degree

some high school some graduate study
completed high school master's degree
some college doctor's degree

other training:

 

Over

.. __., 3

.‘ '
AL _

 

12.

13.

14.

l5.

l6.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

What is, or was, your father's occupation?

 

Is your father still living?

 

If not, in what year did he die?

 

What was your mother's highest level of education?

grade school college degree

some high school some graduate study
completed high school master's degree
some college doctor's degree

other training:

 

Is your mother still living?

 

If not, in what year did she die?

 

What is, or was, your mother's occupation (including homemaking)?

 

Was your mother employed outside the home at any time during your childhood?
. If so, for how long?

 

How many children were there in your childhood family?

 

What was your place (first or oldest, second, etc.)?

 

When you look back now, which parent would you say you were closest to
as a child (father, mother, both, neither)?

Which parent would you say you "took after"?

At what age did you first experience a call to your vocation?

At what age did you take the first direct steps toward taking up your vocation?

Who has been the greatest source of support to you?

Who, or what, has been the greatest source of difficulty?

If you could choose the ideal form of ministry for yourself, what would
that be?

If the work role for which you are now preparing had been closed toyou,
what would you have done instead?

qr-

leer-Al-

 

APPENDIX C: OUTLINE FOR INTERVIEWS

11.

Date:

Where did you receive your theological education?

When were you ordained? (age and year)
Deacon Elder
What is your present relation to your annual conference?

full member seminary student pastor
associate member local pastor
probationary member

What is your present appointment? Your title?

What are your responsibilities in this job?

How long have you held this appointment?

What is the size of your congregation?

How would you describe your congregation?

What previous appointments have you had?

Are you married? What is your spouse's occupation?

Do you have any children?

What is your highest level of non-seminary education?

Have you followed any other occupations, before entering the ministry?

Can you identify anyone who served as a role model, or was an important
influence on the choice of your work?

 

 

111.

Have any of your relatives been ordained clergy?
What was your father's highest level of education?

His occupation?
Is he living? (How long ago did he die?)

What was your mother's highest level of education?

Did she work while you were growing up?
Is she living? (How long ago did she die?)

How many children were there in your family? What was your place?
When you look back now, which parent would you say you "took after"?
Which one were you closer to?

At what age did you first experience a call to the ministry?

When did you take the first steps toward taking it up?

What, or who, has been the greatest source of support to you?

The greatest source of difficulty?

If you could design the ideal job or role for yourself in the church, what
would it be?

If the ministry had been closed to you, what do you think you might have
done instead?

Do you consider yourself an innovator?

What kind of changes would you like to see introduced into the life of your
congregation?

P2.-

 

What changes would you like to see in the church at large?

How are you working toward these changes? What approach would you
say you use?

Are you involved with other clergywomen in doing this?

How does your sex influence your relations with your congregation?

Your co-workers? (Your community?)

How could your congregation be of more help to you?

What is your model of the ministry?

APPENDIX D: ADDITIONAL DATA ON BACKGROUND CHARACTERISTICS
OF THEOLOGICAL STUDENTS

Table 8. Persons Named as Role Models or Influences on Choice of Vocation
by Male and Female Theological Students.

 

 

 

 

Named by male % Named by female %

students (n=65) students (n=49)

Minister 56.9 No one 38.8

No one 27.7 Minister (male) 30.6

Family member 23.1 Family member 20.4 i":
Teacher 15.4 Minister (female) 16.3

Hero 9.2 Teacher, counselor l6. 3

Friend 4.6 Woman professional ' 6. 1 L
Employer 3 . 1 Heroine 4 . l

 

Table 9. Relatives of Male and Female Theological Students Who Were Ordained

 

 

 

 

Clergy.
Relatives of male % Relatives of female %
students (n=65) students (n=49)
None 67 . 7 None 67 . 4
Father 13.9 Grandfather 10.2
Grandfather 12.3 In-laws 8 .2
Uncle 12.3 Father 4. l
In-laws 6 . 2 Mother 4 . 1
Brother 3.1 Cousin (male) 4 . 1
Sister 1 . 5 Spouse 4 . l
Spouse 1 . 5 Uncle 2 . 0
More than one 9.2 Brother 2 .0
Cousin (female) 2.0
More than one 6. 1

 

Table 10. Highest Level of Education Attained by Fathers of Male and Female
Theological Students.

 

 

 

Level of education Fathers of male Fathers of female
students (n=65) students (n=49)
% 96
Grade school only 9.2 10. 2
Some high school 7.7 10.2
High school graduate 27.7 30.6
Some college 15.4 20.4
College graduate 7.7 8.1
Some grade study 4.6 4.1
Master's level degree 24.6 14. 3
Doctoral level degree 3.1 2.0

 

Table 11. Highest Level of Education Attained by Mothers of Male and Female
Theological Students.

 

 

 

Level of education Mothers of male Mothers of female
students (n=65) students (n=49)
% %
Grade school only 1.5 2.0
Some high school 10.8 6. 1
High school graduate 38.7 44.9
Some college 20.0 24.5
College graduate 13.9 10.2
Some graduate study 7.7 4.0
Master's level degree 6.1 8.2
Doctoral level degree 1.5 0.0

Table 12. Period of Employment of Mothers of Male and Female Theological

 

Students.
Period employed Mothers of male Mothers of female
students (n=65) students (n=49)
% %
Never 60.0 57 .1
Less than 5 years 10.7 18.4

More than 5 years 43.1 5.10

 

 

Table 13. Closeness to Parents as Perceived by Male and Female Theological

Students.

 

 

Parent closest to

Male students

Female Students

 

(n=65) (n=49)

% %
Mother 60 . 0 57 . 1
Father 10.8 18.4
Both 23 . 1 l6 . 3
Neither 6 . 2 8 . 2

 

Table I4. Resemblance to Parents as Perceived by Male and Female Theological

Students.

 

 

Parent most like

Male students

Female students

 

(n=65) (n=49)

% %
Mother 25.2 22.5
Father 41.5 34.7
Both 21.5 36 .7
Neither 10 .8 6. 1

 

 

Table 15. Sources of Support Named by Male and Female Theological Students.

 

 

 

Named by male % Named by female %
students (n=65) students (n=49)

Spouse 47 . 7 Spouse 34 . 7
Other family members 29.2 Friends 34.7
Friends 16.9 Other family members 26.5
Clergy 7 . 7 Clergy 22 . 5
God/ faith 6 . 2 Children 18 . 4
Home church 3.1 Home church 12.2
Teachers, counselors 3.1 Teachers, counselors 6.1
Seminary community 1.5 God/ faith 6.1
Self 1.5 Seminary community 2.0
None 1.5 None 2.0

 

Table 16. Sources of Difficulty Named by Male and Female Theological Students.

 

 

 

Named by male % Named by female %
students (n=65) students (n=49)

Self 27 . 7 Self 16 . 3
Money 16.9 Family 16.3
Family 15.4 Attitudes toward

Institutional church 10.8 ordination for women 14.3
None 7.7 Spouse 12.2
Seminary requirements 6.2 Institutional church 12.2
Peers 4 . 6 Time/ priorities 12 . 2
Church members 4.6 Money 8.2
Spouse 3.1 Seminary requirements 4 .1
Home church or pastor 3.1 Home church or pastor 4 . 1
Time/ priorities 3 . 1 Health 2 . 0

 

 

Table 17. Age at First Call to the Ministry for Male and Female Theological

 

 

 

Students.

Age at call Male students Female students

(n=65) (n=49)

% %

Childhood 6.2 12. 2
13-19 47.7 46.9
20-29 26.2 18.4
30-39 9.2 10.2
40-49 3.1 10.2
No answer 7.7 2.0

 

Table 18. Period of Delay Between Vocational Choice and Implementation
for Male and Female Theological Students.

 

 

 

Period of delay Male students Female students
(n=65) (n=49)
% %
Less than three years 70.8 53.1
Four to ten years 15.4 2.0
More than ten years 13.9 44.9

 

Table 19. Current Career Plans of Male and Female Theological Students.

 

 

 

Plans of male % Plans of female %
students (n=65) students (n=49)

Parish ministry 69.2 Parish ministry 44.9
Undecided/unspecific 20 . 0 Undecided/ unspecific 24 . 5
Campus ministry 3.1 Teaching ministry 10.2
Missionary 3.1 Special ministry (e.g.

Military Chaplaincy 1.5 (arts, handicapped) 8.2
Youth ministry 1.5 Hospital Chaplaincy 6.1
Pastoral counseling 1. 5 Pastoral counseling 6.1

 

 

Table 20. Ideal Career Selected by Male and Female Theological Students.

 

 

 

Selected by male % Selected by female %
students (n=65) students (n=49)
Local church 46.2 Local church 32 .7
Special ministry 15.4 Chaplaincy 18.4
Youth ministry 15.4 Combine w/teaching 14.3
Combine w/teaching 9.2 Special ministry 12.2
Counseling 7 . 7 Counseling 12 . 2
Uncertain 4 . 6 Administration 4 . l
Uncertain 2.0

 

Table 21. Alternative Careers to Ministry Selected by Male and Female Theological

 

 

 

Students.
Selected by male % Selected by female %
students (n=65) students (n=49)
Teaching 27 . 7 Teaching 26 . 5
Business, management 12.3 Counseling 22.5
Law 9.2 Arts 16.3
Counseling 9 . 2 Social work 10 . 2
Skilled labor, craft 9.2 Librarian 6.1
Other church work 7 .7 Nursing 4 .1
Arts 7 . 7 Business 4 . 1
Geology 4 . 6 Speech/occupational
Engineering 3 . 1 therapy 4 . 1
Medicine 3 . 1 Computers 2 . 0
Sociology 1.5 Energy resources 2.0
Politics 1. 5 Public relations 2 .0
Corrections 1.5 Other church work 2.0
Farming l. 5 Don't know 8 . 2
Librarian 1.5
Extension agent 1. 5

 

APPENDIX E: ADDITIONAL DATA ON BACKGROUND CHARACTERISTICS
OF FEMALE MINISTERS.

Table 22. Persons Named as Role Models or Influences on Choice of Vocation
by Female Ministers (n=22).

 

 

 

Persons named %

None 36.7
Minister (female) 18.2
Minister (male) 13 .6
Family member 13.6
Teacher 9 .1
Clergy couple 4.6

 

Table 23. Relatives of Female Ministers who Were Ordained Clergy (n=22).

 

 

Relative named %

 

None
Husband
Father
Brother
Other

NO‘

\O\D\O\loo
I—r—r—wN

 

Table 24. Highest Level of Education Attained by Parents of Female Ministers

 

 

 

(n=22).
Level of education Father Mother
% %
Grade school only 2 .

7 3
Some high school 0 0
High school graduate 22 7
Some college 22.7
College degree 4 6
Some graduate study 0 0
Graduate degree 22 7

 

Table 25. Closeness and Resemblance to Parents as Perceived by Female Ministers

 

 

 

(n=22).
Persons named Closest to More like
% %
Father 18.2 45.5
Mother 36 . 4 27 . 3
Both 22.7 9.1
Neither 22 . 7 18 . 2

 

Table 26. Sources of Support and Difficulty Named by Female Ministers (n=22).

 

 

 

Source of support % Source of difficulty %
Friends 72 . 7 Money/ time/ fatigue 36 . 4
Husband 36.4 Male hierarchy 31.8
Pastor 31.8 Self 22.7
Family 22 . 7 Husband 18 . 2
Children 22 . 7 Parents 13 . 6
Teachers 22.7 Hostile congregation 13.6
Home church 18.2 Friends 9 .1
God/ faith 13 . 6 Divorce 9 . l
In-laws 4 .6

 

APPENDIX F: ADDITIONAL DATA ON ADJECTIVE CHECK LIST SCORES

Table 27. Rank Order of Mean Standard Scores on the Adjective Check List
for Female Ministers and Male and Female Theological Students.

 

 

 

 

 

Rank Female ministers Female students Male students
(n=22) (n=49) (n=65)
l. Cps 60 . 68 Cps 57 . 49 Het 56 . 65
2. Iss 59. 50 153 56.92 155 56.15
3. S-Cfd 57 . 77 Int 56 . 67 Int 55 . l7
4. Ach 57 . 32 Ach 56. 31 Fav 55.11
5. Dom 56 . 68 Fav 55 . 59 S-Cfd 54 . 99
6. Fav 56.55 Dom 55.02 Nur 54.89
7. Int 56.41 S-Cfd 54.98 Aff 54.89
8. Nur 54 . 91 End 54 . 86 P-Adj 54 . 59
9. Aff 54 . 73 Nur 54 . 35 Cps 54 . 03
10. Het 54.46 Mls 53.86 Fem 53.69
11. End 53. 82 P-Adj 53 .80 Dom 52 . 92
12. P-Adj 53.77 Het 53.49 No.de 52.86
13. Mas 53 . 68 No.de 53 . 20 Ach 52 . 28
14. No.de 53 .18 Cha 53 .10 End 52 . O6
15. Agg 52 . 55 Agg 52. 57 M15 51. 79
16. Cha 52 . 32 Aff 52 . 57 Ord 51 . 52
17. M15 52. 32 Ord 52. 51 Exh 51. 52
18. Fem 51.91 Exh 51.85 Agg 51.43
19. Ord 51.73 Fem 51.12 Cha 50.92
20. Aut 50 . 91 Aut 51 . 00 Com 50 . 88
21. Exh 50 . 86 Com 51. 00 Def 50 . 43
22. Crs 49 . 14 Mas 50 . 80 Mas 50 . 00
23. Com 48.73 Crs 48.67 Aut 49.22
24. S-Cn 48 . 46 S-Cn 48 . 49 S-Cn 49 . 02
25. Def 47 . 23 Def 47 . 33 Aba 47 . 26
26. Aba 45.14 Aba 46. 65 Suc 46. 80
27. Unfav 41 . 86 Suc 46 . 63 Crs 46 . 62
28. Suc 41. 50 Unfav 44 . 61 Unfav 44 . 77

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