I haven’t been able to get the book Her Country by Marissa Moss out of my brain since reading the “State of Women in Baptist Life,” released in 2022.
The book explores the decline of women on country radio through the lens of Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris and Mickey Guyton’s respective careers. If you are an outsider to country music, you may not realize women have it much worse today in country music, specifically radio, than they did in the 1990s.
Jennifer Brown
Moss reports that in the 1990s women received about 30% of airtime play on the radio. Today, female artists are played on country radio less than 10% of the time. I should amend that fact to say white female artists, because female artists of color are basically nonexistent on country airwaves, then and now.
In the BWIM report, one of the most heartbreaking facts to me is the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has never had more than 10% of affiliated congregations with women as senior pastors or co-pastors. In six years, the number of women in these leadership positions increased by less than 1% and the number of female senior pastors actually declined.
Yet this is the Baptist group that claims its split with the Southern Baptist Convention was due to its support of women in ministry.
Around the time I was reading Her Country, a man who works for a congregational consulting group complained to me there aren’t enough qualified candidates for senior pastor positions who are women. I was flabbergasted. The women I know in Baptist life can preach the roof off any building, listen with intense care and work hard to collaborate with staff. Many of them desire to be senior pastors. But as I thought about his statement, it dawned on me this is the natural outcome of a structure that does not hire women in leadership.
“This is the natural outcome of a structure that does not hire women in leadership.”
Moss points out that women in country music live in a paradox. They are told their voice doesn’t fit the mold or type necessary for success on country radio, but at the same time they are regularly pulling in bigger streaming numbers, higher tour revenue and dominating the Grammy Awards.
Streaming has changed the game. It used to be country artists would need to take on a grueling schedule of radio station visits to get their music played. They would need to provide station managers with VIP passes and concert tickets. Advertising dollars were spent on direct appeals to individual DJs. We now know just how predatory and inappropriate these visits could be (see Taylor Swift’s sexual assault trial).
Moss lets us inside an industry meeting with radio executives who are complaining Kacey Musgraves is not engaging in this process. She’s “not playing the game.” Even though for years she followed the exact promotional format as her male peers, only to receive minimal airtime.
I wonder to myself: Why should she play the game at all? The radio folks, by shutting out women for nearly two decades, have made themselves obsolete.
I see this clear parallel between country radio and moderate Baptist life. Baptist Women are often instructed to network, attend CBF General Assembly, go to as many seminary lunches with different groups as possible, complete summer internships at strategic places and volunteer to preach during March. But what good is any of it when it doesn’t result in a job?
If I could circle back to the male consultant, I would say, “You’re right! There are fewer qualified candidates now. I’ve watch talented women exit Baptist life to become United Church of Christ or Presbyterian Church (USA). I’ve watched them plant their own churches or create nonprofits. Others have become spiritual coaches or chaplains. So many of my Baptist female colleagues in ministry have become realtors, I’m beginning to think seminary should offer real estate as an elective.”
I do not blame anyone who has left. The reality is having a job matters, health insurance matters and not serving in a toxic environment matters. When women are told again and again, “Your voice doesn’t sound like a pastor … We aren’t ready for a female … It was a close call but we went with the male candidate,” the only door left is the exit.
While I have been lucky enough to find a place to serve, I know I’m the exception and not the rule. My Millennial generation is not holding out for moderate Baptists to be who they claim to be. Most are weary of playing the game and done being lied to. They are simply moving on. Shaking the dust off their feet and serving wherever they can. This exodus, the loss of some of Baptist life’s best and brightest women, has enduring consequences.
How long will it be before the institutional church realizes it has made itself obsolete for an entire generation of female clergy?
Jennifer Brown serves as senior pastor of University Baptist Church in Hattiesburg, Miss. She is a proud graduate of Duke Divinity School and Belmont University.
Related articles:
Scripture changed his mind on women in ministry, Rick Warren tells Russell Moore
Women in ministry: Strategically silent? | Opinion by Melody Maxwell
Think you’ve ‘decided’ about women in ministry? Here’s why there’s more to do | Opinion by Meredith Stone