This story was updated Dec. 9 with additional information.
By Bob Allen
Despite well-publicized reports of women making inroads as pastors of large churches and leaders of religious organizations, the percentage of congregations led by a woman is about the same now as it was in 1998, according to a new Duke University study.
Mark Chaves, director of Duke’s National Congregations Study, described opportunities for women in ministry as “one of the most surprising non-changes” in the study.
“When I first saw this result, I thought it had to be wrong,” Chaves, a professor of sociology, religious studies and divinity, said in a news release. “But it’s accurate. The ‘stained-glass ceiling’ is real.”
The study, based on three surveys of congregations from across the religious spectrum between 1998 and 2012, found 11.4 percent of congregations being led by women. In 1998, the figure was 10.6 percent.
The presence of female leaders varies across religious groups. About one in five mainline and African-American Protestant churches are led by women, compared to 3 percent of congregations within evangelical traditions.
The gender picture is different when it comes to ministerial staff serving in roles other than senior pastor. Forty-one percent of full-time and 53 percent of part-time secondary ministerial staff are female, significantly higher than the 11 percent of solo or senior pastoral leaders who are female.
Researchers cited several factors to explain why so few congregations are led by female clergy.
While the percentage of women enrolling in master of divinity programs is much higher than it was 40 years ago, that percentage peaked at 31.5 percent in 2002 and had dropped to 28.8 percent by 2014.
Women with M.Div. degrees are less likely to pursue pastoral ministry than men, but research shows that women who do work as pastors report higher levels of job satisfaction than their male colleagues.
Third, and perhaps most important, the study said, several major religious groups do not permit women to lead congregations. Even within denominations that have ordained women for decades, many congregations remain reluctant to hire women as their primary leader.
Acceptance of female pastors continues to grow in principle, if not in practice. Half (49 percent) of congregations indicated in 2006 a woman could in principle be their sole or senior pastoral leader, compared to 58 percent in 2012.
The study shows congregations are increasingly accepting of women exercising leadership in ways other than full pastoral status.
In 2012, 68 percent of congregations allowed women to preach at a main worship service, 79 percent allowed women to hold any volunteer position a man can hold, 86 percent allowed women to teach classes containing adult men and 86 percent allowed women to serve on the congregation’s main governing body. About 10 percent disallow women from those roles.
Even within religious traditions with sizable numbers of female clergy, female leaders are more common in smaller congregations.
Pam Durso, executive director of Baptist Women in Ministry, who is compiling statistics for the next State of Women in Baptist Life due out this summer, said preliminary figures indicate progressive Baptists bodies such as the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Alliance of Baptists are bucking the larger trend.
“Churches affiliated with CBF and the Alliance in the last 10 years have steadily and more frequently called women as pastors and co-pastors, and many of those new pastors are young women under the age of 40,” Durso said. “The percentage of female-led Baptist churches is still low, but measurable progress is certainly happening.”