Women’s Ministry in Ecumenical Perspective

Despite electing a female president, Michelle Bachelet, and at one point achieving gender parity in cabinet appointments, women’s presence in Chile’s national congress remains small, is only slightly higher at local levels, and is extremely limited among party and coalition leaders. In her gendered analysis of representation, Susan Franceschet argues this is because of the strong formal and informal institutions that limit the size of electoral districts, require large thresholds to win seats, and require coalition negotiation over candidates for elected office. Even though women have a mixed record of representation, their presence has had important policy consequences. A gender-focused presidency has been critical for passage of gender-attentive policies. Women in Chile’s legislative arenas have been more likely to bring gender issues to the agenda. Franceschet points out that Sernam, the women’s ministry, has played a critically important role in this. The electoral reforms approved by congress in 2015 include a gender quota, creating expectations that improvements will continue.

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In the Light and on the Road

10.1093/oso/9780198814221.003.0008 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Sarah Crabtree

Keyword(s):

Rhode Island ◽

Early America ◽

Women's Bodies ◽

Women's Ministry ◽

The Road ◽

Cultural Expectations ◽

Female Autonomy ◽

On The Road ◽

One Year ◽

Gendered Expectations

Patience Brayton (1734–94), a Quaker itinerant minister from Rhode Island, completed two extended journeys: one year-long trip covering the American seaboard and a four-year trek through Ireland and Britain. These journeys required her to leave her husband and young children, navigate hazardous travel conditions, endure incapacitating illnesses (often alone), and contend with those hostile to women’s ministry. This chapter contrasts these feats with post-Revolutionary ideas about the weakness of women’s bodies and minds, arguing Brayton’s narrative resolved this conflict by reiterating her own discomfort with these anomalous experiences and by attributing her strength and success to God. Thus, although her journal documented myriad examples of female autonomy and authority, descriptions of her travels, absences, illnesses, and silences conformed to gendered expectations. While ‘in the light’ Quaker women may have stretched gender norms in early America, they could not escape the gendered boundaries of cultural expectations while ‘on the road’.

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Reformation: a Two-edged Sword in the Cause of the Ministry of Women

Feminist Theology ◽

10.1177/0966735017711870 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 26 (1) ◽

pp. 19-33

Author(s):

Fleur Houston

Keyword(s):

Social Life ◽

Social Systems ◽

Logical Consequence ◽

Social Model ◽

Human Beings ◽

Women's Ministry ◽

The Bible ◽

Social Challenge ◽

Normative Expectations ◽

God's Grace

When Martin Luther mounted an attack on the industry of Indulgences, he affirmed key Reformation principles: human beings are saved by God’s grace alone and the priesthood of all the baptised gives all followers of Christ equal status. This was in conformity with an earlier generation of reformers who saw the Bible as ultimate authority and witnessed to biblical truth against corruption. The logical consequence of this should have been the enabling of women who were so disposed to exercise a theological vocation. In practice, the resulting rupture in religious and social life often affected women for the worse. Educational formation and leadership opportunities were restricted by the closure of convents. While the trade guilds, with their tightly regulated social systems, did not allow scope for women who transgressed normative expectations, their suppression was not necessarily liberating for women. The new social model of the home replaced that of convent and guild and marriage was exalted in place of celibacy. Changes in devotional practice involved loss and gain. Women who did not conform to the domestic norm were treated at best with misogyny and female prophets of the radical Reformation paid for their convictions with their lives. In education, leadership, piety and radical social challenge, women’s options were restricted. However, the key Reformation principles ultimately enabled the development of women’s ministry which was marked by the ordination of Constance Todd 400 years later.

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Women's Ministry in the C of E (1919-70): Part I

The Modern Churchman ◽

10.3828/mc.29.2.35 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 35-44 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Brenda Fullalove

Keyword(s):

Women's Ministry

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Reverend Gentlemen and Prophetesses

Virginia Woolf and Christian Culture ◽

10.3366/edinburgh/9781474415637.003.0004 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 88-113

Author(s):

Jane de Gay

Keyword(s):

Church Of England ◽

Social Criticism ◽

Women's Ministry ◽

To The Lighthouse ◽

Three Guineas ◽

Between The Acts ◽

The Waves ◽

The Church ◽

Critical Interest ◽

English Heritage

This chapter reveals the extent of Woolf’s critical interest in the clergy. It demonstrates that the clergy remained important within middle-class life during Woolf’s lifetime and that Woolf reflected this in her novels. It draws attention to the element of social criticism in Woolf’s novels The Voyage Out, Jacob’s Room, Mrs Dalloway, The Waves, The Years and Between the Acts, as she represents the variety of roles played by the clergy: the cure of souls, the conduct of worship, the burial of the dead, and conserving English heritage and historical buildings. The chapter also examines Woolf’s detailed critique in Three Guineas of the decision of the Church of England to continue to exclude women from ordination in the Church Commissioners’ 1936 report The Ministry of Women. It also shows that Woolf was supportive of women’s ministry, both in her examination of the historical precedent for this in Three Guineas, and in her representation of Mrs Ramsay in To the Lighthouse as a prototype female priest.

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