Gender Equality

I was just reading a report of a lecture the PB gave which included a comment about women not getting the top jobs in the Church. This is no surprise to those of us who work in the trenches. I have been lectured and flat out told I need to be at home and have no business working full time - very recently and by people who have direct ability to influence my employment - scary eh?

Yes, in a church which preaches equality from the pulpit, equality in the pulpit is distant dream. There is suspicion of a woman who has children and chooses to go to work. There is suspicion of a woman who makes her partner follow her around. There is suspicion of a childless woman. And a single woman - well what must be wrong with her? For every condition there is a set of reasons why this woman should not be preaching the word of God and celebrating the sacraments - and let's face it - that is the problem, public ministry.

For a woman to stand up in public and preach and preside she is taking on a role which has been traditionally male- she has, as in many other professions, a slew of opposition before she performs her task. I wish this were not something which female clergy seem to have experienced and for anyone coming into the ministry from a secular employer, where there is more equity, there is a culture shock. It is not nice and it is under the table but gender discrimination is normative.