Mothers of Invention:
Women, Power, and the Church

by Colleen O'Connor

"Power is the way you get things done in the world. It's not a dirty word but there is much discomfort for women in using that language because we've had power used against us."

Some wept tears of joy and others staged vehement protests when General Convention finally approved the ordination of women in Minneapolis on Sept. 16, 1976. Nearly 30 years later, General Convention heads back to the site of that legendary vote. So how have women fared since then?

Women comprise a growing number of all active clergy-- nearly 25 percent in 2000. In some dioceses, kids now ask if men are allowed to become priests. But when it comes to money and power, women are lagging badly.

Churches pay women priests an average of $5,000 to $9,000 per year less than their male counterparts, and reaching the top of the clerical ladder is still a rare event: only 2.5 percent of the bishops are women. Then there's power and politics: when women strategize about it, some men, even deputies on the House of Bishops and Deputies email list, get uncomfortable.

"We've made great strides," says Marge Christie, who has served as president of the Episcopal Women's Caucus, chair of the Task Force on Women, and chair of the Commission on the Status of Women. "But there is still work to be done."

Her perception is based on a new report from the Committee on the Status of Women. Called Reaching Toward Wholeness II: the 21st Century Survey, the report documents the progress of women in the Episcopal Church since 1987 when the first such report was compiled.

In some places things are pretty good, says Christie, who now serves as consultant for the Commission on the Status of Women. "But even in New York and California, where women have made significant strides, every one of those diocesan reports said there's more work to be done."

Fundamental problems include pay equity. "Across the board--regardless of whether a woman is rector, vicar, associate or assistant--the disparity is between $5000 and $9000 a year," she says.

The glass ceiling is another reality. "Not very many women are called as rectors to major or cardinal parishes," she says. "They tend to find positions with smaller congregations and as associates or assistants." As we head again to General Convention in Minneapolis, now is a good time to take stock: how effective have women been in transforming leadership and power in the Episcopal Church?

"Does it matter that women have been ordained?" says the Rev. Dr. Rebecca Lyman, the Garrett Professor of Church History at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP) in Berkeley, CA. "Has it changed ministry at all? I'm not sure how much it's changed in the corridors of power. When you talk to women, they're doing things differently, but it's not clear how much of that has really influenced things at the diocesan and national levels."

The higher you go up the church's ladder of power, for example, the fewer the women. Women comprise 45.8 percent of the deacons, but only 2.5 percent of the bishops.

This April, a lively debate over women bishops sprang up on the House of Bishops and Deputies email list, triggered by the fact that nearly a dozen dioceses were in the process of electing bishops.

"All of a sudden someone noticed that there were very few women nominees, and we said, `What's going on?'" says Christie.

The answer turned out to be familiar: justice requires maintenance. Back in the late '80s a group of women kept an active list of all women qualified to became bishops, promoted it in the right places--and tasted success, particularly in New England, where a number of women were suddenly named bishops.

"It was rather stunning for a small part of the country," she says. "So we felt it was happening, and we got lax. But now everyone is caught up short, saying it hasn't happened, and we need to reactivate the issue."

The Rev. Dr. Jennifer Phillips, vicar of St. Augustine's Chapel in Kingston RI, jumped into the email debate brandishing details of that successful political strategy. She told how a group of women in the Dio-cese of Massachusetts had developed a list of women candidates to give to the nominations committee, then interviewed the candidates, decided which to support, and lobbied hard for their choices. The result: a slate with more than one woman, and the election of Barbara Harris in 1988.

"Women, get out there and lobby for one another, continue to be pushy and uppity and don't assume that times have changed all that much!" she posted on the House of Bishops/Deputies list. "And let's tell the good news widely about capable women clergy in our midst who would make wonderful bishops. Why not send letters of recommendation about women to the national deployment office? Then if the same names keep drawing mail, they'll know to start putting them on lists?"

About five women responded with enthusiastic support, but a few men were quite critical. "They had a negative response," says Nancylee Ziese, a member of the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa Standing Committee, who was also part of that debate. "They said she was being political. Well, men do that. The good old boys' club has existed everywhere. I hate to say things like that, because I don't want to be thought of as a man-hater. I just think we all have a place in the world."

Ziese agrees with Phillips about successful political strategy. "I think in our time together as women, we should be looking at who has qualities that would cause someone to call them to be bishops," she says, "and make sure people are aware of them."

Women and power are still controversial topics--and not just among men. In women's groups there's a familiar mantra: "Not power over, but power with." It's about the use of power, not the abuse of power. Naturally, this conflict cropped up in interviews for this story.

"I don't feel a strong need to have power," says Ziese, who's served as chair of the Iowa Women's Po- litical Caucus.

"I want to talk about power, and do an analysis of power, and I also want to say I don't want it," says the Rev. Margaret Rose, the new director of Women's Ministries.

"Power is the way you get things done in the world," says Phillips. "It's not a dirty word, but there is much discomfort for women in using that language, because we've had power used against us. The first thing we get accused of--when you make statements like the one I made--is being manipulators of power."

It's not that women don't want power. They just don't want old-style power.

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Rose started doing what feminist education has long advocated: monitor power-sharing at the highest levels by counting the number of women and minorities on the front pages of newspapers, noticing whether this number is equal to that of white men. "I can tell you that, since then, the increase in the number of white men has been astronomical," she says. "There's a kind of power exercised in a way that's just despicable"

Just as the world is in a time of danger, fraught with factions and war, so too is the Episcopal Church in a time of difficult transition. But Rose applauds the positive changes, even if incremental. "There's a new understanding that, `Gosh, I don't have any power unless everyone else does.' I'm seeing glimpses of this. The Office for Women's Ministries is about that--not wanting power for women, but changing the church's under- standing of power in a new way."

Over the past 30 years, she's seen a change of theological thinking, including a new understanding of power. A good example is her husband, the Rev. Mark Baker. "He was vicar of a parish with mostly the mentally ill and the poor, and success for them was really a different thing. As a leader he would get a lot of affirmation simply by showing up and being with them. Relationship mattered to them, not building campaigns."

Theology is key to this shift in consciousness, she believes. "I think women need to think theologically so that we can articulate with others what it is we're talking about, which has to do with authority, leadership, and politics. There is some theological work that we can do to be transformative--not just for women, but for the entire church."

I get out my work and have a show for myself before I have it publicly. I make up my own mind about it--how good or bad or indifferent it is. After that, the critics can write what they please.
GEORGIA O'KEEFE