In Their Own Right: The History of American Clergywomen

Abstract

This is the first across-the-board history of American clergywomen from the many faith communities, churches, and temples that populate the American religious landscape. The authors describe the painfully slow opening of the profession to women from colonial days, when itinerant Quaker women martyred themselves, to the end of the twentieth century, when women crowd seminary classrooms and challenge long-established traditions and practices. The authors also speculate about the possible future of clergywomen: How are feminism and womanism affecting them? The backlash from the religious right? The controversy over ordaining lesbians? The tensions in the Roman Catholic church and other denominations that deny women ordination?

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