Emergent female leadership in African American churches: Experiences, barriers and issues

Through the years, women have been excluded in the advancement of the church. The male dominating force upheld the leadership positions within the church. Throughout history, the ordination of women was unheard of. The 20 th century continued to provide a venue for discrimination among African American women in the Christian church. Church denominations play a major role in hindering or helping the advancement of women in leadership. There is a paradigm shift occurring in the church in the 21st century. This shift entails the recent surge of African American women leaders in some Christian churches. African American women leaders are emerging more in some denominational churches than in others. A review of the literature revealed that several studies conducted focus on how well women are accepted as clergy (Williams, 1995). A large-scale quantitative study conducted by Carroll, Hargrove, and Lummis (1983), funded by the Ford Foundation formed a benchmark in the study of women clergy known as "Women of the Cloth." The Women of the Cloth study documented the continued struggles faced by female clergy and the progress made relative to the pioneers who entered seminaries during the 1970s. However, this study did not include African American women. Research indicates that studies on African American women leaders in the church focused primarily on leadership and not the experiences of the women procuring these positions. The population studied is African American women who hold leadership positions in the church. This study focuses on their experiences, barriers, and issues. The research design used is a mixed method utilizing triangulation strategies utilizing questionnaires, narrative interviews, and observations. The expectation of this research is to acknowledge that the presence of African American women in ministry can serve to empower Black women already present in the congregation. This gives them a sense of power, liberation, and will ultimately encourage more women to pursue leadership roles.