Gender and Mainline Protestant Pastors’ Allocation of Time to Work Tasks

Abstract

Some scholars argue that male and female members of the Protestant clergy have differing ministerial styles. They argue that women are more person-oriented and interested in direct interaction with their parishioners and that men are more focused on job status and interested in administration. Using data on 1,688 clergy in eight mainline denominations, this research note compares the proportion of time that male and female pastors spend on 10 work tasks. Women devote less time than men to staff administration and supervision, a difference that is empirically attributable to their underrepresentation as senior pastors. The expectation of differing ministerial styles is most strongly supported in women's greater allocation of time to pastoral counseling-a "personalized," one-on-one ministry. However, they also spend proportionately less time than men on home and hospital visitation. This seemingly anomalous difference can be explained empirically as a factor of differential childcare responsibilities, which appear to limit women's but not men's movement away from home and church.In the late 1960s and 1970s, women began entering the mainline Protestant clergy in substantial numbers. In addition to seeking equality in their denominations, many of these women may have sought to bring a new style of ministry to the profession. Several scholars argue that women pastors are more oriented toward pastoral ministry than are their male counterparts and less interested in job status and the concept of career (Finlay 1996;Simon, Scanlan, and Nadall 1993;Stevens 1989; Nason-Clark 1987). Furthermore, women's style of ministry has been described as one of power-sharing-an approach to interaction with others that is relatively unconcerned with hierarchy and supervision. In this research note, I examine whether male and female pastors allocate their time in ways that reflect different ministerial styles. Using data on clergy careers in eight mainline denominations and building on prior research by Lehman (1993), I compare time spent in 10 work activities, focusing on tasks that are likely to be closely related to ministerial style: "personal" forms of ministry and administration/supervision. THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL BACKGROUNDThe literature suggests that male and female pastors tend to differ in two important approaches to their ministry: the type of work they prefer and their leadership style. First, the types of work preferred by female pastors can be summarized as being "people oriented" (Simon et al. 1993). Finlay (1996 interviewed seminary students and found that men were more likely than women to aspire to work in large churches in suburban areas and women more likely than men to prefer smaller, rural churches. Women were also more likely to see prison and hospital chaplancies, minority churches, and urban ministries as attractive. Finlay argued that these differences reflect a tendency for women to be interested in interpersonal contact and a tendency for men to be concerned with job status. Steven's (1989) findings sugges...

Women in Congregations and Social Service Provisions:

“…In fact, half the black women seminary graduates transferred to a different denomination, as they were not welcome into congregations in their own denomination. Even when women serve as clergy, they are found to devote more time to pastoral counseling and hospital visitation as compared with male clergy who devote more time to administration and job status (Perl, 2002).…”

Money, Sex and Religion: The Case of the Church of Scotland

“…Given this matching system, the under‐representation of female ministers in more affluent congregations, able and permitted to pay a higher stipend, may partly be the result of self‐selection. There is some evidence from the United States that women pastors are less ambitious than their male counterparts in terms of job status, financial rewards and career progression with instead a greater focus on pastoral care and interpersonal contact (Stevens, 1989; Finlay, 1996; Perl, 2002). On this view, a smaller congregation with a stronger sense of community and intimacy may be more appealing to women.…”

Walking Ancient Paths: Revisiting Roles for Service in Youth Ministry

“…While the duties of a preaching pastor may be quite different from a youth minister, the temptation to be drowned in administrative minutia is similar. Another study exposed a reciprocal relationship between the amount of time ministers spend in administration and the time they commit to personal ministry (Perl, 2002). Those who perform more administrative tasks engage in fewer direct ministerial activities, and vice versa.…”