Voice of the Clergy Wife: A Phenomenological Study

Abstract

The clergy wife is an understudied and silenced population. While the minister himself is well represented in the literature concerning burnout, psychological distress, and diminishing years of service, his wife remains unheard and desperate for her needs to be understood and addressed. The lived experience of nine Wesleyan pastors' wives was investigated using a qualitative methodology and phenomenological approach. Themes arose surrounding both protective factors (faith, calling, support) and stressors (performance expectations and loss of identity, loneliness, low income, sacrifice of time). The theoretical underpinnings of Kanter's (1977) Work-Family Agenda are applied in relation to the occupation of one family member affecting the entire family system. Kanter claims work and family as mutually exclusive entities is a myth. Her framework, including five concepts (rewards/resources, absorption, time/timing, occupational cultures/worldview, emotional climate), allowed for exploration of the results. Interestingly, the stressors in the role of pastor's wife far outweighed the protective factors; yet, clergy wives remain positive and even willing to continue apparent hardships. This is discussed and future research is suggested.

Suffering in Silence: Examining the Silent Suffering of the Wives of Christian Clergy, Advocating for their Voice and Value

“…In their journal article entitled, Voice of the Clergy Wife: A Phenomenological Study , Luedtke and Sneed (2018) stated that “The clergy wife is an understudied and silenced population. While the minister himself is well represented in the literature … his wife remains unheard and desperate for her needs to be understood and addressed.” The need to acknowledge the reality that many ministers’ wives are suffering silently in the midst of their clergy husband’s vocation of ministry is evident from such research.…”

Pushing yourself to the edge: The relationship of worker self‐sacrifice behaviour with perceived role performance, emotional exhaustion, and partner self‐sacrifice

“…Highly relevant for the current study is the prevalence of self‐sacrifice behaviour within church ministers' careers, described as a life‐long ‘sacrificial embrace’ involving choice and acceptance of an ‘accumulative opportunity cost’ where the usual work‐related benefits and rewards are forfeited in the living out of their vocation (Peyton & Gatrell, 2013). Church ministers' partners too are believed to be willing participants in the hardships of ministerial life, themselves sacrificing identity, time, relationships and material wealth for their partners' vocation (Luedtke & Sneed, 2018). So, in one sense, church ministers and their partners reflect an ‘extreme case’ to study self‐sacrifice behaviour and its crossover, helping to make the dynamics being studied are more visible than the parallel dynamics might be in another context (Kreiner et al, 2006; Pettigrew, 1990).…”

Levels of Marital Satisfaction of Protestant Clergy and Their Spouses in Dagoretti South Sub-County Nairobi, Kenya

“…The spouses of clergymen who are accused of wrongdoing often bear the brunt of public scorn. Despite this, clergy women rely significantly on their marriages as a source of strength because they have few other social networks to turn to (Luedtke & Sneed, 2018). If the abuser is a member of the clergy, this presents an even greater difficulty.…”

“…The wives of clergy members are an unheard and unstudied group. While minister burnout, psychological suffering, and declining years of service have been well-studied, the minister's wife has been largely ignored, despite her obvious need for social assistance (Luedtke & Sneed, 2018). However, it appears that marital functioning has more of an effect on women's marital quality than on men's.…”