Sociology of Religion 2006, 67:1 81-98
Organizational Culture and Women's Leadership" A Study of Six Catholic Parishes Elaine Howard Ecklund* Rice University
Many religions have patriarchal rules and institutional policies that formally limit leadership for women. Yet, in most religions women outnumber men in rates of participation (Gallup & Lindsay 1999, Walter & Davie 1998). Some scholars who study gender and religion focus on the various ways women respond to doctrines that officially limit their participation (Gallagher 2003, Manning 1997). Another group of researchers examine identity negotiation among women involved in traditional religious organizations (Dillon 1999, Ecklund 2003, Manning 1999). Rarely, however, do scholars study differences in approaches to women's leadership between congregations constrained within institutions that officially limit the participation of women. Without these kinds of studies there are few models that describe the mechanisms by which individual religious organizations build and sustain cultures around gender and other issues that are at odds with the institutions they inhabit.
*Direct correspondence to: Dr. Elaine Howard Ecklund, Postdoctoral Fellow, Rice University, Sociology Department MS-28, P.O. Box 1892, Houston, Texas 77251-1892, e.mail: ehe@rice.edu. Thank you to Wendy Cadge, Penny Edgell, and Robert Wuthnow, who read previous drafts of this paper. Funding for data collection was supported by the LiUy Endowment, grant # 1996 1880-000, Penny EdgeU, P.I.
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I report results from a study of women's leadership among six Catholic parishes. I asked how these parishes differed, if at all, in the congregational culture surrounding women's leadership and discovered distinct factors that characterized a progressive parish culture of women in leadership when compared to a more traditional culture. In progressive parishes priests actively encouraged women's leadership as part of a larger commitment to lay leadership, members viewed the priest shortage as an opportunity for more lay leadership, and female leaders talked about their agency to change the Church through their local parish. These findings expand the way researchers currently think about the role of women in the Church and provide models of mechanisms by which congregations might build and sustain cultures at odds with the institutions they inhabit
82 SOCIOLOGYOF RELIGION
CHANGES TO WOMEN'S INVOLVEMENT IN THE C H U R C H Researchers who study women's roles in the Church focus primarily on institutional and structural changes to the place of women (Wallace 1988) and on how individual Catholic women who disagree with core doctrines negotiate identities (Dillon 1999, Ecklund 2003, Winter, Lummis & Stokes 1994). 2 The present work builds on these studies, yet expands them by moving the level of analysis from institutional changes in doctrines or negotiation of identities among individuals or collectives to examination of women's leadership at the organizational level. Significant studies examine the possible mechanisms responsible for transformations in Church institutions (Seidler & Meyer 1989, Wilde 2004). According tO John Seidler and Katherine Meyer, societal changes that accompanied modernization also brought change to Catholic institutions, such as those
1Throughout this paper I use the term "parish" to distinguish a local Catholic congregation from the Catholic Church more generally. A "parish" is a geographic area for which a sp%:ific priest and members of a church community are responsible. L I rely on David Strang s definition of institution that captures two components: "social practice or arrangement...embedded in complex webs of other practices or actor imperatives that give it force" and "the way a practice is socially invested with deep or widely accepted cultural meanings" (Strang 1994). Institutions of the Catholic Church refer to the Vatican level of the Catholic Church and specific doctrines of Catholicism.
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American Catholic parishes are ideal sites for comparing different ways of viewing women's leadership at the level of individual organizations. 1 The Catholic Church has an ongoing struggle over the place of women in leadership. Although the Church remains unwavering in its commitment to a male, celibate priesthood, nearly sixty-three percent of American Catholics think it would be a good thing if women were ordained as priests (Gallup & Lindsay 1999). While individual parishes are constrained by Church institutions, there are considerable differences in how parishes that are all under the umbrella of the Catholic Church interpret and practice Church teachings that influence the role of women. Here I ask what particular factors describe local congregational cultures, ways of doing and talking about things, where women's leadership is valued when compared to those that merely accept, or even in some cases de-value the leadership of women. I find that not all parishes where women fill leadership positions value women's leadership in the same way. More importantly, by comparing six different parishes that on the surface look relatively similar, I discover two distinct parish cultures of women in leadership and consider specific factors that might account for these differences. These findings make a central contribution to research on the leadership of women in the Catholic Church by uncovering possible explanatory mechanisms for differences in parish cultures.
ORGANIZATIONALCULTUREAND WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP 83
3The Second Vatican Council was initiated under Pope John XXlII and completed under the p~pacy of Pope Paul VI. "ti use the term "cultural account" to mean discourse about what is legitimate social action and the means by which that action is legitimated (Wuthnow 1991).
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resulting in the second Vatican Council. Centrally important to this paper, the second Vatican Council (1962-1965) 3 made provision for increases in lay leadership, including more female leadership at the parish level. In some parishes women began to fill roles such as diocesan chancellor, altar server, eucharistic minister, and lector (Seidler & Meyer 1989). Another body of research focuses on changes to Church institutions a s a result of the priest shortage (Schoenherr & Young 1993). According to Schoenherr and Young (1993) a shortage in the number of priests led to a different distribution of power, definition of goals, and structural changes in the Church, some of which resulted in more women leading. Ruth Wallace's work reveals, for example, that largely asa result of the priest shortage women began to function as parish administrators (Wallace 1992). Researchers also study the various ways in which individual Catholic women who disagree with core doctrines create distinctive places of protest both inside and outside local parishes (Dillon 1999, Ecklund 2003, Winter et al 1994). Miriam Therese Winter, Adair Lummis, and Allison Stokes (1994) show the ways in which feminist women develop identities and understandings of doctrines that allow them to relate to Protestant and Roman Catholic Christianity. Michele Dillon (1999) discovers that women who believe in female ordination to the priesthood are able to develop identities that allow them to remain Catholics by placing their primary energies in organizations that regularly petition the Vatican for change in Catholic doctrine. However, there are several significant gaps in this group of studies. For exampie, Seidler and Meyer stress the institutional level of the Church as the primary level that adapts to the changes of modernization. In so doing their work neglects insight to how such changes, particularly those regarding the role of women, are interpreted and practiced by different parishes. While a shortage of priests explains why women are taking leadership in some parishes, it does not explain the specific organizational culture factors that sustain different meanings of women leading. And focusing primarily on how individual women negotiate identities neglects an understanding of the differences in parish cultures that might foster and maintain such identities. At core these approaches to the study of women in the Church are missing an analysis of the organizational-level processes by which parishes sustain different meanings of women's leadership. Here I expand previous research on women in the Church by presenting results from a study of women's leadership in local Catholic parishes. I show that specific and patterned factors in these churches contribute to two cultures with distinct "cultural accounts" and practices of women in leadership. 4
84 SOCIOLOGYOF RELIGION
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Sociologists of religion have applied and expanded ideas about organizational culture first developed in the organization studies literature (Barley 1983, Meyer 1982, Pettigrew 1979). The term "organizational culture" entered the lexicon of organization studies largely through the work of Andrew Pettigrew (1979). Pettigrew defines organizational culture as "purpose, commitment, and order generated in an organization both through the feelings and actions of its founder and through the amalgam of beliefs, ideology, language, ritual, and myth" (572). Stephen R. Barley (1983) further describes organizational culture as the ways that "members of a collective organize their experience" (393). A central insight from this literature is that organizations constrained by the same exterior institut|ons might experience institutional de-coupling in different ways. To the extent that institutions and organizations are de-coupled, organizations have different local cultures with varying interpretations and practices of the institutions in which they are embedded (Meyer & Rowan 1977, Powell & DiMaggio 1991). Sociologists of religion who take an organizational culture approach see congregations as "ways of doing things" and "ways of talking about things" that give them differences and boundaries more generally from non-religious organizations and specifically from the other congregations with which they come into contact (Ammerman 1997, Becker 1999, Neitz 1987, Warner 1988). Studies of different denominations and congregations reveal that the kind of institutional de-coupling Meyer and Rowan discuss in their work often occurs when specific congregations within the same denomination or religious tradition interpret the meanings of their denomination or tradition in different ways (Becker 1998, Chaves 1997). For example, through his analysis of formal rules about women's ordination, Mark Chaves (1997) found that even in denominations that officially allow ordination of women, there is often de-coupling between institutionalized denominational policies and actual practices of women's ordination (Chaves 1997). The findings presented here bring to this dialogue an explanation of organizational-level mechanisms that might imbue women's leadership with different meanings that are dependent on specific religious organizational contexts. Participant observations and interviews reveal that six parishes in Upstate New York use two dominant and different kinds of discourse for interpreting significant transitions in the Catholic Church, such as changes in Church rules asa result of Vatican II or to the structure of the Church asa result of the priest shortage. These differences in discourse contribute to two distinct local parish cultures of women's leadership. Although all of the parishes have women in leadership positions, some have what I label a "traditional parish culture." These parishes view women largely as place-holders until men are found to fill leadership positions. In contrast, among parishes that have what I calla "progressive parish culture," placing women in leadership positions is part of a larger ideological commitment to justice for all people. Uncovering the specific factors that characterize a traditional or progressive approach to women in leadership brings insight to
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTUREAND WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP 85 the processes by which congregational cultures are developed and maintained. These results also provide direction for future studies of women's leadership in local parishes and potentially in other kinds of religious organizations.
METHODS
5The names of all the parishes and individuals I discuss in this paper have been changed. 6St. Mary's was located in a small town academic community. However, the parish was nota university campus church. In a survey of the parish, the pastor reported that sixty percent .9f the church was comprised of families with children. ~Three of the female respondents were women religious (sisters). I interviewed these women because they were in key leadership positions in their parish. During the interview, however, I asked them primarily about the lives of women in their parish who were not members 91 religious order. addition, I did seven context interviews: three were part of a focus group I conducted with members of St. Mary's; three were with women who left the Catholic Church; and one interview was with a female diocesan leader.
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The data presented here include interviews and participant-observation of services and women's meetings in six different Catholic parishes located in Upstate New York. 5 To examine the approach to women's leadership in these churches, I studied the parishes over a two-year period, between 1999 and 2000. The six Catholic churches had very similar structural locations. All were roughly the same size. Each had a growing membership a n d a full-time parish priest. Each church also had women in significant leadership positions. In these parishes women were pastoral associates, heads of pastoral, finance, and parish councils, as well as members of other leadership councils. The parishes were located in three different community contexts, a small-town academic community, a suburban community, and an urban community. 6 In each parish I interviewed women in formal leadership, as well as women who regularly attended the church but were not leaders. 7 Each parish had roughly an equal number of female leaders. I also interviewed the parish priest and in some cases I interviewed men who were congregation members, conducting a total of thirty-eight interviews. Thirty-two of the thirty-eight respondents were women. 8 The remaining interviews were with parish priests and male leaders in the parishes. The interviews were semi-structured and lasted from forty-five minutes to over two hours. I personally conducted and transcribed each interview and coded the interviews for themes related to the extent and meaning of women in parish leadership positions. I paid particular attention to the reasons respondents gave for women filling leadership positions and whether they interpreted such reasons as positive or negative developments in the broader Church and in their specific parishes. A n interview guide of the questions used for these interviews is included in an Appendix. I chose these particular means of collecting data because of a
86 SOCIOLOGYOF RELIGION research focus on organizational culture, information about which was best obtained through interviews and participant-observation. Because my research question was concerned with how parishes differed in their cultural approach to women's leadership rather than testing specific assertions about women's leadership, I used a grounded theory approach to data analysis (Strauss & Corbin 1990). LOCAL C H U R C H CULTURES
TABLE 1: FACTORS DESCRIBING THE PARISH CULTURE OF WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP Factors :
Priest Emphasis on Emphasis on Lay Leadership Leadership Shortage as & Women's of Leadership Ordained Opportunity
Parishes:
Priest Shortage 91
Deficit
Women
Leaders with Influence
Progressive St. Mary
X
X
X
St. Mark
X
X
X
St. Anne
X
X
X
Parishes
Traditional
St. Luke
X
Parishes
St. John
X
St. Matthew
X
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Here I describe the two cultures surrounding the interpretation and practice of women in leadership that I identified in these parishes. Three of the parishes had a progressive church culture. These parishes actively gave women equal opportunities to lead as part of their overall ideological commitment to equality of all people. The other three parishes h a d a more traditional culture. These parishes accepted the necessity of women in parish leadership positions, but thought that lay leadership in general and a woman leading, in particular, was less than ideal, occurring mainly a s a result of the priest shortage. Several factors determined whether a parish culture surrounding women's leadership was progressive or traditional. These included the parish priest's understanding of general lay and women's involvement, the parish account for the priest shortage, and whether or not women in visible leadership had agency to influence the parish culture. The table below shows, for each parish, which factors appeared.
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP 87 A T T I T U D E OF P R I E S T T O W A R D S I N V O L V E M E N T OF W O M E N
Priests in Progressive Parishes
[One of my responsibilities is to] make sure that their voices are heard in case I may wish to go in one direction and they may wish to go in another direction. I am guided myself and the parish is...protected by the pastoral council. There is a difference between a parish council and a pastoral council. In the pastoral council, the people are elected by the parishioners themselves. And they meet to work on where we are at and where we are going. This quote reveals that Father Tom clearly was the primary organizational actor who influenced the parish structure and acted as an "organizational gatekeeper" as much as the priests in the more traditional parishes. This quote also demonstrates, however, that Father Tom used his power to advocate for more voice among lay leaders in his parish. Priests in the progressive parishes released many of their "priestly" functions to the lay leaders, an approach that was connected to the culture of women's leadership in these churches. Once the priests found women willing to serve as leaders in the parish, they did not hover over the women. For example, Katherine was in her mid-forties, worked for the national park service in her area and was an active member of St. Anne's. Katherine explained that Father Tom, the parish priest at St. Anne's h a d a "laissez-faire approach to leadership." Later in our interview, Katherine described Father Tom's approach and explained that he was not, 'Hands-on' to the point that he is over-bearing, but he keeps in touch with it. And I don't think he would ever tell you, 'Oh no, we are not doing that.' Here the priest was seen as a central leader, but without total authoritative control over parish activities. Although priests in the progressive parishes were
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The priests in the progressive parishes used a different discourse than those priests in the traditional parishes for talking about lay leadership, women's leadership, and their own role asa parish priest. St. Mark's, St. Mary's, and St. Anne's all had parish priests who emphasized lay leadership. These priests also gave women in leadership positions more power than did the priests in the other parishes. For example, the women at these parishes rarely consulted their priest before carrying out leadership responsibilities. The priests in the progressive parishes also thought they had agency to interpret the doctrines of the Catholic Church in a way that gave women leaders more power. Priests in the progressive parishes shared the same ethos of encouraging general lay leadership. For example, Father Tom, the priest at St. Anne's, told me that when he first carne to the parish he used his authority to make sure that the people of the parish had more "voice" in directing the future of the parish. Father Tom explained one change he made, which he thought reflected his commitment to putting the power for parish decisions in the hands of parishioners.
88 SOCIOLOGYOF RELIGION engaged with what was going on in their churches they trusted lay leaders to independently set up and implement their own programs. Giving power to women in leadership was part of an overall commitment these parish priests had to making equality for all part of the fabric of their churches. For example, Father John, parish priest at St. Mark's, encouraged the members of his parish to take on more leadership and did not give preference to male over female leadership.
Father John championed lay leadership and part of this was a commitment to an egalitarian view of women leading. Later in our interview, he said that raany of the parish leaders were women. In Father John's view women leading was characteristic of the "new" Catholic Church. Father John's approach to the place of women in his parish resulted not from a structural necessity as a result of the priest shortage, but from the larger commitment he had to making his parish a place where equality was realized for all oppressed peoples. During a homily one Sunday he explained: Who are the sick today? Jesus wants us to heal. Who are those lepers of today who are ostracized from society? Could they be our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters? Who are the demons that need to be driven out? The giant triplets...(I believe the giant triplets are racism, violence, and materialism). From the combination of this homily and his thoughts about women in leadership it is clear that Father John saw his commitment to empowering women in leadership asa natural outworking of his overall commitment to equality. Interviews with women at St. Mark's confirmed that Father John had a large part in determining how the issue of "women in leadership" was approached in the parish. Nicole, in her early fifties, and the church parish secretary for over twenty years, told me that St. Mark's had an open role for women in their church largely because of Father John's leadership. According to Nicole, Father John did not "pigeon-hole women into certain roles." [Interviewer]: Is there anything about this church that allows women to be more involved here than in other churches? [Nicole] I think it's the priests here. Father has been here for twenty-one years. The associates have felt the same way he does. They respect women for their many abilities. Nicole's quote confirmed the important role that parish priests have in expanding and legitimizing female leadership in individual parishes. The priests in the progressive parishes also increased the power of women leaders. For example, Father Joe from St. Mary's felt that, even if he didn't change
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The people who run the programs are those who have taken over responsibility and done a wonderful job. It doesn't make a difference whether they are menor women. If they are qualified then they are going to do that. If they want to do it, then it happens.
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP 89 broader Church doctrines, he could at least change things in his own parish. Father Joe explained his understanding of his role in comparison to that of the Pope: [the Pope] He is no more baptized than I am. He is no more Catholic than I am. He is no more ordained than I am. He has a particular role and he is useful, but he himself admits that it is a particular role and it has not always been used wisely.
Because of Father Joe's leadership, women are much more comfortable taking leadership roles. Debbie also told me that when she wanted to change some of the education programs in the parish Father Joe provided complete support of her autonomous leadership. These examples reveal that the progressive parishes had priests who used their positional authority in the parish to challenge and change broader norms about women's leadership.
Priests in the Traditional Parishes In contrast, priests in the traditional parishes had views toward general lay leadership that were different from those in the progressive parishes. Although women in the traditional parishes also filled a variety of leadership positions, priests in the traditional parishes were less likely to allow women to create their own programs. They emphasized that women's leadership occurred mainly for structural reasons as a result of the priest shortage, implicitly asserting that it was "less than best." For example, according to Father Dan, the priest at St. John's: The Second Vatican Council called forth, from the baptized, all their baptismal gifts. Previously, it was the participation of the laity in the work of the hierarchy. Now, it's your own work. There is equality of women...they can conduct services. On a weekday, if the Priest scheduled for Mass is unable to come, then [his emphasis] one of the women will do a service other than the Mass. Here Father Dan stressed that although Vatican II changes made room for women to be more involved in parish leadership, a priest should be the one to carry out the Mass. In two of the progressive parishes, however, women often conducted the Mass.
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Perhaps the most memorable statement among these interviews was when Father Joe remarked that the Pope "is no more ordained than I am." Although on the surface this sounds like an irreverent statement, Father Joe said this to underscore his own agency in determining interpretation of Catholic doctrines for his parish. My other interviews at St. Mary's confirmed that female leaders were empowered because of Father Joe. According to Debbie, in her mid-thirties and a director of religious education,
90 SOCIOLOGYOF RELIGION While priests were gatekeepers for the interpretation of Church teaching in both the progressive and the traditional parishes, they used their authority in considerably different ways. In her research on workplace organizational cultures Kimberly Elsbach found that organizational leaders were often the main force in shaping organizational cultures in workplace settings (Elsbach 2002). My findings corroborated with Elsbach's finding, thus expanding this theory to a group of non-economic organizations. PARISH A C C O U N T OF PRIEST SHORTAGE
Priest Shortage as Opportunity St. Mark's, St. Anne's, and St. Mary's parishes used a "framework of lay leadership" as part of their cultural account for the priest shortage. Members of these parishes saw the value of women's leadership in its own right rather than filling a structural hole left by the shortage. This account was evident in meetings, services, and discussions with individual members in the parish. For example, when reviewing congregational literature for the progressive parishes, such as bulletins and church newsletters, there was little mention of the priest shortage asa problem or recruitment of more priests. Instead, there was more emphasis on finding lay leaders to be responsible for parish programs. Members of the progressive parishes generally described the benefits of having lay church leaders and talked, in particular, about the opportunities for women's lay leadership afforded by the priest shortage. At these parishes women were invited to fill leadership positions that carried responsibility for determin-
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Most parishes have been influenced by the priest shortage and, reflecting this, many respondents mentioned the shortage in some way. Unlike the priestless parishes Ruth Wallace (1992) examined in her work, each of the parishes I studied hada full time parish priest. The churches differed, however, in the general cultural accounts (Wuthnow 1991) they employed for understanding the relationship of women's leadership to the shortage. Each of the parishes had some of the same "cultural tools," what Ann Swidler has described as "habits, skills, and styles from which people construct strategies of action" (Swidler 1986). These parishes had both a "framework of hierarchy" anda "framework of lay leadership" as part of the cultural tools they gained from post-Vatican II Catholic teachings. However, the parishes stressed the use of different cultural tools in their two general accounts of the priest shortage. For parishes that adopted a "framework of hierarchy" approach to the priest shortage, having a priest was crucial to what it meant to be Catholic. These congregations reacted to the shortage by focusing their energies and efforts on trying to bring more priests into the Church. In contrast, the parishes that utilized a "framework of lay leadership" saw women leading as part of an overall emphasis on lay leadership aside from the necessity of the priest shortage.
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP 91 ing the future of the parish, such as serving on the pastoral or finance councils. Beth, in her mid-forties, and one of the pastoral associates at St. Mary's, remarked, This is nota case of Father Knows Best. When you come to Mass, you are nota spectator...[It's] one of the few places where I have felt welcome asa woman. Partly it is the language. We are careful of using inclusive language as muchas possible. Partly, it is that we are doing things asa community. As staff...we have girl altar servers., lectors. In any community/leadership position it is half women...We are not afraid to stretch the boundaries.
I think the women's movement influenced everything. Getting women out of the houses. I think that influenced the way that you raised kids. The women's revolution. The Church alone. You know, women were never this involved with the church. I don't think it has to do with there just [her emphasis] not being that many Priests. It has everything to do with women saying: 'I count.' According to Katherine, while the shortage of priests gave women more room to lead, women leading became much more t h a n a response to a leadership deficit.
Priest Shortage as Deficit Respondents in parishes that adopted a "framework of hierarchy" approach to the priest shortage talked about having a parish priest who was involved in or even led most of the parish programs as part of what it meant to be Catholic. For example, through attending meetings and services at St. Luke's, one of the traditional parishes, I noticed a difference in the way parishioners viewed leadership of the priest w h e n compared to the more progressive parishes. T h e following dialogue took place at a Legion of Mary meeting at St. Luke's: 9
9The Legion of Mary is a lay ministry of the Catholic Church, with chapters in local parishes. Its main purpose is prayer and service (http://www.legionofmary.org/lom.html).
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Beth connected feeling included a s a woman to the general openness to lay leadership at St. Mary's. Beth understood the current shortage of priests, remarking that in about ten years most priests would "be dead or close to it," and that the priest shortage could have the benefit of affording more opportunities for women to lead. She connected the freedom she was given to engage in practices such as conducting the Mass and preaching sermons as evidence of St. Mary's more general commitment to pushing the boundaries of what constitutes "usual Catholic C h u r c h leadership." Katherine, the member of St. Anne's mentioned above, explained that changes in the Catholic C h u r c h and in her particular parish regarding the role of women had more to do with women demanding a voice than the priest shortage.
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T h e w o m e n at this gathering reminisced about the time w h e n a priest was able to attend their meetings to give spiritual direction and guidance. Later in the focus group, the w o m e n said their activities h a d a greater sense of legitimacy w h e n a priest attended and offered his guidance. My time at St. Luke's further revealed that the parish viewed the priest shortage as a shortcoming, rather t h a n an opportunity, of the present Catholic Church. H e l e n was retired, in her late sixties, and President of the Women's society at St. Matthews. She talked about the shortage of priests with sadness in her voice. As we further discussed the impact of the priest shortage on the Church, she said the shortage was a central reason w o m e n were filling leadership positions in the parish. Women are needed a lot more now, because the vocations of the Priest are really down. Women in the parish are fulfilling a lot more responsibilities. There are more lay women also. Women are just fulfilling a lot of these jobs. They are going into the nursing homes. U n l i k e Katherine, Helen did not discuss w o m e n gaining a voice in the C h u r c h as a reason for their increased involvement. Rather, Helen saw w o m e n largely as placeholders until more m e n were found to enter the priesthood. M a n y of the other w o m e n in the traditional parishes h a d a similar idea that w o m e n were filling more roles t h a n before mainly a s a result of the priest shortage. W h e n I asked Martha, in her early eighties and a member of St. John's, to describe one of the biggest challenges faced by w o m e n in leadership, she told me " w o m e n are functioning in a ministry capacity which probably they [the women] t h i n k the Priest should be doing." For Martha, the biggest impediment for w o m e n in the C h u r c h was not an actual barrier to gaining more leadership, but being "forced" to fill leadership positions that ideally priests should occupy. These cases show there are different models for responses to the shortage, rather t h a n seeing the priest shortage a s a monolithic process that is affecting aU parishes in the same way. Existing research has often viewed the increase in
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Interviewer: To what extent do you work with the priest at St. Luke's? Amy: Actually, our Father, he is so busy...We used to have a priest who was our spiritual director. He used to come [to the meetings]. Jill: We used to have three priests...We used to have two assistants. [she turns to the other women]. Remember? Amy: Yeah. But she wants to know whether we get together with the priests . . . . Basically we follow the same thing all the time. I guess if anything changed he [the priest] would let us know. Interviewer: So he doesn't come to the meetings regularly? Amy: No. He doesn't come to our meetings. The other priests [when the parish had more priests] maybe they had more time and they were not preoccupied...But he [current priest] likes what we do. He is always thanking us. We basically do the same thing all the time. Jilh We visit the shut-ins. And if they want a priest, then we report to him...We just report to him...and that's basically it.
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP 93 women's leadership largely asa structural response to the priest shortage (Wallace 1991) and changes in Catholic doctrine (Seidler & Meyer 1989). While these were an important context for the story of women's leadership in these parishes, such reasons were unable to fully explain the distinctly different meanings attached to women in leadership in these two types of parishes.
Women as Change Agents While women filled leadership positions in the traditional parishes, female leaders in the progressive parishes actively influenced how their parish viewed the
To make change. I ama big wave maker. Unless it is brought up then things will stay the same...The Church is meant to be made up of people who are different. I love my Church. There are things that aren't right with it. But my job, I think, is to make them right...To have diversity in a parish. Otherwise I think it is going to be a pooh, pooh parish...I don't think you can have any life in the parish with only one type of people whether it be one nationality, one mind-set. I think it makes a difference to make a thing work. .
.
.
Here Sarah connected making changes in the broader Catholic Church to being vocally involved in her particular parish. Debbie, the director of religious education at St. Mary's, told me she had an influence on her local parish through the kind of ministry she did there. And I think if we keep doing what we are doing, with preaching, I think that wiU influence people. When they enjoy hearing women preach, and they think they are faithfully proclaiming the Word, then other things will naturally go from there...I think through all the teaching that I do that people respect me asa professional minister. And come to accept and value that and it is just another step towards full acceptance and full responsibility. According to Debbie, when people at St. Mary's saw her "proclaiming the Word" they began to understand that women were capable of preaching. She hoped this would result in parishioners beginning to champion the involvement of women in all areas of ministry. Researchers have focused on how individual women have negotiated identities that allowed them to remain loyal to religious traditions and organizations constrained within larger traditions that officially limit their role (Dillon 1999, Ecklund 2003, Winter et al 1994). The findings I have presented expand such previous studies by showing the specific ways in which women were
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role of women. Women in the progressive parishes made changes, not through their direct influence on Catholic teachings, but through their impact on how individuals in their respective parishes viewed women leading. At St. Mary's, St. Mark's, and St. Anne's, women in visible leadership positions were important for inspiring other women to remain involved. For example, when I asked Sarah, in her mid-twenties and the director of religious education at St. Anne's why she was so involved with her parish she responded:
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There is a definite sensitivityhere. If someone says something that is politicallyincorrect, there are a lot of women who will call them on it. Sandy's remark revealed there was a common understanding of things that were "politically correct" and things that were not. Those who stepped outside this common discourse were held accountable. The group of feminists in the parish also held Father Joe, the parish Priest, accountable. When I asked during our interview if feminism had an influence on the church, he responded by talking about the specific women in the parish who influenced the culture surrounding women's leadership: Oh God yes...If not formally,you certainly know when you butt up against them. They are not bashful...if I say something that is not politically correct, then they will let me know. Father Joe admitted that the presence of feminism in the parish led to women being treated as equals at St. Mary's. My time participating at St. Mary's and my interviews with other members of the parish confirmed the presence of this active group. Feminists in the parish knew they were supported by vocal women who spoke a similar language. In her work on evangelical feminism, Sally Gallagher argued that American evangelicalism has largely marginalized the ideals of feminista, making it difficult for feminist evangelicals to gain support in the larger movement (Gallagher 2004). My findings about the influence of a group of feminists on the congregational culture surrounding women's leadership at St. Mary's build on Gallagher's
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key actors in sustaining broader organizational cultures that attributed positive meaning to women's leadership. Groups of feminist Catholics have tried to expand the role of women at the institutional level of the Church (Dillon 1999, Katzenstein 1998, Weaver 1985). My time at St. Mary's revealed, however, that a group of vocal women were also a part of shaping a local organizational culture through influencing discourse at the parish level. Of the three progressive parishes I studied, only at St. Mary's was a group of feminists important in creating the atmosphere surrounding women's leadership. St. Mary's was also structurally different from the other parishes. It was located in a small academic town and had a membership with a higher overall level of education than the other churches. Although the presence of a vocal group of feminists made St. Mary's different from the other parishes, examining the process by which this approach to women leading influenced the parish culture provided insights to an important organizational dynamic. One way the group influenced discourse in the parish was by actively responding to speakers and materials they perceived as anti-feminist. According to Sandy, a lawyer in her early fifties, and an active leader at St. Mary's, who had recently served as the head of the parish finance committee:
ORGANIZATIONALCULTUREAND WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP 95 work. By moving the level of analysis to local organizations, however, I have shown that although religious feminists might be marginalized within a larger religious institution there may be room for them to make changes in local congregational contexts. CONCLUSIONS
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Popular and scholarly views of the Catholic Church have often emphasized an institutional Church that is alien to the needs of women (Daly 1985). Such views have overlooked the differences between parish cultures at the local level. Although I selected congregations based on structural similarities in women's leadership; I unexpectedly found there were two distinct cultures that surrounded women leading. These progressive and traditional parish cultures of women in leadership could not be adequately explained only in terms of the structure of women's leadership, whether or not there were women in leadership positions, or even in the kind of leadership positions women filled. Rather, I have uncovered specific factors that described and may have even acted as mechanisms in shaping the culture of women's leadership in these two types of parishes. Both priests in the traditional parishes and those in the progressive parishes acted as gatekeepers for the parish culture. In particular, the priest's interpretation of his own role and the kind of discourse he employed to talk about lay leadership in general and the leadership of women in particular influenced the level of potential power and authority of female leaders. Those parishes with a progressive culture had priests who saw themselves as agents in interpreting Catholic doctrines for their parishes. Such priests thought women's leadership was characteristic of the "new" Catholic Church. In practice, priests in the progressive parishes allowed both male and female lay leaders autonomy in directing parish programs. The dominant account a parish had for the priest shortage was also important. The progressive parishes saw the shortage as an opportunity rather than a constraint and believed women ought to be in leadership because of a commitment to the larger ideology of expanding equality for women rather than merely because leaders were needed. Further, in the progressive parishes, women leaders saw themselves as change agents with the ability to influence how their parishes viewed women's leadership more broadly. These different cultural accounts of women leading had consequences. Congregations that viewed women's leadership as being at the forefront of a changing Church gave women in leadership more power. Women in these parishes were able to make decisions without the direction of the parish priest. In contrast, congregations that viewed women as placeholders until more priests were brought into the Church gave women in those positions less power. Discovering the underlying meanings that parishes attached to leadership may also be an important predictor of how p arishes will continue to respond to the priest short-
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age. Those parishes that had an ideological commitment to women in leadership may be more likely to survive in the midst of a continuing decline in the number of priests when compared to those that viewed women merely as placeholders until more priests were found. In one sense my work joins with that of other sociologists of religion, who have argued that in practice local religious organizations are often de-coupled from the larger denominations and doctrines within which they are embedded (Becker 1998, Chaves 1997). Here the progressive parishes fostered women's leadership in a way that was sometimes at odds with the larger teachings of the Catholic Church, such as allowing a woman to conduct the Mass. In another sense, however, these parishes were also heavily constrained by Catholic institutions. While the progressive parishes were often somewhat de-coupled from the larger institutions of the Catholic Church, they were not completely de-coupled and needed to maintain a progressive parish culture in ways that were legitimately Catholic. For example, although the priests in the progressive parishes advocated for more women in leadership roles, it was still priests who were the central gatekeepers for both the progressive and traditional parishes, a core part of Catholic teaching about the role of a priest (Schoenherr & Young 1993). This research could be expanded in several specific ways. The models I have discovered should be tested to see if they are general models of progressive and traditional cultural approaches to women's parish leadership. Here I have controlled for geography, parish size, and the presence of a parish priest. If these models are to be tested for their ability to describe parish cultures of women's leadership in other settings, a better understanding is needed of what factors will lead to implementing each of these parish models of women's leadership. Factors that may be predictive of parish culture include the age of a priest and the education and socioeconomic level of parishioners. Will younger priests, those trained after Vatican II, necessarily be more progressive in their view of women in leadership? The parishes I studied were largely a mix of working class and middle class individuals, with the exception of St. Mary's, which had parishioners with a higher median educational level than the other parishes and was also the most progressive of these parishes. To what extent are the median education level and/or median socioeconomic status of parish members predictive of whether a parish adopts a traditional or progressive culture of women's leadership? Further, it should not be assumed that the factors I have discovered here are related to one another and will always occur together to encourage the development of a progressive parish culture surrounding women in leadership. More research is needed to investigate the necessity of these factors occurring in conjunction with one another. What would it mean for a congregation to have one or two of these factors and not the others? To examine the extent to which these factors are tied, future studies will need to examine how parish cultures change over time.
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP APPENDIX: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6)
8) 9) 10)
11) 12) 13) 14) 15)
GUIDE
[If respondent has a leadership position], what is your position at [parish name] ? What activities does your job entail on a day-to-day basis? What decisions are you responsible for? During a typical Mass, what sorts of roles do women fill? Are there any limits to the roles women can fill during a Mass? If so, could you describe these limits and whether they are particular to your [parish] or apply to the Catholic Church in general? Are there any women's societies/groups at [parish]? Ifso, could you name them? Is there a lay parish council at [parish]? How many women are involved in this council? What are their positions? Are m e n o r women more involved in the congregational life at [parish]? Or are they involved equally? What do you see as the particular needs/struggles of women at [parish]? In the time of your involvement at [parish], have you noticed any changes in the role of women in the congregation? If so, could you describe these changes? If applicable, how has the women's movement influenced congregational life at [parish]? More broadly speaking, during your time of involvement, how has the women's movement influenced the Catholic Church? Would you describe yourself asa feminist? Why or why not? [If respondents self-describes as a feminist] What is your definition of feminista? What would be your dream for the role of women in the Catholic Church? Do you disagree with any core doctrines of the Catholic Church? If so, what are these? Why have you remained a Catholic? Why have you remained a part of this particular parish?
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