ABSTRACT
In her novel The Rector’s Wife, Joanna Trollope rehearses the image of the oppressed
clergy wife, passively accepting her position as a dutiful servant to her husband
and the parish, while harboring secret desires to break free from her mundane
existence. Tellingly named, Anna Bouverie is liberated by getting a job in the local
supermarket, earning her own money and consequently achieving a sense of self-
worth. We are alerted not only to the rather limited life of the clergy wife, but also to
the opportunities for escape and fulfillment offered by the world outside. Trollope’s
treatment is colored by the rise of feminism and its impact on wider cultural norms,
and illustrates a shift in attitudes that poses a challenge to the place of women within
the clerical household as traditionally conceived. Clergy wives, in particular, have
been faced with a growing number of women seeking, securing and often maintaining
Having considered the ministerial careers of bishops, this chapter now examines
its impact on their wives. This involves family and church contexts, the evolution of
prominent cultural stereotypes and the acceptance or rejection of these stereotypes
by the women in question. A major concern is with how clergy wives have responded
to expectations imposed upon them by their husband’s ecclesiastical position.
