ABSTRACT

Ordained clergy are interesting to look at as a professional group because religious calling lies at the core of their work. This chapter focuses on research conducted over the last five years involving clergywomen in the Church of England (CofE) and Methodist Church in the UK. Clergy work is arguably set apart from other professional work because it has a religious calling at its core. The work of clergy possesses some characteristics of what might be termed a standard employment relationship, for example, receiving a salary (stipend), and undergoing rigorous recruitment and selection processes. Women were admitted as ordained Methodist clergy in 1974, and in the CofE as late as 1994. Progression has changed very recently in the CofE and, as with Methodists, women are now finally eligible to apply or be recommended for senior roles: the consecration and appointment of the first woman bishop in January 2015 ended a long battle for formal gender equality.