GENDER AND MINISTRY: WOMEN'S RELIGIOUS LEADERSHIP IN CONTEMPORARY SINGAPORE

Abstract

The notion of women in positions of political or religious leadership has often prompted vehement debate. Current research accounts for women’s exclusion from formal politics with cultural, institutional, and structural explanations. This thesis seeks to test the hypothesis that these explanations also apply to women in religious leadership by conducting an ethnographic study into ordained women within the Presbyterian Church in Singapore (PCS). Interviews were conducted with nine ordained women ministers from different Presbyterian churches from both the Chinese and English Presbytery. Through methods of discursive analysis and comparative evaluation, it is found that respondents collectively pointed to cultural factors as the most significant explanation for women’s access to leadership. More specifically, a culture of socialised gender norms, reinforcing male superiority, and conflating the secular and the religious, comprise the main reason for a ‘stained glass ceiling’ that discourages women from pursuing religious leadership. Although the PCS institutionally allows for the ordination of women, the process is often inhibited or delayed by other leaders who oppose the idea. Interestingly, there are more ordained women in the CP than EP, with this differential mainly due to the gender composition of early leaders. Like formal politics, institutionalised religion forms the bedrock for the perpetuation of patriarchal values through not only the exclusion of women in positions of formal leadership but cultural norms that encourage this reality. This thesis thus hopes to prompt a cultural reckoning in light of its findings and challenge the ‘stained glass ceiling’ that remains currently unscathed. A closer look at women’s personal experiences in navigating a male-dominated leadership environment thus unveils the imbricated layers of sexism and power struggles that do not end even after ordination. This further challenges extant implicit assumptions about a culture that stymies instead of facilitates women’s pursuit of religious leadership.