Postfeminist, engaged and resistant: Evangelical male clergy attitudes towards gender and women’s ordination in the Church of England

Despite the introduction of female bishops, women do not hold offices on equal terms with men in the Church of England, where conservative evangelical male clergy often reject the validity of women’s ordination. This article explores the gender values of such clergy, investigating how they are expre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Critical research on religion
Main Author: Fry, Alex (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage 2021
In: Critical research on religion
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Anglican Church / Woman / Ordination / Evangelical movement / Man / Clergy
RelBib Classification:KBF British Isles
KDE Anglican Church
RB Church office; congregation
Further subjects:B Feminism
B Evangelical
B postfeminism
B Church of England
B Gender
B Clergy
Online Access: Volltext (kostenfrei)
Description
Summary:Despite the introduction of female bishops, women do not hold offices on equal terms with men in the Church of England, where conservative evangelical male clergy often reject the validity of women’s ordination. This article explores the gender values of such clergy, investigating how they are expressed and the factors that shape them. Data is drawn from semi-structured interviews and is interpreted with thematic narrative analysis. The themes were analyzed with theories on postfeminism, engaged orthodoxy and group schism. It is argued that participants’ gender values are best understood as postfeminist and that the wider evangelical tradition, as well as a perceived change in Anglican identity with the onset of women’s ordination, shape their postfeminism. Moreover, whilst evangelical gender values possess the potential to foster greater gender equality within the Church of England, gender differentiation limits this possibility, a limitation that could be addressed by increasing participants’ engagement beyond the Church.
ISSN:2050-3040
Contains:Enthalten in: Critical research on religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/2050303220952868