“Be the Shepherd, Not Their Pet Lamb”: The Ongoing Challenge for Women in Senior Leadership in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Abstract

This thesis explores the gap between what the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) says about women’s ordination and what many women actually experience while serving in senior leadership. The PC(USA) has ordained women since 1956 and publicly affirms its commitment to equality, shared authority, and justice. Yet denominational research and the testimonies of clergywomen reveal that discrimination, harassment, and a persistent lack of trust continue to shape women’s leadership in both subtle and systemic ways. The central question guiding this project is not whether women can be ordained, but whether, once ordained, they are truly able to lead with the authority, safety, and credibility the office is supposed to grant them.This project combines theological reflection, denominational policy analysis, and qualitative research. It engages the Constitution of the PC(USA)—including the Foundations of Presbyterian Polity and the Rules of Discipline—alongside denominational sexual misconduct and ethical conduct policies and published research on gender and leadership. The heart of this work comes from in-depth interviews with eight women serving in senior leadership across diverse congregational contexts. Within these conversations, recurring themes emerged: conditional authority, institutional response to harm, hiring bias, and the personal and professional cost of navigating systems not originally designed with them in mind. These contemporary experiences are then placed in conversation with biblical texts and Reformed theological sources in order to situate them within the broader story of the church.This study finds that the tension between policy and practice is not incidental but systemic. Although the PC(USA) has developed comprehensive constitutional and ethical frameworks, these structures often fail to protect clergywomen in everyday congregational life, particularly in situations of gendered harm that do not rise to formal disciplinary action. In such cases, the burden of discernment and risk is routinely shifted back onto the woman who names the harm, while institutional stability is quietly preserved. The issue, therefore, is not simply procedural but theological. It exposes a church that proclaims shared responsibility while practicing uneven accountability. If the PC(USA) is to live faithfully into its own commitments, it must move beyond celebrating women’s ordination in principle and begin reshaping the congregational and institutional cultures that condition women’s authority in practice. The integrity of the church’s witness depends on its willingness to embody what it proclaims.