A Clergywoman of the New Generation: Evolving Interpretations of Gender and Faith.

The article focuses on the role of gender in the sociology of religion as seen through the eyes of Stephanie Howland, a female Methodist minister in rural Missouri. She does not identifies herself as a feminist. She does not believe that her gender affects how her congregation views her. For pioneer clergy women, gender and work combined in an altogether new fashion with particular, sometimes less than positive, consequences. She concludes that life for most beginning clergywomen is now different. She believes that the element of faith is missing everywhere. Faith, according to her plays a central role in the world. Her faith is not a simple brand of spiritual reductionism whereupon community and congregational problems can be explained by God. Stephanie backgrounds the issue of gender. Not to deny Stephanie's expression of God in her life, but a social science backed question might ask what her calling might have been had she not grown up with clergywomen and benefited from the experiences of the pioneer generation.