Work

Sisters of Christ The Gender Constitution of Swedish Clergywomen

Year: 2002

Type: article

Abstract:  This article discusses the gender constitution of Swedish clergywomen in their professional careers. Light is shed upon the strategies developed by the informants, how they cope with their situation both as women and clerics and their potential to develop a new professional clerical role. It is obvious that clergywomen are often given a warm reception by their parishioners, but not always by their male colleagues. Here we speak of a type of male homosociality that excludes women from the “top positions” in the Church of Sweden. One interesting field for analysis of the process of gender constitution is spiritual counselling, where the axes of gender and positional power tend to reinforce each other when the minister is a man, while they deviate from each other when the minister is a woman. Concerning the informants’ understanding of gender, it can be pointed out that essential and constructional understandings appear to co-exist. Activating different understandings of gender in different situations may be a type of survival strategy in a professional context, where the very existence of clergywomen is called into question.

Source: Ethnologia Europaea

DOI: 10.16995/ee.924

Author: Birgitta Meurling

Institution: Uppsala University

Language: English

Topic: Gender Diversity and Inequality

Subfield: Gender Studies

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Gender equality, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: hybrid

OpenAlex ID: W568243370

FWCI:

Cites:

Cited by:

Related to: 10