Research Spotlight: Assessing congregations for gender equity

Dr. Gaynor Yancey, professor, Lake Family Endowed Chair in Congregational and Community Health, director of the Center for Church and Community Impact (C3i) at the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work Baylor University, was awarded a University Research Committee Award (ONE-URC) from the Office of the Vice Provost for Research within Baylor University to assess to what degree is your congregation a place where women in ministry can thrive. GSSW Ph. D. Student and Research Fellow Heather Deal alongside Baptist Women in Ministry (BWIM), is working together with Dr. Yancey to build an assessment tool for congregations and, ultimately, a curriculum that can be used to work towards creating an environment within their congregation that is one in which women in ministry are not only accepted but thriving. 

Heather said, “We are looking at the scope of this as women in ministry and women in congregations. As women thrive, then women ministers will thrive, and if all women are thriving, then the congregation will be healthy. This is looking through the lens of a rising tide lifts all boats.”  

Dr. Yancey and Heather will work with ten congregations in the coming months through quantitative and qualitative data-gathering methods as they build toward finding commonality in congregations where women are thriving. Through this research, they will impact congregations by solidifying the link between environments where women are thriving in all respects and a healthy congregational environment. The Garland school is proud of Heather and Dr. Yancey as they lead us into healthier engagement by looking to the women leaders in our congregations and the world around us.