A Phenomenological Study of African American Women

December 3, 2025

A Phenomenological Study of African American Women’s Experiences in Church Leadership

Dwayne Castro | 2023

Abstract

Leadership is among the most discussed topics in the contemporary world, as increased competence fosters the institutions’ success; however, continued research has shown that the phenomenon has been a reserve of the masculine males for many decades, leading to women being comprehensively underrepresented, especially in church leadership. Recent observations have shown that women have continually taken leadership roles, which have introduced a new set of challenges faced during their rise to church administrative duties and when they attain full pastoral positions. Some of the obstacles/experienced by clergywomen are related to the societal biases which have permeated society for centuries. These include unconscious bias (external), imposter syndrome (internal), and double-bide paradox. These biases have been reinforced by various biblical perspectives and misinterpretations and the patriarchal society, which has framed leadership as assuming the male figure leading to women leaders facing adverse experiences while undertaking their leadership roles. Further, there is an observed glass cliff situation where women are only appointed to positions of power in the face of crises, setting them to fail, an aspect that reinforces the societal view that women are not equally capable as leaders. Glass cliff is a situation in which women are promoted to leadership positions during a crisis. Based on the above, the researcher designed a qualitative study to investigate the diverse experiences faced by women in church leadership. The researcher used a semistructured interview to analyze the experiences of 12 women in leadership positions drawn from churches adopting egalitarian and complementarian philosophies to make solid inferences on the persistence of the experiences and offer diverse recommendations.

Keywords: Egalitarian, leadership, bias, women leadership, experience, church, church leadership

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