Race,Diversity, and Membership Duration in Religious Congregations*

It has long been noted that religious congregations tend to be racially homogenous. Previous case studies assert that members of a numerical minority group face individual and organizational pressures that lead them to leave congregations faster than majority members. This can create a constant pull toward homogeneity despite congregational efforts to diversify. Building on theory in organizational ecology, we test this assertion using national, multi level data from the U.S. Congregational Life Survey. The analysis shows that members of a numerical minority do have shorter durations of membership than majority members and that the gap between the two increases with the size of the majority.     

Social Sources of Community Solidarity in U.S. Congregations

Community solidarity, or a collective sense of belonging, plays a vital role in the health and survival of many organizations. Consequently, identifying the elements that contribute to a strong sense of solidarity within communities has long been a topic of inquiry for scholars. In this study, we draw upon prior theorizing to develop and test four hypotheses regarding the organizational characteristics associated with community solidarity in religious congregations. Multivariate models are estimated using national data on religious congregations from the 2001 U.S. Congregational Life Survey (n?=?357). Organizations with greater community solidarity tend to feature higher levels of social capital (operationalized with measures of friendship networks and participation in organizational activities), higher levels of official membership within the organization, and inspiring congregational leadership. Higher levels of commitment are associated with greater community solidarity, but the effect is wholly mediated by social capital. Congregations that engender higher levels of community solidarity share certain organizational features, including higher levels of social capital, higher rates of membership, and inspiring leaders.     

Gendered Congregations,Gendered Service: The Impact of Clergy Gender on Congregational Social Service Participation

Using data from the 1998 National Congregations Study, I present empirical evidence that shows that the gender of a congregation's leadership makes a difference in the likelihood that a congregation will participate in a social service programme. The results from binary logistic regression indicate that the odds of congregations with women head clergy participating in a social service programme are four times greater than those with men head clergy. In addition, as the percentage of women on a congregation's governing board increases the probability that a congregation will participate in a service project also increases. The specific types of social service programmes a congregation pursues also differ by gender of leadership, with women‐led congregations significantly more likely to pursue service projects that could be labelled feminine while avoiding programmes that are clearly feminist. To explain this gendered behaviour I incorporate Acker's (1990 ) theory of gendered organizations.     

Effective Ministerial Leadership

Ministers of local congregations are in positions somewhat similar to the chief executives of other local nonprofit organizations, except that ministers are also expected to respond to the specifically religious needs of their congregants. In this article we assess how especially effective ministers in one denomination differ from less effective ministers in both general leadership skills and specifically religious leadership skills. The especially effective ministers were identified by applying three selection methods, resulting in an unusually careful selection of a sample of especially effective leaders. The results show that the especially effective are more skillful managers, problem solvers, planners, delegators, change agents, shepherds, inspirers, multitaskers, students, and servants and demonstrate themselves to be persons of integrity.     

Women in Congregations and Social Service Provisions

Abstract

The role of women in American congregations is a topic that has gained attention in the past twenty years. The majority of work has focused on leadership and clergy roles and the willingness, or reluctance of, denominations to ordain women. In this article, we report on women as members, lay-leaders, and clergy in Philadelphia congregations, and we assess the factors that explain the rate of women in any of these roles. We find that regardless of the advancement in many areas of society, women are still the majority members yet are a minority among the clergy. Finally, we study how the gender composition of members, lay-leaders, and clergy explain the congregation's involvement in social service provisions. In this respect, gender composition of members, lay-leaders, and clergy made little impact on the congregational social service involvement. A variety of explanations are provided to account for women's little impact in this domain.     

Führungspositionen im Ehrenamt – ein weiterer Bereich der Benachteiligung von Frauen?Management Positions in Volunteering – Another Field of Discrimination of Women?

Based on data of the 2009 German Volunteer Survey (“Freiwilligensurvey”) the paper analyses whether there is evidence for a discrimination of women in filling management positions in the volunteer sector. It turns out that women have a significant lower propensity to take up an unpaid volunteer management position. This correlation is also robust when we control for self-selection bias as well as certain important socio-demographic, socio-economic and volunteer-specific determinants. Further on we can show that this kind of gender-specific discrimination can be found particularly in leisure-time clubs and religious organisations. These results indicate that structural and organisational parameters play an important role to explain gender specific differences in filling volunteer management positions.     

Women and Top Leadership Positions: Towards an Institutional Analysis

Women remain under‐represented in top leadership positions in work organizations, a reality that reflects a variety of barriers that create a glass ceiling effect. However, some women do attain top leadership positions, leading scholars to probe under what conditions women are promoted despite seemingly intractable and well‐documented barriers. Previous scholarship tends to posit individual‐level explanations, suggesting either that women who attain top leadership positions are exceptional or that potential women leaders lack key qualities, such as assertiveness. Much less scholarship has explored institutional‐level mechanisms that may increase women's ascension to top positions. This analysis seeks to fill this gap by testing three institutional‐level theories that may shape women's access to and tenure in top positions: the glass cliff, decision‐maker diversity, and the saviour effect. To test these theories we rely on a dataset that includes all CEO transitions in Fortune 500 companies over a 20‐year period. Contrary to the predictions of the glass cliff, we find that diversity among decision makers — not firm performance — significantly increases women's likelihood of being promoted to top leadership positions. We also find, contrary to the predictions of the saviour effect, that diversity among decision makers increases women leaders' tenure as CEOs regardless of firm performance. By identifying contextual factors that increase women's mobility, the paper makes an important contribution to the processes that shape and reproduce gender inequality in work organizations.     

Protestant women in the late Soviet era: gender,authority, and dissent

At the peak of the anti-religious campaigns under Nikita Khrushchev, communist propaganda depicted women believers as either naïve dupes, tricked by the clergy, or as depraved fanatics; the Protestant “sektantka” (female sectarian) was a particularly prominent folk-devil. In fact, as this article shows, women’s position within Protestant communities was far more complex than either of these mythical figures would have one believe. The authors explore four important, but contested, female roles: women as leaders of worship, particularly in remote congregations where female believers vastly outnumbered their male counterparts; women as unofficial prophetesses, primarily within Pentecostal groups; women as mothers, replenishing congregations through high birth rates and commitment to their children’s religious upbringing; and women as political actors in the defence of religious rights. Using a wide range of sources, which include reports written by state officials, articles in the church journal, letters from church members to their ecclesiastical leaders in Moscow, samizdat texts, and oral history accounts, the authors probe women’s relationship with authority, in terms of both the authority of the (male) ministry within the church, and the authority of the Soviet state.     

The sexual division of leadership in volunteer emergency medical service squads

This article reports on theoretical and empirical research that explored the hypothesis that there is a sexual division of leadership in volunteer emergency medical service (EMS) squads. This hypothesis was tested against survey data obtained from 216 current members of nine upstate New York volunteer EMS squads. Despite several mitigating characteristics of these organizations, and despite the lack of supporting statistical evidence at the aggregate level of officership, the research found statistically significant confirmation of sex bias in officer selection when leadership was disaggregated into line and staff officer positions. Medical qualifications and length of EMS squad membership were also included in the model as determinants of leadership experience. These results are discussed relative to the question of the sexual division of leadership in the overarching nonprofit and voluntary sector of the U.S. economy.     

Leadership within Australian voluntary sport organization boards

This article applies leader‐member exchange theory to the study of dyadic relationships between leaders (board chairs and paid executives) and members (volunteer board members) within the boards of Australian voluntary sport organizations. The article specifically examines leader‐member exchanges within a sample of six Queensland State sport organizations and their relationship with board performance. It was found that leadership within voluntary sport organization boards emanates from either board chairs or executives and that when the individuals fulfilling these roles are able to develop a mature working relationship, the board's ability to perform is enhanced. These findings extend our understanding of the importance of leadership roles held by volunteers and paid professionals for the achievement of organizational outcomes.     

Scarce as hen's teeth: Women CEOs in large nonprofit organizations

This study examines an underlying mechanism behind the gender gap in nonprofit executive leadership, focusing on the link between the representation of women on governing boards and the hiring of female CEOs. The analysis of 340 human services organizations with gross receipts greater than $10 million in GuideStar's database reveals that organizations where women make up between one third and half of the board are more likely to have a female CEO compared to organizations where women account for less than one third or a majority of the board. The findings suggest that nonprofit organizations are more likely to hire a female CEO when women constitute a “substantial minority” of the governing board.     

Is your church “liked” on Facebook? Social media use of Christian congregations in the United States

Despite the increasing interests in social media platforms among religious congregations, little is known about the patterns of these organizations' social media use. This study examines religious congregations' adoption of Facebook, using the data from the 2012 National Congregations Study. The results show that Christian congregations' involvement in nonreligious activities, both social service and political activities, predicts their Facebook adoption. Congregations' membership size and staff resources are also positively associated with their Facebook use. Other organizational characteristics, including religious tradition, clergyperson's age, and urban location, also explain congregations' Facebook use. Overall, the findings suggest that Christian congregations' adoption of social media platforms is closely related with their community outreach and social marketing activities as well as their resources. This study concludes with suggestions for narrowing the gap in social media use between resource‐rich and resource‐restricted congregations, as well as between urban and rural congregations.     

Does Gender Equality Influence Volunteerism? A Cross-National Analysis of Women’s Volunteering Habits and Gender Equality

Research regarding the roles of women in society and in political and social organizations is large, with scholars focusing on the likelihood of political and social engagement. However, few of these studies examine the influence of gender on participation in voluntary organizations by utilizing cross-national data. This study intends to analyze the influence of gender on the type of organization that an individual volunteers and on whether these volunteering habits are influenced by the gender equality in a country. Is there segregation in the type of organizations men and women volunteer? Do women in more gender equal societies have similar volunteering patterns as men, or does the difference continue in volunteering? For this study, we use the World Values Survey from 1999 to 2002, to identify the differences in the types of organizations that men and women volunteer and discuss the impact gender equality has on these volunteering patterns.     

More than the Sum of Its Parts: Cooperation and Mutual Commitment in Multi‐Issue Congregation‐Based Community Organizing

Congregation‐based community organizing (CBCO) federations play an important role in uniting a diverse array of religious congregations and community‐based organizations in movements for social justice at the neighborhood, regional, state, and national levels. Metropolitan‐level CBCO federations provide a novel and noteworthy example of meso‐mobilization contexts as described in the social movement literature in that many such federations engage in multiple concurrent issue campaigns. This study examines collaboration among organizational members of Communities Creating Opportunity, a CBCO federation based in Kansas City, Missouri. Qualitative interviews with organizers, clergy, and lay‐leaders, together with an analysis of organizational records, reveal a cooperative structure of interorganizational relations built upon specific organizing activities, roles, and relations. These activities, roles, and relations are in turn conditioned on each member organization's own level of connection to a particular organizing issue. Findings suggest that this innovative form of cooperative relational structure affords multi‐issue federations an enhanced capacity to mobilize voluntary labor resources and turn‐out at public events relative to single issue organizing.     

Financial control in religious organizations: A status report

Several recent high profile cases of financial mismanagement in religious organizations have highlighted the need for all religious nonprofit organizations (NPOs) to have strong internal accounting controls. These organizations are often small, rely on a great deal of volunteer support, and as a result may not have the professional oversight to adequately monitor the resources of the organization or the behavior of its leaders. The purpose of this article is to assess the current state of financial control for one segment of religious NPOs, churches, and give some suggestions for improvement. In this study over 530 churches of widely varying sizes responded to an extensive survey about specific internal controls they may or may not have in place. The results are assessed in light of preferred practices. Readers can use this information to strengthen current practices and provide a greater level of assurance that an organization is directing its resources toward its mission.     

The Governance of International Nongovernmental Organizations: How Funding and Volunteer Involvement Affect Board Nomination Modes and Stakeholder Representation in International Nongovernmental Organizations

The governance of civil society organizations (CSOs) is a crucial determinant of organizational legitimacy, accountability, and performance. International nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) are a subtype of CSOs and have received a lot of attention as actors in global governance. Research suggests that INGOs can follow a membership model, where the board is elected by the membership, or a board-managed model, where the board is appointed to represent major stakeholders. Following resource dependency theory, we argue that the choice between these two models depends on the INGOs different sources of funding and the degree of volunteer involvement: As donors and volunteers provide important resources, they are in turn granted the right to nominate board members or to sit on the board. In our quantitative study we show that individual members, regional member organizations, and governmental donors hold a stronger position in the governance of INGOs than philanthropists, foundations and volunteers. Our results inform research on CSO governance by highlighting the relevance of board nomination modes and by showing how CSOs can incorporate stakeholders into their governance mechanisms.     

Implementing a gender policy in ACORD: strategies,constraints, and challenges

ACORD, a consortium of 11 nongovernmental organizations from Europe, Asia, and North America devoted to poverty alleviation in Africa, formally adopted a gender policy in 1990 aimed at reducing gender-based inequities in communities where ACORD works. A 1994-96 survey of field programs indicated that the greatest gains for women had been recorded in the areas of welfare, access to resources, conscientization (awareness of and will to alter gender inequalities), and, to a lesser extent, participation; minimal progress was noted in shifting the prevailing gender-based imbalance of power and control in public or private spheres. The research identified several programming and organizational strategies that have promoted positive outcomes for women: gender-awareness training for staff and community members, working with mixed groups, working with women-only groups, promotion of female leadership, gender-aware participatory planning and evaluation, spreading responsibility throughout the organization for implementing the gender policy, recruitment and promotion of women staff, networks for women staff, and direct field involvement in research. Also identified were internal and external factors that weakened policy implementation: a lack of clarity as to its aims, culture-based resistance, confusion regarding responsibilities and procedures, weak accountability mechanisms, lack of gender impact indicators, training inadequacies, underrepresentation of women staff, and inadequate resources. As a result of the review process, ACORD has given gender issues centrality in its current 5-year strategic plan.     

“Maniacal slaves:” normative misogyny and female resistors of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Iran

Feminist scholars the world over are increasingly aware of the importance of analyzing popular discourse, especially regarding women’s involvement in proscribed violence. Yet few have looked at Middle Eastern organizations, and fewer still at the Mojahedin-e Khalq Iran (MEK), a longstanding resistance group whose all-female leadership and sizeable female membership present a compelling challenge to prevailing gender norms. How do popular media portray female MEK resistors and what might these representations signify for our gendered conceptions of violence? In examining the MEK’s female leadership, this article undertakes a close reading of western and Iranian news coverage in an attempt to analyze the degree to which these women are painted as willful political agents or, as is often assumed, irrational actors incapable of autonomous political participation. Following Sjoberg and Gentry, I develop four cognitive frames to describe female resistors, while also challenging the media’s victimizing and sexualizing gaze. I thus problematize these women’s portrayals as “maniacal slaves,” and explain how such gendered rhetoric operates to preclude the notion that members of the MEK might practice legitimate political resistance worthy of analysis or understanding.     

Does disestablishment lead to religious vitality? The case of Switzerland

Economists and sociologists of religion have claimed that religious establishment dampens religious vitality, leading to lower recruitment efforts, low attendance, declining membership within established congregations, and the ‘crowding out’ of non‐established congregations. Conversely, these authors have told us, disestablishment will lead to more religious vitality. Remarkably, even though these claims rest on the connection between establishment and the organizational and membership behaviour of local religious congregations, no research has directly examined that connection. We use the 2008 Swiss National Congregations Study as well as historical data to assess the effect of different levels of religious establishment on both established and non‐established congregations. We find that established congregations do indeed show less religious vitality than non‐established congregations. Contrary to the claims of the economic literature, however, these covariations are not caused by differences in religious establishment on the cantonal level. Both our quantitative and historical analyses show that disestablishment has not led to religious vitality for either established or non‐established congregations. The only clear effect of disestablishment is a dramatic decrease of income for established congregations. Based on quantitative and historical evidence, we suggest that differences between established and non‐established congregations are produced by differences in religious tradition and immigration flows, not by differences in levels of establishment.     

The Partisan Paradox: Religious Commitment and the Gender Gap in Party Identification

A large body of scholarly literature points to the growing influenceof religious devotion on U.S. partisanship. This article attemptsto reconcile the growing religious commitment cleavage in theAmerican party system with the commensurate growth in the gendergap. If women are, on average, more religiously devout thanmen, and if contemporary shifts in partisanship are disproportionatelyfounded on religious and cultural cleavages, then why are womenmore likely to identify with the Democratic Party? I pose threepossible explanations for this apparent paradox: (1) that theinfluence of religion is only considerable among the most committed;(2) that men and women politicize their religious beliefs indifferent ways; and (3) that gender differences in opinion onnonreligious issues sustain the partisan gap, over and abovethe conservative influence of religiosity. Findings from structuralequation analyses demonstrate that religious devotion affectsthe politics of men and women in similar ways. Religious commitmentaffects partisan choices but does not override the powerfuleffects of gender. Gender differences in support for the socialwelfare state and the preeminence of social welfare opinionin the partisan calculus of men and women largely explain thepersistence of the gender gap.