The Role of Gender in the Politics of Female and Male Protestant Clergy.

The important effect of gender on American politics is a well-established feature of contemporary American politics at both the mass and elite levels. However, exactly how gender matters is open to considerable debate. In this paper, we test several hypotheses about how gender affects politics among an increasingly important set of activists: clergy in the major Protestant denominations. We employ data from a major new survey of clergy in twenty-two religious traditions to test our hypotheses. Previous research has found a considerable gender gap in political alignment between female and male clergy, with female clergy being more liberal and Democratic. Women clergy have also been found to be more active in politics than their male counterparts. Can these differences between assigned directly to gender, or are other factors at work? And if gender does have an independent effect on political attitudes and behaviors, by what means is gender connected to politics? We will develop and test a path model of political alignment and political participation among female and male clergy. We will employ four types of variables. (1) We will investigate basic demographic factors, such as education and age, as it may be that differences by gender are products of these other factors. (2) We will consider theological orientations, as it may be that gender differences are attributable to views of biblical authority and similar religious beliefs. (3) We will consider the impact of personal experience: perhaps women differ from men because professional experiences, including minority status within their denominations and gender discrimination. (4) We will consider the institutional context in which clergy work, such as the denomination’s view of women clergy and encouragement by male colleagues. It may be that gender gaps result from the presence or absence of specific opportunities that confront female and male clergy. We expect to find that gender has a small, direct influence on political alignment and participation after controlling for all these factors. However, we expect larger indirect influences through other demographic, theological, personal, and contextual variables. Thus, the analysis will reveal evidence of how gender matters, but also whether gender is likely to be fundamental determinant of political attitudes and actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]