Changing Issue Agendas of Women Clergy.

Using data from separate studies conducted in 1988-89 and I998, we explore changes in the issue agendas of women clergy,. Rosenstone and Hansen (1993) argue persuasively)' that mobilization often occurs clue to a commitment to a particular political issue. Our data allow us to test three separate hypothesis about the evolution of women clergy's issue agendas over the course of a decade that saw an unprecedented number of women enter the ministry: Shifts in the issue agendas of women c/erg), suggest a model of issue agenda evolution including four possible explanations for change: public agenda shifts, changes resulting from the growing number of women clergy, or ideological stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]