How many women are in a senior leadership role in local churches? By 'senior local leader' we mean ministers, pastors or priests who lead a team or are the sole leader in their local church.
Women as local church leaders in senior roles (i.e. ministers/pastors/priests)
While many women hold leadership and ministry roles in local church life, how many are in a senior role? Different faith traditions take varying approaches to women in leadership. This article focuses on Protestant denominations.
Some 22% of respondents in 2021/22 NCLS Leader Survey described themselves as having senior roles in local churches (i.e. they are the only minister/pastor/priest or the senior person in a team). Given there are more women than men in church life, this shows that women are under-represented in local senior leader roles.
Protestant denominations with the highest proportion of women in senior leadership roles
In 2021/22 The Salvation Army had the highest proportion of women in senior leadership roles, with more than half of all local leaders being women. They are followed by C3 Churches (a Pentecostal movement) where 40.5% of senior local leaders are women. There are a number of Pentecostal movements that have higher than average proportions of women in senior local leadership roles. The Uniting Church is another denomination with a higher than average proportion of senior local leaders who are women (38% vs 22% overall).
Local church senior leaders by denomination and gender
| |
Female |
Male |
| Salvation Army |
53.1% |
46.9% |
| C3 Churches |
40.5% |
59.5% |
| Uniting Church |
38.0% |
62.0% |
| Hillsong Australia |
36.0% |
64.0% |
| Acts 2 Alliance |
35.7% |
64.3% |
| Acts Global |
35.0% |
65.0% |
| International Network of Churches (INC) |
30.6% |
69.4% |
| Anglican Church |
24.2% |
75.8% |
| CRC International |
20.0% |
80.0% |
| Australian Christian Churches (ACC) |
19.4% |
80.6% |
| Churches of Christ |
15.5% |
84.5% |
| Baptist Churches |
9.8% |
90.2% |
| Lutheran Church |
8.4% |
91.6% |
| Presbyterian Church |
5.2% |
94.8% |
| Christian Reformed Churches |
3.2% |
96.8% |
| FIEC |
|
100.0% |
Source: 2021 NCLS Leader Survey (n=2247)
