Women’s Leadership Survey

The initial analysis of FutureChurch’s Advancing Women in Church Leadership Survey is completed. We received 2,018 responses to our mailing to 40,000 progressive Catholics. Among the most interesting outcomes is that respondents preferred a “both/and” strategy of working within and outside existing structures to change church teaching on women’s roles. Sixty percent supported the strategy of encouraging the ordination of women priests outside the existing rules of the church if the church does not open ordination to women. However only 11 percent of respondents were willing to actually work on the movement to ordain women outside the existing structures of the church. The two strategies attracting the highest amount of activist support were “working on celebrations and prayer services honoring great women witnesses in the faith community” (33.6% or 679 people) and “providing an educational program about women officeholders in the early church” (31.2% or 629 people). We will report in greater depth on other important survey findings in the Winter issue of Focus.