Jones

The Stories of Women, by Women, Married to Male Ministry Leaders.

Lisa R. Jones

Abstract

This study comprises an attempt to give a voice to the unheard. The aim is to capture the narratives of women married to men in ministry leadership roles, with an acknowledgment that there are also ministry women, married and unmarried; as well as unmarried male ministers. This paper is specifically targeted to highlight wives of male leadership. Although much empirical research has been published on the effects of stress on men and women in full-time ministry, few studies have explored the impact on the ministry wife or the effects on her family. In this study ministry will be defined as a fulltime, salaried career in a church or nonchurch religious agency. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the satisfaction, expectations, fears, regrets, and insights of the fishbowl life through exploring collected women's narratives. Twenty-six ministers' wives volunteered to be interviewed by phone and in person using a semi-structured interview of seven open-ended questions. The consistently relevant themes revealed through the transparency of their stories were shared fears, strain and satisfaction, and identity in the role of minister's wife. As the author of this paper was once a minister's wife, there was a personal bias of interest to allow a platform on which the women of this study might be allowed to speak.

Keywords: clergy, pastor's wives, clergy wives, marriage, relationships