Exploring Gender Roles and Gender Equality within the Evangelical Church

<p>This research aims to facilitate better understanding of perceptions of gender roles and gender equality among members of the Evangelical Church and to determine whether these perceptions differ by gender. The evangelical community’s ideologies and values have come to shape social and political dialogues within the United States. A key component of the faith is understanding the role each member plays within his or her family unit and community at large. The evangelical faith’s organizational structure and ideologies are informed by a patriarchal model that’s placed women at internal and structural odds, based on research exploring evangelically informed organizations. However, there is a gap in literature related to gender roles and equality within the faith, and how these perceptions may differ by gender and the influence a church’s organizational structure may have on these perceptions. This process involved the examination of perceptions of gender among evangelical Christians in a nationally representative sample. These findings informed a series of questions designed to explore, at greater depth on a regional level, the views of evangelicals regarding gender roles and gender equality within their organizations. The study provided a multidimensional construct of how the evangelical community defines themselves, understands gender roles and gender equality, and how these definitions affirm and conflict with definitions outside of the church as well as their own church’s leadership and organizational structure.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Year

2019

Author dc:creator

• Bishop, Christopher

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kris DePedro
• Don Cardinal
• Gail Stearns

• Mixed Methods
• Evangelical
• Gender
• Feminist
• Educational Leadership
• Family, Life Course, and Society
• Gender and Sexuality
• Leadership Studies
• Regional Sociology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/education_dissertations/1

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.chapman.edu:education_dissertations-1000