Getting Power, Keeping Power: Perspectives on Clergywives and Power

Abstract: The social position of clergywives is a space where women acquire, retain, and use power. In charismatic Christian churches in Ghana, clergywives can be said to be powerful women, but the source of their power is their husbands’ position, set in a patriarchal frame. The First Lady Syndrome—a concept in which a woman acquires power through her husband—and discourse on how women bargain with patriarchy provide a lens to explore clergywives’ experiences. Through interviews and observation, this article shows that clergywives are not passive conductors of power: where they operate in a patriarchal system, they develop ways of, and become adept at, negotiating and bargaining to gain and keep it.