Preacher: Uncovering the gendered leadership challenges of Black clergywomen within the Black church

The purpose of this narrative inquiry study was to uncover how Black clergywomen experienced gendered leadership and navigated the patriarchal structure of the Black church—one often intent on limiting their leadership opportunities. To highlight Black clergywomen’s experiences, the study employed a constructionist and Endarkened feminist epistemology (Dillard, 2006), and a methodological framework that employed Narrative Inquiry and Endarkened Narrative Inquiry (McClish-Boyd & Bhattacharya, 2021). Data collection methods include life notes (Bell-Scott, 1994), dialogic interviews, and wisdom whisper (McClish-Boyd & Bhattacharya, 2021, 2023), all of which center African-ascendant ways of knowing and storytelling. The study focuses on seven Black clergywomen, aged 44-76, including the researcher, who also serves as a clergywoman. Compelled by personal experience and guided by Endarkened Feminist Epistemology, the study analyzes life stories to explore how these women navigate intersectional challenges, resist doctrinal constraints, and reimagine leadership within ecclesial spaces. Key thematic findings reveal clergywomen’s Calling Stories as Anchors and Beacons, Biblical Narratives as Theological Tools, and Excommunication and Isolation as Control Mechanisms, each addressed in separate chapters. First, each narrator articulated a distinct calling story that anchored their ministerial identity and sustained their leadership development and service amid persistently exclusionary church cultures. Narrators also storied and engaged biblical narratives as tools of resistance and validation, reinterpreting scripture to affirm their spiritual authority and challenge patriarchal readings. Conversely, many described how sermons and teachings—particularly those invoking Paul’s epistles and the allegory of Diana’s Temple—were used against them to reinforce gendered exclusion and restrict access to the pulpit. Participants reported emotional and vocational tensions, especially around expectations of domestic perfection, and described how their spiritual authority was often framed as a threat to traditional gender roles. Additionally, several clergywomen noted experiencing formal and informal exclusion, termed as excommunication, resulting in their ultimate removal from the church. In response, they employed resistance strategies such as reteaching scripture, mentoring peers, preaching against sexism, forming their own ministries or joining those who were more aligned with their doctrinal views of female ecclesial leadership, and using clothing and visibility to challenge ecclesial norms. Collectively, these narratives illuminate the persistence of gendered leadership barriers within the Black Church and the prophetic, embodied strategies Black clergywomen use to resist, reframe, and transform their ministerial landscapes.