Why We’re Publishing “Beyond the Stained Glass Ceiling”

March is Women’s History Month, and it’s no coincidence that Chalice Press’ March release is Beyond the Stained Glass Ceiling: Women Clergy in a Still-Patriarchal Church, by Rev. Dr. Alina Gayeuski, focused on the progress that eludes women in ministry even in the 21^st Century. 

As much as we’d like to think gender discrimination is a scourge of the past, the news reminds us every day that women, their human rights, and their livelihoods and vocations are all under siege in the United States. While the loss of reproductive rights and voting rights are relatively recent, the workplace has long been a quagmire of discrimination. Women are still paid less than men — about 83.6 percent according to a federal report in 2024[1], and women of color even less than that — and opportunities to advance seem to have higher standards for women. Even in the unifying world of sports, women’s sports teams can participate in eight Olympic events, win a medal all eight times – including three golds! – and still be laughed at and dismissed by male leaders and peers. 

Even in ministry, a profession where justice and equality are preached every day, positions available to women are often roles supporting men, and senior leadership roles remain elusive. Fewer than 10% of U.S. churchgoers attend a congregation led by a woman, and two out of three women clergy report experiencing gender-based discrimination.

In Beyond the Stained Glass Ceiling, Gayeuski slices through the well-intended but false rhetoric that equality exists in the American church. Pastoring an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America congregation in Pennsylvania, Gayeuski shares the stories of a generation of women who aspire to lead but feel the system is rigged against them.

“My clergy sisters and I have come to know a painful truth: patriarchy has lied to us,” Gayeuski writes. “We have been convinced by the structures built by patriarchal ideology that achievement would liberate us from the oppressions placed upon us. Achieving the right to pursue ordination seemed like overcoming the greatest barrier for women in the church. That was our stained glass ceiling to break. But once that threshold was passed, the oppressions morphed into something new.”

Gayeuski shares that as she researched her dissertation (which became Beyond the Stained Glass Ceiling), she knew the stories she heard would resonate regardless of whether the listener is in church. “[T]hat is exactly the reason women clergy are our starting point. I believe the way we treat women in the pulpit directly impacts the way we think about women in the pews. The research proves it. This work is for our collective liberation.”

Central to the narrative are hundreds of testimonies gathered from Young Clergy Women International, which introduced Gayeuski to Chalice Press and was instrumental in bringing Gayeuski’s work to print. These stories illustrate a strategic "scam" where patriarchal structures pit women against one another, fostering competition to distract from collective resistance. She also exposes "sanctified silence," where men in leadership often dismiss hard data regarding gender pay gaps and leadership discrepancies as "incorrectly collected," gaslighting female clergy who present proof of inequality.

Gayeuski systematically deconstructs the mechanisms that maintain patriarchal control within religious institutions, right down to its historic survival on the uncompensated "homemaking" labor of women—teaching, cooking, and cleaning—while reserving official authority and compensation for men. She also tackles the theology historically used to exclude women from the priesthood.

Ultimately, Gayeuski moves toward a hopeful vision of a feminist church, offering a model beyond mere token representation and actively dismantles oppressive structures entirely, ensuring the next generation of women clergy has equal opportunity to lead in ministry and beyond.

In the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), we have been blessed to have two women serve as General Minister and President: Rev. Dr. Sharon Watkins was called to the role in 2005, and Rev. Terri Hord Owens has led the church since 2017. But leadership doesn’t automatically come paired with authority or respect, as Watkins noted in her endorsement, saying Gayeuski “describes a church not much more open to women’s actual leadership than sixty years ago. Yet she offers a hopeful vision of a church that breaks the bonds of patriarchy and makes way, at last, for a new beginning.”

If you’re on a search committee for a congregational leadership position, Gayeuski’s work will open your mind to old prejudices and new possibilities. If you are in a congregation well on its way to becoming a feminist church, she provides an opportunity to do a reality check and to hold your church and yourself accountable. And if you want a vision of the Kindom of God (yes, Kindom, not Kingdom), Beyond the Stained Glass Ceiling gives you a glimpse of what could be when our society and faith uproot biases like misogyny, sexism, and racism. May it be so.

Gratefully,
Brad Lyons, President & Publisher 

Related: Nine years ago, we called out copyeditors at the New York Times over unequal use of the “Reverend” honorific in a story featuring Chalice authors Traci Smith and Carol Howard. Read about that conversation here.