Women’s History Month & ELCA "Women and Justice" Resources
On March 8, 2020 communities, nations and international organizations will observe the International Day of the Woman, drawing attention to women’s empowerment and gender justice across the globe. In the US, March has held observances of women’s history in various forms since the late 1970s, and was officially designated as Women’s History Month in 1987 by Congressional action.
This March holds many significant commemorations in women’s history, including 100 years since the ratification of the 19th Amendment, and 50 years since the first woman was ordained in the Lutheran Church. The Rev. Elizabeth A. Platz was ordained in November 1970 to serve as chaplain at the Lutheran Campus Ministry of the University of Maryland, College Park, a congregation of the Lutheran Church in America (LCA), a predecessor body to the ELCA.
Like many historical events, culture did not shift immediately after the official change had been made. For many years, women, particularly women of color, struggled to vote, work, and lead in pastoral ministry. 2019 marked 40 years since the first woman of color was ordained, and 10 years since ministry policy resolutions were passed in the ELCA that opened the way for those in committed same-gender partnerships to be rostered leaders within the ELCA. Even though it has been 100, 50, 40 and 10 years since these institutional changes have occurred, many of the barriers to women in leadership roles still remain. And women’s history month reminds us that we still have far to go to reach gender equity.
According to a 2016 report of the ELCA Research and Evaluation division of the Office of the Presiding Bishop of the ELCA, there is, on average, a 14% pay gap between men and women who are pastors in the ELCA. Women pastors of color still have more trouble receiving calls than their white counterparts. And of all women who are pastors, 32% report having experienced sexual harassment in their ministry setting, compared to 6.5% of male pastors.
This harassment is a part of the gender-based violence that is still an ever-present reality throughout the world. The United Nations reports that globally, more than eight out of ten girls experience street harassment before they are 17; one in three women today experience physical or sexual violence, mostly by an intimate partner; and women and girls represent 70 percent of human trafficking victims.
The church, however, has not remained silent in the face of this sin. Through direct services and advocacy, the ELCA works with many partners to end the immediate crisis of gender-based violence and to respond to people who experience it, while also working to address the root causes of this violence and discrimination locally, nationally and globally.
The ELCA Justice for Women program seeks to gather diverse voices and experiences to provide resources, encouragement and care for those who have been pushed to the margins in our church.
Globally, we join our voices with the World Council of Churches’ “Thursdays in Black” movement, which seeks to draw attention to and eradicate gender-based violence and engage the 2013 Gender Justice Policy of the Lutheran World Federation.
Nationally, a wide variety of partners worked together to guide the social statement and teaching document: Faith, Sexism and Justice: A Call to Action in a 10-year process of study, listening, reflection and research throughout the ELCA.
These faithful documents and movements seek to name the sin of sexism and racism while encouraging us to live out our baptismal call to work for justice and peace in all the earth. Resources, Bible studies, book and film suggestions are available to further the discussion at all levels.
As a synod, we invite you this March to gather as church to affirm the work we do as people set free to love and serve our neighbors and live into the fullness of the kingdom of equity and justice.
Where to Find Resources
Pastor Melissa L. Stoller
Director for Evangelical Mission & Assistant to the Bishop