This book explores the role of women clergy in mainline Protestant churches and the rabbinate. It is based largely on 54 in-depth interviews conducted in 1998 in four U.S. cities (Indianapolis, Omaha, Milwaukee, and Washington, DC), but also includes considerable material from a much larger national survey of clergy. The authors are most interested in the “political” role of their subjects and in how their gender affects this role. They themselves define “politics” very broadly, as “actions taken to influence collective decision-making processes concerning resource distribution or the development and enforcement of shared values” (p. 14). But they do not impose this definition on their subjects. Instead, the clergywomen are asked about the issues and concerns that motivate them, what kinds of activities they consider most appropriate or helpful to address those concerns, and what their own involvement has been in such activities. In both the interviews and the national survey, around a third of the women indicated that gender “in some way” limited her ability to participate in politics. Three-quarters of the interviewees volunteered gender as a factor (either an asset or a liability) for political activity, or as a reason why particular issues were especially salient to them. But few mentioned either their denomination or its women's caucuses as a factor linking their gender with political involvement.

Laura Olson, Sue Crawford, and Melissa Deckman want to know to what extent “principles” or normative incentives, as opposed to more utilitarian cost-benefit calculations, inform political involvement, and they have selected as their subjects women whose life focus is on the spiritual and ethical. The authors' purpose is a commendable one in an era in which the boundaries between church and state are blurring and reliogisity has emerged as a major predictor of opinions and voting choices. Previous research on the political role of clergy has often found examples of strong links between spiritual or theological principles and involvement in such issues as civil rights or peace. But clergywomen, until very recently a small minority even within Reform Judaism and liberal Protestantism, might have been expected to eschew an active political role. They have faced opposition from their male colleagues, denominational leadership, and congregations unwilling to have a woman in a leadership role. Under those circumstances, their best strategy might appear to be to lie low, avoid controversy, and concentrate on their jobs, and that is indeed the path followed by some of these clergywomen. The authors find little evidence of what they term a “politicized feminist vanguard on the move” (p. 140).

Yet these clergywomen are indeed “women with a mission,” as the title suggests. Their experiences in seminary and in these mostly urban settings have led to strong commitments to social justice and to civil rights. In part because of their own experiences with discrimination, most are strong advocates for women's and gay rights (including ordination) and favor grassroots efforts to combat HIV and racism. Many of these women also act on their commitments. A very high proportion are involved in local agencies and denominational boards or commissions, although most respondents outside Washington, DC, indicate little awareness of the policies of their national denominations. The most common “political” issue articulated is that of help for the poor, the homeless, the elderly, immigrants, and minorities. Many clergywomen are active in what the authors term “gap-filling” activities, assisting those who are not eligible for government welfare programs; their congregations are highly supportive of these endeavors.

These women seldom raise direct challenges to capitalism or the limitations of the current U.S. welfare state. They mostly avoid partisan or electoral politics, although a few of their congregations apparently encourage or tolerate such explicitly political activism. The authors stress that in the traditions of Judaism and liberal Protestantism, the role of clergy is not to tell their congregations what to think (or how to vote). Rather, they are expected to raise ethical concerns, explore different aspects of social issues, and encourage congregants to make their own informed choices on these matters. And, of course, taking an overt stand could alienate a significant portion of one's congregation. A few of these women opted for individual counseling, or a quiet activism unbeknownst to their parishioners, to articulate their values on controversial issues, such as abortion or gay rights. However, the authors express surprise at the high proportion of women in their sample who do take a strong public stand, despite the personal or professional risk involved. And the issues they choose to emphasize usually represent their own deeply held convictions, not the topics currently salient to the media or to election campaigns.

The clergywomen themselves attribute this courage to the imperatives of their theological traditions, which require ethical leadership and moral stands even if these entail personal sacrifice. However, only those currently in congregational positions were selected for the sample; they could at least have been asked if they knew of any clergy (male or female) who had lost their positions because of political or social activism. The authors do note that at least in years past, clergy heavily involved in political activism have “been shown to prefer” noncongregational positions; how much choice did they actually have? And does the increasing number of women clergy provide a “critical mass” that might make activism somewhat less of a risk? The authors do not address this directly, but a few examples suggest that activism within a denominational group or caucus is more palatable to one's congregation than involvement with an outside group.

This work is evidently linked to a larger Cooperative Clergy Project, and a few tantalizing references are made to a comparable survey of male clergy. I wish the authors had been more explicit about the larger project and had offered a few more comparisons. I would especially like to see data on the political priorities of males and how clergymen perceived the role of clergywomen in their denominations. At several points, the authors allude to differences between clergywomen in these liberal denominations and the values of conservatives and evangelicals in the Religious Right. Direct comparisons are seldom possible, because few of these conservative traditions accept women in positions of religious leadership, but that may be changing. The authors do note that membership in mainline Protestant denominations is declining, while evangelical and conservative membership is growing. They might have given more consideration to the role of women's ordination, liberal viewpoints, and political activism in that trend.

Woman with a Mission presents a good argument for the utility of combining quantitative and qualitative techniques. But except for a log-linear regression of the national survey data to test for factors encouraging at least a minimum of political activism, the quantitative material receives only brief summaries. The book would be enlivened by more stories or detailed examples of “political” actions taken by women clergy, either within their own denominations or in the public square. Clearly, these women with a misson have the courage of their convictions, and I would like to know more about how they have dealt with the challenges of acting on their convictions.