Finding Success in a World Dominated by Men’s Voices

Society has a long history of attempting to silence women. In 1763, Samuel Johnson famously told his biographer, “Sir, a woman’s preaching is like a dog’s walking on his hinder legs. It’s not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.”

Over a hundred years later, T.S. Eliot wrote to Ezra Pound, “There are only a half dozen men of letters (and no women) worth printing.” Eliot’s disparaging statement, which was sadly the opinion of the literary establishment at the time, becomes even more breathtakingly sexist when one considers that Edith Wharton had just won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1921 and that Gertrude Stein, Virginia Woolf, Dame Agatha Christie and Gabriela Mistral were all active at this point in literary history.

Despite the impressive achievements of these and other women writers, the landscape has changed very little for women who write and women who preach. Gender bias continues to be a systemic problem in the world of literature (Dempster, 2016); furthermore, while the majority of those who attend church are female, church leadership remains overwhelmingly male (Hartford Institute, 2010).

Any woman who dares to lead will face sexism.

Recently, I was at a conference about church leadership. I was honored to be selected for what I believed to be an elite program targeted toward young clergy who had shown themselves to be change makers in their field.

I purchased a plane ticket and flew halfway across the country. Once I arrived, I couldn’t help but notice that the majority of people present were men. When the time came for questions, I asked the presenter as politely as possible, “Why are there not more women present?”
“I accepted every single female that applied to the program. Most of the people I turned down for this program were white men. We are doing our best to be inclusive.”

When I heard his answer, I was mortified. Had I only been accepted to the program because I was a minority female with a disability?
Then, I became angry. The truly infuriating thing about this remark from a respected leader in my field was that he truly believed that he was being inclusive.

Inclusivity is not tokenism. True inclusivity is rooted in respect for the stories and life experiences that diverse voices bring to the table.

Claiming Our Voices

The act of finding one’s voice and expressing it in the public sphere is key to writing, preaching, and any type of leadership. This can be both dangerous and rebellious act in a culture that would prefer to make women objects of ornamentation.

Women and other marginalized groups are frequently punished by society when they demand to be heard. Virginia Woolf lamented this oppression in A Room of One’s Own when she wrote, “When, however, one reads of a witch being ducked, of a woman possessed by devils… I think we are on the track of a lost novelist, a suppressed poet… who dashed her brains out on the moor (Woolf, 1929).”
Woolf’s observation is particularly chilling when one considers her untimely demise.

Three Ways to Excel in a Sexist World

I have over five years of experience in effective church leadership, and while I credit God with a great deal of my success, I can tell you that at many times my career has felt like a long battle. Whatever you chosen field, here are three tips to help you to excel in your writing and your career:

1. Find your voice

The western literary canon is predominantly white and male. We don’t need any more Ernest Hemmingways or T.S. Eliots- what the world needs is your unique voice and your unique experience. Let your weaknesses become your strengths. Audiences are always hungry for the next new thing. According to Forbes, as many as one hundred thousand books are published each year in the U.S. alone, writers must ask themselves: What makes my story unique?

2. Perseverance is key

Sadly, it is still a common occurrence for some parishioners to leave a church when a female minister is hired. This case is especially true if the woman in question is a person of color; nevertheless, we must persist. This same lesson can be applied to your own writing. Submit your manuscript to at least a dozen publishers that you think would be a good fit for your book. Learn to write a query letter. Read and research your chosen field. Remember- as a woman, you have to work twice as hard as a man to be taken half as seriously. Promise yourself that you will work ten times harder than the competition.

3. Support one another. For men, a surprisingly large number of business deals are settled on the golf course or over a pint of beer. Women are frequently excluded from such opportunities. Take advantage of what opportunities are available to you. Connect with other women writers and read their work. Attend a writers’ conference and make genuine connections. Be a considerate literary citizen and leave reviews for women writers, especially those who are self-published or are part of a marginalized community. Retweet, reblog, and share content that supports other writers.

Women have been kept out of the pulpit just as often as they have been denied the use of a pen. The time has come for us to join together in order to create a world that is truly inclusive for all voices. The world needs women leaders.

Sources:
Aron, Leon. (1984). “Dr. Johnson’s dog,” The New York Times. Retrieved from

Dempster, Lisa. (2016). “If you doubted there was gender bias in literature, this study proves you
wrong.” The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/10/if-you-doubted-there-was-gender-bias-in-literature-this-study-proves-you-wrong

Eliot, T.S. & Eliot, Valerie. (2011). The Letters of T.S. Eliot: Volume 1: 1898-1922, Revised
Edition. Haughton, Hugh. (ed). Yale University Press: Kindle edition.

Hartford Institute for Religion and Research. (2010). “A quick question: What percentage of
pastors are female?” Retrieved from http://hirr.hartsem.edu/research/quick_question3.html

Morgan, Nick. (2013). “Thinking of self-publishing your book in 2013? Here’s what you need to
know.” Forbes. Retrieved
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmorgan/2013/01/08/thinking-of-self-publishing-your-book-in-2013-heres-what-you-need-to-know/#87a4ea14bb8e

Woolf, Virginia. (1929). A Room of One’s Own. Penguin Books: Kindle edition.

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Rebecca is an  author and a United Methodist pastor. She holds a B.S. in the English Education and a Master’s of Divinity. She blogs about ministry, books, and her life as a female clergy woman of color with a visual disability at www.beckiewrites.com . Her current work in progress is a book with the working title Share Your Story that will help to empower people who have been traditionally marginalized by the church to share their stories.

www.beckiewrites.com
Twitter: @BeckieWrites

Through My Good Eye: A Memoir in Verse 

The world never expected much from Rebecca, but God had other plans.

Marked as different from an early age by her visual disability and her ethnic features, Rebecca was once told by a teacher in her small hometown that she would never go to college.

After enduring years of abuse, Rebecca almost gave up on herself; however, God had other plans. God gave Rebecca a new life and an unexpected new identity as a preacher in her beloved United Methodist Church.Through My Good Eye: A Memoir in Verse , gives the reader a glimpse of the world the way the author sees it. This brief chapbook includes poems from her first five years in ministry as she worked toward ordination, fell in love with her congregation, and eventually found her own, “happily ever after.”

An earnest statement of faith in the midst of struggle, this collection invites you to take a look at the world from an entirely new perspective.

The profits earned from this collection will be donated to Christ Community United Methodist Church.

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips