Holy Woman

Why we need women in spiritual leadership

Art by Emiliano Rizzo

A few days ago, we celebrated International Women’s Day honoring the accomplishments and contributions of women the world over. In many cases, “We’ve come a long way, Baby,” but we aren’t there yet. Especially in the spiritual world.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to look at the spiritual landscape and notice that our religions and our modern spiritual movements are male dominated. Our religious founders are men (though there are some women exalted in the Bible and the Qu’ran), and our spiritual leaders are, almost exclusively, men. Contrast this with the fact that throughout history, the vast majority of worshiped gods were female. Being female might work for deities (or did work for deities before they were supplanted by male ones), but it hasn’t worked so well for people in the past 2500 years.

Thanks to hard-won changes in the past thirty years, there are female Ministers and Pastors in some progressive Christian denominations and there are female Rabbis. There are female Western Zen Buddhist Roshis. Jetsun Kushok, a Jetsunma (or Venerable Woman) from the Sakya lineage is the only female Lama in Tibet, India or the West. She lives in Canada. In India, there are a handful of female gurus, but I can think of only one or two female Hindu leaders in the West. In China, there are a few female Daoist Abbots and a few Western, ordained female Daoist priests.

Though there is a long history of female leadership in early Islam, in the present, there is one Muslim woman Imamat in the West, who despite fatwas, is conducting mixed-gender prayers instead of being confined to leading prayers for women only (There are women-only mosques in LA and Berkeley and an increasing number of female imamat for those mosques). But, by and large, in all religions, women remain relegated to supporting roles and female religious leaders are few and far between.

In our modern “spiritual, but not religious” world, generally assumed to be progressive and egalitarian, we have a much more subtle manifestation of the subordinate role of women.

In our modern “spiritual, but not religious” world, generally assumed to be progressive and egalitarian, we have a much more subtle manifestation of the subordinate role of women. Our revered teachers from Ram Dass to the Dalai Lama, Krishnamurti to Thich Nhat Hanh, are all men. The few women in this esteemed gathering are either almost genderless Buddhist nuns, Roshis or teachers such as Pema Chodrön, Roshi Joan Halifax, and Charlotte Joko Beck; Hindu “Mother” teachers such as Amma, known for hugging; or, like Marianne Williamson, Caroline Myss, and Tara Brach, relegated to the spiritual self-help/health category.  

A handful of others, such as Mirabai Starr, Beverly Lanzetta, and Sr. John Chittester, while also on the podium, are caught between writing and teaching about female mystics, Feminist/Womanist theology, or life as nuns. The legion of Western female yoginis are stuck somewhere between physical fitness teachers and pinups - young and beautiful - while The Indigenous Thirteen Grandmothers are romanticized as ancient prophetesses, ghostly voices from prehistory.

The remainder fall into leading women’s circles, offering tarot readings, or are “priestesses” in Wiccan or New Age modalities that cater almost exclusively to women. Of course, there is nothing wrong with women’s-only spiritual gatherings (and I love them, myself), but when they are pushed to the fringe, its exclusionary. It smacks of stereotypical sidelining.

It appears, then, that women in “spirituality” (as opposed to religion) fall into 4 broad (pardon the pun) categories:

• Genderless, Buddhist

• Gendered, self-help/psychology

• Gendered, “women’s” spirituality

• Gendered, sexualized/mothered

Now, I am not a Gender Studies PhD and I realize this is a generalization (and I fully expect/hope to be shown more exceptions to the rule), but it seems that even in our so-called progressive, modern spirituality, female leaders get trapped between not being women, being feminized or fetishized, or pushed into stereotypical “women’s” spirituality. Where are the women who can be women AND be taken seriously by both men and women (and the gender-fluid)?

The irony of this is that when women do have leadership roles within traditional Western religious structures (which we “spiritual” folx think are repressive), they do not have to shave their heads, play soft, or wear spandex to be given equal status. They are not confined to “women-only” subjects like Moon Circles.

I think of Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, the first Asian-American woman to be ordained as a rabbi, and the first female senior rabbi of the largest Reform Jewish synagogue in America. I think of Nadia Bolz-Weber, who uses her unapologetic, “bad-ass woman” spirituality to provide an affirming home for all those who feel unwelcomed in the Lutheran church (and check out her terrific Substack). I think of Rev. Dr. Katherine Jefferts Schori, the first female Primate and Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in America, or Bishop Vashti McKenzie, the first elected female Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. And, outside of the US, I think of my diminutive, but powerful Daoist Abbot, Zhang Shifu, who not only leads one of the largest Daoist temples in China, but is also Vice President of the Chinese Daoist Association.

So, it seems as if our modern, Western, “spirituality” landscape has fallen prey to the exact thing we often decry: patriarchy.

So it seems as if our modern, Western, “spirituality” landscape has fallen prey to the exact thing we often decry in religion: patriarchy. If we have any hope of creating a truly inclusive modern spirituality outside the structures of traditional religion, we have to start giving more credence and support to female spiritual leaders and teachers who are strong women with serious spiritual chops, not just great legs.

We have to stop insisting that our female spiritual leaders become non-gendered, look great in spandex, play “mama,” or push them to the fringes of self-help, the Occult, or Womanist theology. We have to remember that the exclusion of the legitimate, full-bodied feminine (or for that matter, gender non-conforming) voice short-changes our spiritual life.

After all, God, Elohim, is plural.

And so are we.