Where are Canada’s Christian women leaders?

Bridgeway Foundation sparks viral discussion on women in leadership

By Craig Macartney and ChristianWeek Senior Correspondent | June 18, 2014

TORONTO, ON—Mark Petersen is concerned. An American blog, written by Rachel Held Evans, alerted the Bridgeway Foundation’s executive director to a troubling trend: as women’s rights flourish in business and politics, when it comes to speakers for conferences and events, Christian women are given token recognition, at best.

Petersen says conference organizers seem to feel “if they have one woman represented they are covering their bases. I still often see where male leaders will not consider having a woman leader represented.”

Held Evans’ blog post lists 101 Christian women who could present at conferences and events, so Petersen responded with a list of his own featuring Canadians.

“I know so many fantastic Christian women [who are] leaders, so I started making a list. I chose women who are contributing to enriching all of our lives, not just doing women’s ministry. I reached around 50 women I have met who impressed me. Then I asked a few others to send me additional names.”

Petersen concedes his list is biased, since it mostly Toronto-centric and ministry-focused. While he wanted to include Christian women in business, arts and politics, he says he doesn’t know them as well, so he encouraged readers to respond with names of Christian women leaders they knew.

“It went viral,” he states. “I’ve never had a blog piece go that wild before. There were more than 5,000 views in the first two days, with a lot of people adding names.”

But with such plentiful women leaders, why are they given so little recognition? Petersen believes the heart of the issue is an often overly simplistic view of Scripture that fails to explore the meaning intended by the author.

“I think these beliefs really play a part because I don’t observe these restrictions in general society anymore. Because of the way we look at the Bible, we forget a lot of deeper understanding has happened with biblical hermeneutics. Some churches make gender roles a big issue, taking certain passages of scripture and arrive at conclusions that are not helpful.”

Among the women Petersen highlighted is Ellen Duffield, director of the Leadership Studio at Muskoka Woods. She believes this theological confusion has not only restricted women from realizing their full potential, but also handicapped the Church as a whole.

“The richness presented in Genesis [chapters] one and two, God’s ideal of men and women partnering together to steward the Earth, stands in sharp contrast to our current reality,” she says. “God knew what He was doing and multiple studies verify [that model] actually works.”

Duffield supports this statement with a plethora of research. One of the most telling studies, conducted in 1995 using data collected by the United Nations in 89 countries, found the status of women is a better predictor of quality of life than GDP.

“Canada is ripe with godly and gifted women serving both up front and behind the scenes with tremendous Kingdom of God impact,” says Duffield. “That is why I am passionate about the potential of men and women celebrating each others’ giftedness and making room for each, as together we work to see His Kingdom come.”