The Disparities in the Treatment of African American Women in the Southern Black Baptist Church

Abstract

Although the backbone of the African American community, the Black Church still engages in discriminatory practices against women. The Black Church was born to help African Americans survive in a world that discriminated against them, and yet it discriminates against its own Black women. This study focuses on the disparities in the treatment of African American women and men in the Southern Black Baptist Church. Based on ethnographic interviews of women who actively hold leadership roles in prominent Southern Black Baptist Churches, I highlight the magnitude of the problem Black women face, and show that the continued discrimination is resulting in many women leaving the Black Church. The Black Church will continue to be the backbone of the African American community, but until the Black Church faces its own issues of gender discrimination, it will not advance.