Date of Conferral

9-26-2025

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

School

Education

Advisor

Caroline Crawford

Abstract

According to recent studies, women were underrepresented in senior leadership in the global Christian church, and leadership pathways for the development of women were often lacking. The local problem within the International Christian Church (ICC) was a lack of understanding of holistic mentoring strategies that support the development of women clergy members, which could help fill the current leadership gap. Guided by Dahlvig and Longman’s model of women’s leadership development, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of women clergy regarding holistic mentoring strategies that might increase the number of women in leadership within the ICC. A basic qualitative study design was used to purposefully recruit and interview 19 women clergy from the most eastern district of the ICC. Thematic analysis employing open, axial, and selective coding resulted in seven emergent themes: (a) the importance of calling as a motivator; (b) the presence of inhibitors to leader development; (c) varied mentoring opportunities; (d) the presence of mentor-protégé antecedents; (e) self-reported growth of the protégé; (f) the importance of holistic mentoring; and, (g) the absence of mentor-protégé antecedents. The results indicated that the participants viewed holistic mentoring and a leadership development pathway as essential for future generations of women clergy. A position paper and policy recommendation for the continuing education of women clergy were created to provide the ICC with a deeper understanding of how women engage in leadership and to establish a gender-specific pathway. The potential for positive social change was the engagement, development, and deployment of more women and a significant move toward gender parity in senior leadership within the ICC

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