ARCHIVED ISSUE

 

Volume 5 • Number 2 • 2012

 

On the Cover: Faith Wambura Ngunjiri, Ed.D.
Assistant Professor of Leadership Studies and Director of Research CCGPS
Eastern University, St. Davids, Pennsylvania

 

● Breaking the Stained Glass Ceiling: African Ascended Women's Strategies for Thriving as Leaders [Editorial]
by Faith Wambura Ngunjiri and E. Ann Christo-Baker
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This special issue is dedicated to women of African heritage in Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States with a focus on women's access to religion based leadership positions and authority in organizations and society in relationship to limiting social norms, organizational cultures, and structures collectively referred to as 'the glass ceiling'.

 

● Spirituality as a Vehicle for Passing through the Stained Glass Ceiling: Perspectives on African American Women's Leadership in US Organizations
by E. Anne Christo-Baker, Cynthia Roberts and Christabel L. Rogalin
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The authors in this contribution explore the evolution of leadership thought and then specifically focus on gender and leadership in organizations utilizing role congruity theory as a vehicle for analyzing the genderized characterizations of leadership.

 

● Supportive Leadership Behavior Key to Breaking the Glass Ceiling in Religious Communities in Malawi
by Maggie Madimbo
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This paper suggest that women in Malawi need supportive leadership behavior in breaking the structures that hinder them from reaching top leadership positions in the church and religious institutions.

 

● From the Pantry to the Pulpit: Anglican Clergywomen in the Diocese of Trinidad and Tobago
by Joyanne De Four-Babb and Shelley-Ann Tenia
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In this paper, the authors analyze the narratives of the first nine women who broke through the proverbial stained-glass ceiling, and who now serve as female deacons and priests in the Anglican Church in the Diocese of Trinidad and Tobago.

 

● Servant Leaders Who Picked Up the Broken Glass
by Brenda L. H. Marina and Debora Y. Fonteneau
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This reflective essay observe that women of African descent in academia look to religious pioneers within the culture as role models to achieve goals and reinforce spiritual and professional values while attempting to break the glass ceiling. Drawing from a literature analysis on the global glass ceiling, they discover that African American women whose spiritual journey looms large on the professional horizon tend to reflect pioneering strategies developed by historical role models from traditional religion. .

 

● Tempered Radicals: Black Women's Leadership in the Church and Community
by Faith Wambura Ngunjiri, Sharon Gramby-Sobukwe, and Kimberly Williams-Gegner
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This study of historical and contemporary Black women and their experiences within churches in the United States suggests that Black women continue the legacy of their past, confronting the stained glass ceiling in pursuing their call to ministry and in identifying strategies for leading in the face of resistance.

 

● They Bleed But They Don't Die: Towards a Theoretical Canon On Ga-Adangbe Gender Studies
by Harry Nii Koney Odamtten
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Drawing a distinction between the role of women in the modern nation-state and traditional societies, this study asserts that unlike the situation in modern governance, structures and practices of Ga traditional societies in Ghana have enabled Ga women to live beyond the glass ceiling.

 

● No More Glass Ceiling? Negotiating Women's Leadership Role in Eternal Sacred Order of Cherubim and Seraphim
by Oluwatoyin O. Oluwaniyi
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This study explores ways in which women negotiate leadership role in the religious sphere, particularly in the Eternal Sacred Order of Cherubim and Seraphim Church against the patriarchal religious precepts that deny women space at the level of priesthood hierarchy. The study is guided by the fact that religion though concerned with supernatural and eternal, is a cultural construct, which makes it imperative to examine its involvement in power relations and how power sustains it.

 

● Sustainable Leadership: Lessons and Implications of a Leadership Development Program for Women Religious in Africa
by Jane Wakahiu and Mary Salvaterra
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The purpose of this qualitative case study was to describe the sustainable leadership strategies manifested in the ministries of women religious participants of a three-year Hilton-Supported leadership development program in Eastern Africa. Also, the study illustrates transformations in their personal lives, their institutions and communities.