Chapter 1: 'Herstory' goes on…
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior, all the day long;
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior, all the day long.
-Fanny Crosby's “Blessed Assurance”
Women in ministry have a long herstory. From Priscilla to Hildegard of Bingen to Bishop Leontine Kelly, women have led the church for centuries and are too numerous (and often too anonymous) to name here. It is, however, worth recalling the accomplishments of several women in recent herstory as they relate to those of us not only engaged in ministry but also those of us enrolled in seminary.
The first woman to be ordained by a denomination with a professional clergy system was Antoinette L. Brown. Later the Rev. Antoinette Louisa Brown Blackwell, she ordained a minister of the First Congregational Church in South Butler , New York on September 15, 1853 . A Methodist Protestant clergyman, the Reverend Luther Lee, preached the ordination sermon and a Southern Baptist, Elder McCoon, delivered the prayer during this interdenominational service. The Rev. Dr. Brown Blackwell served most of her career in a Universalist church, the first denomination that institutionally authorized the ordination of women.
Anna Oliver was the first woman to receive a seminary degree. Her name was originally Anna Snowden but she took the name of an aunt due to her family's embarrassment that she was studying theology. She graduated from Boston College with a Bachelor of Sacred Theology in 1876. She was later denied ordination in the Methodist Episcopal Church, as was her only female classmate at Boston , Anna Howard Shaw. The Methodist Protestant Church later ordained Shaw, the second woman to receive a seminary degree, in 1880.
The Duke School of Religion opened its doors in 1926 (the name changed to Duke Divinity School in 1940), and Ruth Eberly (later Hunt) became the first woman to enroll when she entered in 1927. Ruth did not complete her thesis and was therefore not awarded a degree from Duke, but she is still listed as the first female alumnus and is a member of the class of 1930. The first women to receive degrees from the Duke School of Religion were Clarice Margaret Bowman (later the Rev. Dr. Bowman) and Myrtle Carpenter Barnwell who both graduated in 1933. Myrtle and Clarice are both deceased. However, before her death in 1998, Rev. Dr. Clarice Margaret Bowman received the Divinity School 's Distinguished Alumni Award in 1984.
Very gradually, women became a part of the Divinity School student body. The first sizable class of women at Duke Divinity School entered in the fall of 1973. About 35 women were enrolled that year. The year before, 1972-73, had only about a dozen or so women enrolled in the entire divinity school while the previous year, 1971-72, had about half that many women students.
Meanwhile the women at Duke Divinity School have continued to grow in number. Of the total enrollment for the 1993 Spring semester, 160 students were women and 296 students were men; men accounted for 35% of the student body. The number of students and especially the number of female students has increased in the last twelve years. In Fall 2005, there were 269 women students and 310 men students; the women make up 46% of the student body. Women on the faculty have also increased. Women are beginning to tell history or better yet, ‘herstory’.