In 1888, five women were elected delegates to General Conference, including active members of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society and Woman’s Home Missionary Society. The conference spent most of the first day debating whether these five women qualified as a “layman” who were eligible for election. The conference decided that the women would be seated in the balcony, able to observe the conference sessions but unable to speak or vote.

A lot has changed since then, and in 2019 women constituted 36 percent of the voting members for General Conference. Yet women constitute almost 60 percent of church membership. We certainly have more work to do.

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This episode originally appeared in the January/February 2020 issue of response, the award winning magazine from United Methodist Women.

Visit www.UnitedMethodistWomen.org to find out more.