Trend Watch - Christianity Today

One of the most significant demographic forces to shape American society in the past fifty years has been the massive movement of women into the work force. Now there are signs that half-century trend is reversing. The impact on the culture in general and the church in particular may be profound.

Karol Emmerich, 45, was listed by Working Woman magazine as one of 73 female executives “ready to run corporate America.” As Vice President, Treasurer and Chief Accounting Officer of the Dayton Hudson Corporation, she became the highest-placed woman in the $18 billion retailing company. In May 1993, though, she resigned to pursue community service projects and offer her expertise to Christian organizations.

“I recognize that career advancement,” said Emmerich, “is not going to fill all the needs in my life.” She is after a “more balanced life” where she can focus on “nurturing relationships–with God, my family, old and new friends.”

For every Karol Emmerich leaving the heights of corporate success, thousands of women are abandoning the workplace with different reasons. The realization that it may not be worth it to work tops the list. The cost of child care, meals, clothes, taxes, transportation, and other expenses may equal or exceed a woman’s paycheck. Upon realizing she is working for nothing, she decides to quit.

WHAT IS

The trend and its economic impact have been carefully studied by Richard Hokenson, chief economist for Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities in New York. His original study was released in October 1993. The potential economic impact of the trend is so great that it was republished in U.S. Economic Outlook on March 4, 1994, and then featured by Barron’s (The Dow Jones business and financial newspaper) on March 21, 1994.

The heart of the research is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, indicating that women in the child-bearing age bracket are leaving their jobs and returning home in significant numbers. The biggest change is among women 2024, whose participation in the labor force peaked several years ago and is now declining. However, there is a decline, plateau, or lower rate of increase in every age category.

The economists see the beginning of a trend that might reshape the U.S. economy and alter American lifestyles. Hokenson claims that this represents a “demographic sea change.” According to Barron’s, “the two-paycheck family is on the decline, the traditional one-paycheck family is now the fastest-growing household unit.”

Explanations are multiple:

Lower mortgage interest rates, enabling many couples to refinance their homes and make house payments from a single paycheck.

The realization that quality of life at home and time for raising children are a higher priority than outside employment.

The difficulty securing and keeping quality child care.

“On average, 80 percent of a working mother’s paycheck,” according to Hokenson, “goes to support her children, with child care the major cost.” When other costs are added, the working mother may be paying to go to her job.

The economists analyzing the current trend are primarily concerned about the effects on business: the switch from households with “more money than time” to households with “more time than money,” less overall economic growth as families “down-size,” and a declining unemployment rate.

Business writers explain that this trend is an “about face in consumerism” and a “lifestyle change.” A growing number of families seem weary of the pressure and stress of both husband and wife working, and ready to seize the opportunity to live at a standard affordable with a single paycheck.

WHAT WAS

But what about the church? If this is the beginning of a “demographic sea change,” churches will be affected as much by the departure of women from the work force as they have been affected for the past 40 years by the increase of working women.

Let’s first see how more women in the workplace affected churches the past forty years. From 1954 to 1994, the female labor force participation grew from less than 35 percent to more than 55 percent. By 1990, 75 percent of American women ages 25 to 44 were employed in the labor force.

Think about what this meant for churches:

Volunteer shortage. Churches relied on women to teach Sunday school, staff vacation Bible schools, provide social services, and do the large majority of volunteer services for churches.

As women went to work and retained most of their previous household responsibilities, their availability to volunteer decreased. This required many churches to hire employees to do work previously done for free.

Decline of Sunday evening services.

Sunday evening church services and midweek prayer meetings were once a staple of many churches across America. As family schedules became busier and parents wanted to stay home more evenings with their children, evening church activity attendance dropped.

Increased church finances.

Two-paycheck families, especially those committed to tithing, had a larger number on which to base their 10-percent contribution. Also, churches were forced to raise more money to hire more staff. When this was combined with economic prosperity, inflation, and church growth during the 1970s and 1980s, church budgets rose at unprecedented rates.

Increased expectations.

Working mothers wanted the best for the children in child care, preschools, and elementary education; they also expected the best in the church nursery and Sunday school.

As women increased their roles on the job, they expected increased roles and influence in the church. They became more sensitized to gender issues and language, and that sensitivity came with them on Sundays.

WHAT MIGHT BE

What if the economists are right? Does this mean that American churches will return to the 1950s? Certainly not, but there are many possibilities to consider:

More volunteers.

The best possibility is that churches may be able to recruit more volunteers from the ranks of formerly employed women who now have increased discretionary time. This may enable churches to expand ministries and increase effectiveness, especially during weekday business hours. However, this is anything but automatic. Women do not leave employment to become full-time, unpaid church staff.

The challenge for the church will be to find meaningful work that fits both women’s schedule and giftedness. Already hundreds of churches are using volunteer service directors who serve more as advocates for lay persons than recruiters for Sunday school teachers and other positions. Volunteer service directors work in conjunction with classes and training to develop a knowledge of spiritual gifts, assess present skills, provide needed training, and match schedule availability.

In other words, the volunteer is matched to an appropriate role rather than recruited because of the needs of the church.

Less money.

Churches are already struggling with budget deficits. The expansionary and generous 1980s are past, and income is slow-growing or declining in the 1990s. The reasons are many, including recent years of increased unemployment, deflation, company down-sizing, families focusing on debt-reduction, lower percentage of contributions from baby boomers than from their parents, increased designated giving, and the employment and financial fears of parishioners in their fifties and sixties, who were previously the strongest church contributors.

There is a business mentality that currently says, “Do more with less,” and church members are expecting the same from their churches.

The return home of working women is another factor that could equal or exceed any of the above. When a couple makes the major decision to switch from a double to single paycheck household, the entire family budget must be rewritten. A household committed to a lower standard of living, one car instead of two, and saving rather than spending, will not maintain or increase giving to the church.

Pastors and boards must be careful not to interpret smaller offerings as declining commitment. To the contrary, it is possible that Christian commitment may be a determining factor in lifestyle changes that require reductions of 50 percent in offerings.

Smaller church staffs.

There has been enormous growth in Protestant church staffs during the last half century. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, even the largest churches often had only one full-time pastor. “Multiple staff” usually meant a secretary, custodian, and part-time music minister. The baby boom and parachurch movement brought attention to youth ministry, and youth pastors were added to thousands of church staffs. Since then there has been a virtual proliferation of specialities, including pastors to singles, seniors, children, and more. There are even computer pastors and multimedia pastors.

One rationale claims that the increase was because of growing numbers of people and increased specialized programs. Perhaps the real reasons are the explosion of graduates from Christian colleges and seminaries who needed jobs and the increased affluence of suburban churches that could afford to give them jobs.

Economic realities, declining enrollments in Bible colleges and seminaries, and a rising emphasis on lay ministry rather than paid staff has already turned downward the staffing trend. If church women leave their jobs and increase their volunteer hours, church staffs will shrink faster without hurting ministry effectiveness. Lower offerings will mean less money for payroll, but women volunteers will bring to the church their high-level skills and experience from their employment.

The greatest danger at the front end of the trend is that churches will follow present protocol and offer to pay these women as part-time employees. This will seem attractive to both parties but potentially difficult as income falls and volunteers who are unpaid increase. How can the church pay some and not others for the same services?

Increased training.

Women volunteers will need and expect the church to train them for the responsibilities they accept. Women who are available during daytime hours will be interested in developing social contacts to make up for the social interaction lost when they left their jobs. This opens enormous possibilities for weekday church activities, home Bible studies, and utilization of church buildings at normally low-demand times.

Changes in children’s activities.

The largest demographic segment of women leaving employment are those ages 20 to 35. Since these are the child-bearing and child-rearing years, an inevitable series of changes in children’s activities will result.

Expect an increase in home schooling as dissatisfaction with public schools increases while money for private education decreases. Churches with child-daycare programs and preschools should especially watch the demographic and lifestyle shifts. Only those churches in affluent communities should expect that mothers at home will pay for their children to go to a nursery school.

Barron’s writer Maggie Mahar claims that “in just the past two years, a quiet counterrevolution has begun. It’s a women’s revolution. Yet it’s going unnoticed by both that genre of journalism called ‘women’s magazines’ and the feminist press. It has been left to a man–and an economist at that–to sight a pendulum swing that seemed unthinkable just a short while ago: the exodus of women from the labor force.”

If the trend continues and the implications prove true, churches will be wise to take notice.

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Leith Anderson is pastor of Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

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