4. Women’s Leadership Roles in the Reformed Church in Zimbabwe (1891–2020)

The involvement of women in leadership positions is still a contested issue at the global, African and local levels in most churches. Some churches have used selected biblical texts to bar women from assuming any leadership roles, whilst others have allowed them to assume leadership positions but up to a certain level. Since 1980, Zimbabwe has experienced a mixture of both positive and negative developments in the religious experiences of women in relation to their involvement in leadership roles. The Reformed Church in Zimbabwe (RCZ) has been caught up in this phenomenon. It is against that background that this chapter explores the extent to which women participate in leadership positions in the RCZ. This is unpacked through explicating the two unique phases which the aforementioned church has experienced. These are: the pioneering (1891–1983) and the liberal (1984–2020) periods. The chapter makes use of liberal feminism and theological lenses, whilst applying the phenomenological and historical methodologies in exploring women leadership roles in the RCZ. Furthermore, the chapter provides a trajectory of women leadership trends in the RCZ at congregation, presbytery and synod levels. The chapter postulates a positive shift in women’s participation in various leadership positions against the backdrop of the implementations of numerous gender redress instruments aimed at achieving gender equality between women and men in the church’s leadership structures.