State of Women in Baptist Life Report 2025
The State of Women in Baptist Life Report 2025 marks the 20th anniversary of BWIM’s publication of statistics and analysis for women in ministry among Baptists. The first half of the report contains a summary of research which reveals six markers of congregations that are creating empowering environments for women. The second half of the report provides current statistics and analysis on women’s ordinations in Baptist churches, women serving in ministry among Baptists as senior pastors and co-pastors, women endorsed as chaplains by Baptist denominational bodies, and Baptist women’s enrollment in seminaries. We hope that the data and research in the report serve as metrics and motivators for progress so that women in ministry are able to thrive as they minister and lead within Baptist communities.
Watch the Live Presentation of the Report
Invitation to Action: Schedule a Consultation
The release of The State of Women in Baptist Life Report is a call for deep reflection and intentional action within every Baptist congregation. To help your church respond effectively, beginning January 2026 Baptist Women in Ministry is offering consultations which can be conducted with congregational lay leadership and/or church staffs. The consultation process provides education and assessment of the markers of congregations which create empowering environment for women as described in the report.
Don’t let the report’s findings stop at your church’s door—take the vital next step by contacting us to inquire about scheduling a consultation and begin your journey toward lasting, meaningful change.
The 2025 Report in the News
Observations from a clergy sister of a darker hue
Chris Smith
It is with gratitude, excitement and concern that I share my observations and response to the Baptist Women in Ministry State of Women in Baptist Life report. I commend Heather Deal and all contributors for the clear, in-depth, insightful and sensitive manner in which this report was prepared. How blessed we are to have an organization like Baptist Women in Ministry that not only strategically supports clergywomen but also delves deeply into the layers of variables that impact our lives as church leaders.
Affirmed Yet Not Ordained
Rochelle Samuels
As Meredith Stone of Baptist Women in Ministry announced the results of the State of Women in Ministry 2025 report, she said this: “BWIM has counted 2,856 Baptist women ordained to the gospel ministry.” My immediate reaction was, there has to be more of us than that — and I am certain there are.
With gratitude for the women that lead us
Jon Singletary
Julie Pennington Russell called me last month. I had just finished a centering prayer group, a practice Pastor Julie helped nurture in me, and I began to weep when I saw her name on my phone. I was so grateful to have her reach out to me at that time.
The next week, Mary Alice Birdwhistell was back in Waco. Again, I was moved to tears to spend time with her during what has been a very difficult season in my life.
These women — along with Linda McKinnish Bridges, Lynda Weaver Williams, Dorisanne Cooper, Ali Chappel DeHay, and Baptist Women in Ministry Executive Director Meredith Stone — have been among the most influential pastors in my life.
Committing to a culture that empowers
Mandy McMichael
In Baptist Women in Ministry’s latest “State of Women in Baptist Life” report, Executive Director Meredith Stone wrote, “Many reasons for celebration can be found in this report, as well as painful reminders of the disparity that women in ministry face among Baptists.” For those of us on the front lines training women for ministry, this captures our reality well.
More than 60% of Baylor University’s students on ministry scholarship are women. This is cause for celebration! Yet the ceiling of what is possible for those future ministers in Texas is bleak.
BWIM research shows 6 markers of congregations that empower women
Mark Wingfield
“More Baptist women than ever before are experiencing God’s call to ministry and having opportunities to live out their callings in ministerial and pastoral roles,” said Meredith Stone, executive director of Baptist Women in Ministry. “However, until every category of women’s leadership among Baptists reaches 50%, there is still work to be done.”
Stone spoke Nov. 7 as BWIM unveiled its annual “State of Women in Baptist Life” report, the 20th year of this data release.
Report Finds North Carolina Leading the Way for Baptist Women in Ministry
Craig Nash
Baptist Women in Ministry (BWIM) released the 20th anniversary edition of its “State of Women in Baptist Life” report at its annual gathering today in Atlanta.
The qualitative section of the report addressed findings from the 2021 edition, which showed that even when churches became more affirming of women in ministry roles, the overall environment for women did not always improve. To explore this further, BWIM partnered with Dr. Heather Deal to identify “the markers of Baptist congregations where women in ministry thrive.”
Women in ministry need each other
Molly Shoulta Tucker
I’m sure it’s some Holy Spirit work that the “State of Women in Baptist Life” 2025 report was released in the same month as the film Wicked: For Good.
The second half of the saga of two electric women is expected to draw millions for the box office. Whether you find yourself on Team Elphaba or Team Glinda (with a “Guh”), the report on women in Baptist life calls us to recognize even camaraderie in sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and bringing a different Kin-dom to earth is still oftentimes tinted by conscious or subconscious jealousy and suspicion of women, by women.
BWIM Releases 2025 State of Women in Baptist Life Report: Celebrating 20 Years of Progress and Calling for Continued Change
Press Release
Atlanta, Georgia (November 7, 2025) — Baptist Women in Ministry (BWIM) has released the State of Women in Baptist Life Report 2025, marking the twentieth anniversary of the publication. The report provides research, statistics, and analysis for women serving in ministry across Baptist communities, especially those which have an openness to women’s ordination and pastoral leadership.
Affirming women’s leadership as a pneumatological moment
Jessica Lugo-Melendez
As a Latina and Baptist ordained minister, reading about the “Six Markers of Congregational Environments which are Empowering for Women” in Baptist Women in Ministry’s State of Women in Baptist Life report resonates deeply with both my lived experience and the theology I carry — a theology formed in colonized margins, shaped in bilingual spaces and sustained by the Spirit who called me long before any institution ever “recognized” my calling.