Timeline of Women in Methodism

Learn about some of the amazing women who helped shape the history of The United Methodist Church.

This is just a start. There are many, many more!

c. 1770

Mary Evans Thorne is appointed class leader by Joseph Pilmore in Philadelphia; she is probably the first woman in America so appointed.

1768

Barbara Heck, known as the mother of American Methodism, urges Philip Embury to start preaching in New York and designs John Street Chapel in New York City.

1787

Despite objections of some male preachers, John Wesley authorizes Sarah Mallet to preach as long as "she proclaimed the doctrines and adhered to the disciplines that all Methodist preachers were expected to accept."

1827

Isabella Bomefree, a slave who later changes her name to Sojourner Truth, is emancipated when slavery is abolished in New York State. That same year, she co-founds Kingston Methodist Church. In 1843, she feels "called in the spirit" and begins to travel and preach. She becomes involved in the abolitionist movement, and her public speaking combines her religious faith with her experiences as a slave.

1834

Sophronia Farrington, the first single missionary, arrives in Liberia.

1835

Phoebe Palmer, evangelist and mother of the American holiness movement, conducts weekly prayer meetings in her home.

1837

Ann Wilkins is appointed missionary to Liberia by the Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society.

1849

Charity Opheral is granted a preacher's license by the United Brethren Church.

1851

Lydia Sexton is recommended as a "pulpit speaker" by the United Brethren General Conference.

1856

Clementina Rowe Butler and her husband William arrive as the first Methodist Episcopal Church missionaries to India. In 1872, they establish a Methodist Episcopal mission in Mexico.

Sojourner Truth

1857

The United Brethren General Conference passes a resolution that no woman should be allowed to preach.

1862

Amanda Hanby Billhelimer becomes the first United Brethren in Christ woman to serve as a missionary when she begins service in Sierra Leone with her husband.

1863

Fanny Crosby, a lifelong Methodist blind from infancy, writes her first hymn. She writes more than 9,000 hymns, many of which remain perennial favorites (for example, "Blessed Assurance," "To God Be the Glory" and "Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior."

1866

Helenor M. Davisson is ordained deacon by the North Indiana Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church, making her the first ordained woman in the Methodist tradition.

1869

Margaret Newton Van Cott is the first woman in the Methodist Episcopal Church to receive a local preacher's license.

Isabella Thoburn and Clara Swain leave for India where Thoburn launches a college in Lucknow that bears her name. Dr. Swain begins medical work in Bareli, and a hospital is later named in her honor.

Anna Howard Shaw

1873

Anna Howard Shaw acquires a local preacher's license in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

1875

Pauline Williams Martindale is ordained an elder in the Methodist Protestant Church.

1876

Anna Oliver, the first woman to graduate from an American seminary, receives a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Boston University School of Theology.

1878

Lochie Rankin goes to China as the first missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

1880

Anna Howard Shaw and Anna Oliver are refused ordination rights by the Methodist Episcopal General Conference. Shaw joins the Methodist Protestant Church and is ordained in the New York Annual Conference.

1884

The Methodist Protestant Church rules Anna Howard Shaw's ordination out of order.

Frances Willard

1888

Five women, including Frances Willard who is the president of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, are elected lay delegates to the Methodist Episcopal General Conference. Male reserves later replace them.

The denomination establishes a deaconess program for laywomen. Deaconesses serve the church in any capacity not requiring full clergy rights in ministries of love, justice and service.

1889

Ella Niswonger is the first woman to be ordained by the United Brethren Church.

1892

Anna Oliver and Amanda Berry Smith share a pulpit in a New Jersey church. The Methodist Protestant Church is the first to seat women as General Conference delegates.

1894

Sarah Dickey is ordained by the United Brethren Church.

1904

Minnie Jackson Goins of Kansas becomes the first African-American woman to be ordained elder in the United Brethren Church.

1906

Martha Drummer, a black deaconess, is sent to Angola by the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Anna Hall, a black deaconess, goes to Liberia.

1920

The Methodist Episcopal Church grants women the right to be licensed as local preachers.

1922

Eighteen women are seated as the first female lay delegates to the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

1924

The Methodist Episcopal Church grants women limited clergy rights as local elders or deacons, without conference membership.

1930

The General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South rejects full clergy rights for women.

1932

Mildred Moody Eakin is made a full professor at Drew Theological Seminary.

1944, 1948, 1952

The Woman's Society of Christian Service of The Methodist Church petitions General Conference for full clergy rights for women, but is rejected each time.

1946

Women are denied ordination in the newly formed Evangelical United Brethren Church.

1955

The Philippines Central Conference receives permission from the Methodist Judicial Council to ordain a woman as a local deacon.

Paula Mojzes is appointed acting superintendent in Serbia-Montenegro/Macedonia Provisional Conference of the Methodist Church two years before she is ordained deacon.

1956

The Methodist Church grants full clergy rights to women. Maud Keister Jensen is the first to receive such rights.

1958

Antonia Wladar is the first woman to be ordained in the Central European Conference.

1959

The Rev. Gusta A. Robinette, a missionary in the Sumatra (Indonesia) Conference, is ordained and appointed superintendent of the Medan Chinese District, the first Methodist woman to hold that position.

1961

Julia Torres Fernandez becomes the first Hispanic woman to be ordained elder with the Methodist Church.

1967

Margaret Henrichsen is the first American woman to be appointed district superintendent.

1968

The Methodist and the Evangelical United Brethren churches unite to form The United Methodist Church. The merged church affirms full clergy rights for women.

The Women's Division successfully petitions General Conference to create a study commission to document the extent to which women are involved in all structural levels of the denomination.

Teressa Hoover becomes the first African American woman to serve as a top staff executive for The United Methodist Church. She would go on to lead the Women's Division for 22 years.

Kathryn Mowrey Grove becomes the first laywoman elected to the United Methodist Judicial Council.

1971

Cornelia Mauyao is the first woman ordained an elder in the Philippines Central Conference.

1972

General Conference creates the Commission on the Status and Role of Women as a four-year agency. Barbara Ricks Thompson is elected president.

1973

The new commission elects the Rev. Nancy (Nan) Grissom Self and Judith Leaming Elmer as executive secretariat, the first two-person secretariat in the denomination.

1976

General Conference makes the commission a standing (ongoing) agency. Clergywomen delegates are elected for the first time.

1979

Mutombo Ilunga Kimba is the first woman ordained elder in the Congo, the Africa Central Conference.

1980

Marjorie Matthews is the first woman to be elected bishop of The United Methodist Church.

Three women (Anita Araya, Donna Morissette and Hazel Decker) and three men deliver the first laity address to General Conference.

1982

Mamie Ming Yan Ko, California-Pacific Conference, and Mochie Lam, California-Nevada Conference, become the first Chinese American women to be ordained elder.

1983

Colleen Kyung Seen Chun of the California-Pacific Conference becomes the first Korean American woman to be ordained elder.

1984

Leontine T.C. Kelly is the first African-American woman to be elected bishop.

1985

Barbara Ricks Thompson is elected top staff executive of the United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race.

1989

Lois V. Glory-Neal of the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference becomes the first Native American woman to be ordained elder. She became the first Native American district superintendent in 1992.

1990

Lydia (Lidia) Istomina made history as the first woman pastor in the former Soviet Union, marking a resurgence of faith after 70 years of atheism. In 1990, she founded the first United Methodist Church (UMC) in Russia. By September 1991, Bishops William Oden and Hans Vaxby officially appointed Istomina to serve the church she initiated, acknowledging her pivotal role in reigniting spiritual life in post-Soviet Russia.

1992

Ana Moala Tiueti was the first native Tongan woman ordained as a Methodist elder in the US (and in the world).

1994

Barbara Boigegrain is elected top staff executive of the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits.

Judith Weidman is the first woman elected top staff executive of United Methodist Communications.

1995

Sandra Lackore becomes the first woman elected top staff executive and treasurer of the United Methodist Council on Finance and Administration.

1996

First Lady Hillary Clinton speaks to General Conference in Denver.

Bishop Judith Craig becomes the first woman to deliver the episcopal address to General Conference.

2001

Karen A. Greenwaldt becomes the first woman elected to serve as chief executive for the General Board of Discipleship.

Bishop Joaquina Filipe Nhanala

2002

Bishop Sharon Brown Christopher becomes the first woman to serve as president of the Council of Bishops.

2003

Linita Uluave Moa becomes the first Tongan woman to be ordained elder.

2004

Minerva G. Carcaño becomes the first Hispanic woman bishop.

2005

Rosemarie J. Wenner becomes the first European woman bishop.

2007

Erin Hawkins is elected top executive of the United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race.

2008

Joaquina Filipe Nhanala becomes the first African woman bishop, the 19th woman elected to the episcopacy.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf speaks to General Conference in Fort Worth.

According to a 2008 survey, female clergy lead only 94 of the 1,200 United Methodist churches in the U.S. with 1,000 or more members. The survey also reports 27 percent of United Methodist clergy are female.

Medallion marks 150 years of UMW's mission.
Photo courtesy of United Methodist Women

2011

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and two other women were awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for their work on women's rights.

Johnson Sirleaf was elected to a second term as president of Liberia.

2012

General Conference delegates vote to make United Methodist Women a separate organization rather than a part of the Board of Global Ministries.

2019

UMW celebrates 150 years since eight denominations came together and began women's missionary societies. In 1869, the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society first organized in Boston in response to a lack of women's health care in India.

2022

United Methodist Women becomes United Women in Faith.

The General Commission on the Status and Role of Women celebrates its 50th anniversary.

Across the denomination, eight women are elected bishops. 

As with all lists of this sort, we recognize we have not included everyone. Is there someone you think needs to be included? Email us.