What to wear

This is a postscript to Tidbit of Tutu: the gender of God. One of the very good ways that the Episcopal Church, whose General Convention I'm working at, has confronted this conundrum has been (in very modern times) to admit women into all the roles of sacramental, priestly leadership. Heck, we not only have women priests and bishops, we have a woman as Presiding Bishop -- that's a sort of elected leader of the bishops.

Having all this woman leadership naturally leads to that always challenging question as women break into the professions: what should they wear that conveys the seriousness of their roles and satisfies their desire to be recognized as womanly. I've noticed that many women priests (and academics) solve this problem by wearing colorful "ethnic" jackets over whatever else they wear. Having walked around the marketplace at General Convention, I now know where they get them.



Priests also have issues of fit in their professional garb and there are offerings for them.



One could wish that the issue of what women should wear in order to be both taken seriously and feel attractive might lessen over time, but we aren't there yet.