Credentialism across creeds: Clergy education and stratification in protestant denominations

Irt this paper; we explore how Protestant denominations use education to st ratify their pastors among lower and higher income jobs and how this use of education intersects with gender: We assume that reliance on education as an indication of job qualification ultimately reflects accommodation to sec ular norms and hypothesize that it will be practiced most strongly in theol ogically liberal contexts. Next, we hypothesize that women will benefit fro m education more than men, a pattern that is typical of secular labor marke ts. And we predict that education will have a stronger effect on income in denominations where regional clergy administrators have influence iii match ing pastors to jobs. Data are taken from the 1994 "Ordained Women and Men S tudy" and consist of career information on clergy in fifteen denominations. Contrary to expectations, clergy degrees have a stronger effect on income in conservative than in liberal denominations. We further find that women c lergy receive lower income returns to their degrees in denominations requir ing a Master of Divinity for ordination but receive higher returns in the o thers. Finally, results show that seminary prestige is more beneficial in d enominations where pastors are hired directly by congregations rather than placed in congregations by regional clergy administrations.