Women in Leadership
Have you ever been in a position where someone takes one look at you and judges you? What about sitting in an interview and you know how it is going to go before anyone even speaks a word? That’s the reality that many women across the world live with. They are defined by what their society says who they are and what they are capable of because of their gender.
One of General William Booth’s, the Founder of The Salvation Army, best known quotes is “Some of my best men are women!” William Booth valued women and saw that they were equal to the task of leadership, inspiration and making valuable change in society. William Booth appointed women to positions of leadership at a time in society where women had no right to vote, own property and rarely held jobs outside of the home or in the education of children.
William Booth’s wife, Catherine, was a strong woman of faith and conviction and was known to be an excellent preacher. Both William and Catherine Booth founded the Salvation Army to reach the least, the last and the lost, to go into the dark spaces of society, places where others would fear to tread to bring the light of the gospel, social reform and make real lasting change for those who suffered most. And women were critical to that mission.
A young 16 year old woman, Eliza Shirley, was responsible for the start of The Salvation Army’s work in the USA. She immigrated to Philadelphia with her parents in 1869 but knowing that The Salvation Army did not yet exist in the United States, she wrote to General William Booth requesting the opportunity to make it a reality. General Booth gave her permission to ‘test the waters’ and within a couple of years she was so successful that 10 others were sent from the United Kingdom to officially start The Salvation Army in the United States.
In 1888 the Orders and Regulations of The Salvation Army clearly stated that ‘both men and women were eligible for all ranks, authorities and duties within the Army’. And it has been so ever since. I thank God for William and Catherine Booth, revolutionary thinkers, who were bold and courageous in their leadership, not confined by societal structures and norms.
I thank God that my daughter gets to grow up knowing that she was created by God, that she is valuable and capable and understands that she can do absolutely anything.