"Women, Religion and Leadership offers prescient insight into devout Catholic women who realized their religious aspirations despite remarkably difficult impediments to their success. The legacies of these inspirational women do not excuse the sin of patriarchal oppression in the name of religion. But these womens' lives highlight avenues of effective resistance that are essential to our pursuit of a more just and egalitarian world." –John P. Bartkowski, University of Texas at San Antonio, USA"In the end, the collection is most successful when seen as a series of case studies of conventional leadership studies models... several chapters would make fine readings for undergraduate or introductory seminary courses related to leadership and religion, or women in religious history. I imagine this book will find a place on syllabi in the field of leadership studies, especially at schools that combine a Christian lens with leadership." –Emily Zimbrick-Rogers is an independent scholar whose published work investigates gender and theology in Madeleine L'Engle and the experiences of evangelical woman theologians."Within the context of a patriarchal church, women’s leadership is subversive and often political. This addition to the "Routledge Studies in Leadership Research" series takes the novel approach of exploring the lives of female saints in the context of leadership studies theory. Denison (director, graduate program, organizational development and leadership, Shippensburg Univ.) gathered scholars from various backgrounds in humanities and social sciences to explore the expression of leadership in individual case studies of 13 selected female saints. Arranged chronologically, the volume begins with a chapter on "medieval female virgin martyrs" and ends with one on Pauli Murray, the first black woman Episcopal priest (and the only non-canonical woman included). Refreshingly, most of the authors go beyond servant-leadership in their analyses, applying concepts of emergent leadership, empathetic leadership, authentic leadership, and transformational leadership or unpacking the imagery of hagiography to reveal the intersections of gender and leadership in a saint’s stories. As a whole, the collection would have benefited from a thoughtful introduction to tease out recurrent themes in the widely disparate essays. Nonetheless, appropriate for collections in leadership studies and religious leadership." –M. F. Jones, Brevard College, USA
