“Some of My Best Men Are Women”? Gender and Religious Leadership in the Salvation Army, 1880–1939

This paper analyzes the gendered practices of religious leadership within the Salvation Army from the late nineteenth through the early twentieth century. Founded by William and Catherine Booth in London in 1865, the Salvation Army became one of the earliest religious organizations to embrace the ideal of gender egalitarianism. William Booth, who had adopted the title of General, famously quipped, “Some of my best men are women!” The Salvation Army’s encouragement of women’s public preaching and ministries contravened not only traditional theological standards for female silence and submission but also Victorian gender norms related to the cult of domesticity. No one symbolized the possibilities for women’s leadership more than Evangeline Booth (1865-1950), William and Catherine’s seventh child. Evangeline rose quickly through the Army’s ranks, eventually becoming head of the organization in Canada from 1896 to 1904 and then Commander of the United States Salvation Army from 1904 to 1934.The organization flourished under her direction, and Booth became one of the rare prominent female religious leaders of her era. In 1934, she was elected the fourth International General of the Salvation Army and served until her retirement in 1939. Nevertheless, this paper analyzes Evangeline Booth’s career as an exception to the Salvation Army’s leadership practices. Despite the organization’s stated commitment to gender equality, and despite the fact that women constituted about two-thirds of the Army’s membership, its highest levels of officers remained almost exclusively male. This paper demonstrates how traditional gender ideology continued to limit women’s leadership opportunities, as Evangeline Booth herself and others perpetuated a gender hierarchy in branches of the Salvation Army throughout the world.