Professional Laywomen
"Yes...there are careers for women in the Episcopal Church," a brochure for the professional training program at Windham House, 1957.
Social work was becoming professionalized across the nation and young women were less attracted to the “traditional” methods of the older deaconesses, which seemed to some to be outmoded and unrooted in developing social work practices. The founding of the New York Training School for Deaconesses in 1889 reflects this desire for professionalization. Though women still asked to be set apart, they increasingly eschewed the traditional uniform, and the mode of address changed to “Deaconess” rather than “Sister.” Deaconesses approached their calling not only as religious women but as professional social workers.
Windham House in New York, a graduate program for women preparing to enter into full-time church work, was founded in 1928 and supported by funding from the UTO and the National Council. On the West Coast, St. Margaret's House of Berkeley, California, was founded to train deaconesses in 1907. It later expanded its program to meet the growing demand, granting graduate degrees to aspiring woman workers. These institutions flourished throughout the 1940s and 1950s. By the mid-1960s, when women began to be integrated more fully into church structures, there was no longer a need for a separate training schools for female churchworkers. In 1966, St. Margaret's House became a non-profit organization unaffiliated with The Episcopal Church; Windham House closed its doors in 1967.
In 1970, the same year that women were admitted to the House of Deputies, the “Deaconess Canon” which set down the qualifications and responsibilities of deaconesses specifically, was abolished by General Convention. All deaconesses who had previously fallen under the separate canon were automatically considered ordained to the diaconate like their male counterparts and were eligible to receive benefits from the Church Pension Fund.
