While working with the Baptist Convention of South Africa as Director of Decentralized Theological Education, Dr. Hayashida, currently Visiting Associate Professor of Communications at Eastern College, spent four years studying and defining black womanhood and leadership in Baptist churches in South Africa. If not for women, the majority of these churches would fall apart at the seams. In South Africa women do much of the teaching, and they feed, clothe and bring their children to church, he said.
Men fill the majority of the decision-making roles in the church as pastors and elders.
They are the baton holders, and they pass the baton on to other men. They carry on the life of the church on the surface, but below the surface there is no denying the indispensable presence and energy of the women. Dr. Hayashida described how, though men mentally affirm that women are made in God's image and given spiritual gifts, in practice women are not treated as being equal in creation or ability. They are treated more subserviently as if there are varying qualities or degrees by which a person is created in the image of God and given spiritual gifts. For example, women might attempt to suppress or oppress a young woman in the church with ambitions and abilities to be a leader.