Women’s Participation and Leadership

Gender Justice and Women’s Empowerment

When church and society are committed to creating and nurturing just relationships between women and men, both flourish. LWF promotes women’s participation and leadership in the churches and their institutions, and in decision making at the global level

Standing for gender justice is essential to LWF’s identity as a communion of churches. The LWF seeks to promote the equal dignity of every person created in God’s image through the empowerment of women’s leadership. It is a commitment to be inclusive and enable the full and equitable participation of women and men in church life and society, and in decision-making processes, activities and programs.

This is done by facilitating spaces for conversation about gender roles, education and masculinities and about women’s rights. The LWF has dedicated programs and processes that promote the inclusion, participation and leadership of women in the ordained ministry, with the goal to building a communion where all can respond to the calling to the priesthood of all believers. 

With LWF’s support, networks of women doing theology, documenting stories about their contribution to the church, have been established at regional level and globally. They support the LWF in making visible milestones of LWF’s gender work such as the Gender Justice Policy.   

For LWF, being vocal and proactive in ensuring the respect of women’s human rights is indivisible from the understanding of justice in its biblical meaning. Through joint effort with faith-based partner organizations, the LWF collaborates with the United Nations (UN) and civil society organizations to overcome gender discrimination and gender-based violence. This includes platforms such as the annual training on advocacy for women’s human rights by faith-based organizations, and engaging the UN human rights’ mechanism through the Commission on the Status of Women and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.