The “First Man”: Exploring the Gender and Marital Roles of African American Husbands Married to Female Pastors

Gender has been, and continues to be, an important factor when it comes to church leadership. In exploring the concept of clergy couples, men tend to be the minority among clergy spouses when compared to women. Traditional gender roles and role expectations for clergy wives are easier to identify than when compared to clergy husbands. With an ethnographic approach using phenomenological analysis, this study explored the minority experiences of three African American men married to African American female pastors in the black church. The reported experiences of these men are relevant to the topics of gender roles, gender identity, marital roles, masculine ideologies, and congregational expectations. Similar to clergy wives, clergy husbands experience demands by their congregations to assist their pastor spouses, as well as their congregations, in various supportive roles. Compared to women, however, differences exist with how men choose to respond to congregational expectations