Chapter 5 presents dual expectations women pastors face in relation to their pastoral responsibilities at work as well as how they go about being a wife and mother, commonly referred to as the “second shift.” Women pastors are often expected to take on the lion’s share of household responsibilities. Therefore, congregants assume that they are pulled more between home and work than men, thus resulting in congregants doubting their ability to do it all. Finally, Chapter 5 demonstrates the traditional role of pastor’s wife and how some congregants implicitly assume that the work of pastors will be complemented by the unpaid work of their spouses. Pastors’ wives typically face more congregational expectations than pastors’ husbands, often leaving women pastors in heteronormative relationships to pick up some of the traditional pastor’s wife responsibilities in addition to their own responsibilities both at home and work; I refer to this phenomenon as the “third shift.”
The third shift: Multiple job holding and the incarceration of women's partners
