To create this list, we asked dozens of evangelical leaders to identify Christian women in North America whom evangelicals (both men and women) admire and who are shaping the life of the church and culture in significant ways. We tabulated the results, and ended up with 50 that clearly stood out.

Christian women who want to pursue influential roles in politics, the church, and other sectors of public life in the United States and Canada have never before had more opportunities to do so. As the following profiles in our cover package show, they are taking advantage of those opportunities in spades. It’s not just a golden moment for Christian women, of course, but for the entire church, as we benefit from the fruit of their manifold gifts.

Not that long ago, this cover package would have been inconceivable. But that isn’t to say that Christian women had no influence in church and society before 2012. It was women who formed the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. Harriet Tubman, a Christian who escaped slavery, went on to lead an influential movement within the Underground Railroad.

Methodist Frances Willard led two million members worldwide in the temperance movement more than a century ago, influencing many to support women’s suffrage as a “weapon of protection to her home and tempted loved ones from the tyranny of drink.” The movement also started kindergartens, passed child labor laws, and in the 1870s created the first daycares for the children of working women.

Today evangelicalism continues to feel the effects of women’s leadership. In the 1940s and ’50s, Henrietta Mears, a dynamic Christian educator, shaped the church’s future in powerful ways, discipling a number of future evangelical leaders, including Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ.

Women writers have played a particularly important role in evangelicalism. Rosalind Rinker’s Prayer: Conversing with God changed the way evangelicals prayed together. Before Rinker, many believed that prayer should be in the King’s English, spoken formally, as if addressing a monarch. The idea that Christians could talk to God as a friend, conversationally, was Rinker’s radical idea that is now commonplace.

Tensions remain—and in some ways are exacerbated—as women pursue leadership in many spheres. Denominations and particular churches continue to argue about the appropriate role of women—whether they can teach men or be ordained, for example. Others debate how to best understand Scripture’s description of the role of women in marriage. Some raise concerns that by recognizing women who find a voice in the public sphere, we may be subtly denigrating the work of stay-at-home mothers. (This would be true only if one believed that public work was intrinsically more valuable than private, which would be hard to defend if one really believes the meek are blessed.)

In some key respects, though, the distinction between public and private, between professional career and mothering, is being blurred. Many stay-at-home moms have become publicly influential as they blog from their farmhouses, tweet from grocery stores, or phone in a conference call while watching a 2-year-old.

The causes and subtleties of Christian women’s newfound public influence will have to wait—it’s a topic that deserves careful analysis. In this issue, we simply want to highlight, indeed, celebrate, the simple fact of this new development, as women’s leadership gifts are changing the life of the evangelical church and North American society in remarkable ways.

A few years ago, Christianity Today associate editor Katelyn Beaty and I brainstormed the number of Christian women in public life, coming up with just a few names for a Her.meneutics piece. We noted obvious names like Bible teachers Beth Moore, Joyce Meyer, and Anne Graham Lotz, but were discouraged when we tried to pinpoint influential Christian women in other arenas.

Since then, with the help of several influential Christian leaders, we began paying closer attention to women who have risen to leadership in various sectors. We began noting how women have entered into prominent political, business, or other leadership positions, while others have also been paving the way in the arts, education, and ministry.

To create this list, we asked dozens of evangelical leaders to identify Christian women in North America whom evangelicals (both men and women) admire and who are shaping the life of the church and culture in significant ways. We tabulated the results, and ended up with 50 that clearly stood out. We decided to profile a few of these women, especially those whom we feel readers should know more about (and who have not already been profiled in CT). As with any list, readers (like the editors) will argue about who should be included and who should not. This list is hardly the last word, but it recognizes the growing public role of Christian women in our movement and culture, and suggests the ways they are shaping our future. Sarah Puliam Bailey, online editor for Christianity Today.

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