Rita Root always had a desire to be in a religious order. Growing up in the Roman Catholic Church she thought of joining the convent. After discovering a rift between her understanding and the church’s understanding of Christianity, Root left the Catholic Church and began exploring other faith traditions.

When Root’s son, Joel, was about 12 years old he became good friends with the son of a United Methodist Church minister. One day Joel came home and proclaimed he needed more religion in his life. The church was planning a ski trip and Joel was under the impression that only church members were allowed to go. Root called the minister to express concerns about the exclusion. He told her Joel was more than welcome to come and the last thing he said to Root was, “But it wouldn’t hurt you to come to church.”

After thinking about it, Root decided to go to church and soon enough became very involved in church activities, going from youth group leader to district youth group leader at the church in Minnesota.

“The way God speaks to me most clearly is through the Christian faith, while I value and treasure the other ways that God speaks because I think God speaks in many ways,” Root said.

While attending a conference in Colorado, a minister asked Root when she was going to attend seminary and she said she wasn’t even considering the seminary.

When she returned home, Root spoke to her pastor about the Colorado minister’s question. He said it was not really a question of when but where Root was going to attend seminary. “I think you are the only person who doesn’t know that God is calling you into the ministries,” he told Root.

After giving the matter a considerable amount of thought and graduating from Minnesota State University, Mankato with a degree in psychology and religious studies, Root began her divinity studies at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. In 1992, Root received a Master’s of Divinity degree and was ordained in the United Methodist Church.

Root acted as the director and campus pastor of United Campus Ministries at NIU for three years.

“What a joy it has been for me to come back into the Christian church and rediscover the wonderfulness about it and challenge the things that caused me to leave. I think that’s a gift when we challenge our faith traditions and make that conscious choice to stay within it or find one where we can receive God’s word,” she said.

In 2001, Root left the United Methodist Church because ministers were being told that performing a holy union for a gay couple could result in loss of pastoral privileges.

“I knew at that point, because of my own faith convictions, that if I were asked to do a holy union I would and I have,” she said.

She left the United Methodist denomination for the United Church of Christ denomination and became the first female pastor of the Federated Church in Sycamore.

“It was the right time and the right congregation,” Root said.

She is very happy at Federated Church. “This is a very open church, very embracing of diversity,” she said.

Still as a woman in a leadership position she faces some opposition because of her gender.

“We’re still not at the place where women are as easily affirmed in the ministry as men,” Root said.

The Federated Church is the third church in which Root served as the first female pastor.

“There’s the undertone of sexism in leadership roles for women in the church, I don’t think however that that is different than the same kind of sexism and resistance to leadership outside the church,” she said.

Pastor Jane Eesley of the First United Methodist Church in DeKalb echoes these sentiments. She said although there is no direct rejection, there are indirect comments made.

It’s just something women have to deal with when working within a traditionally male field, Eesley said.

Colette Morrow , an associate professor at Purdue University Calumet and a visiting women’s studies professor at NIU, said when women go outside their traditional roles, there is a certain discomfort expressed by society.

“Part of it is seeing women in non-traditional roles, it is discerning for people,” she said.

Generally speaking, culturally there are still social beliefs about women’s capabilities, characters and appropriate roles, Morrow said.

The other side of the problem is the definition of masculinity, she said. Strides have been made in acknowledging stereotypes about femininity, but there is much work to be done determining the stereotypes regarding masculinity, Morrow said.

It is assumed that only men can hold positions of supremacy and female leaders challenge that traditional idea. Masculine qualities of strength and supremacy are challenged. “It’s really harmful for men that we construct masculinity that way,” she said.

Root doesn’t like to spend a lot of time thinking about places she is not accepted. “I always believed that my call came from God and I figured if God thought it was a good idea, I don’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about the denominations that would not recognize my ministry.”