Episcopal Church in the United States , Presiding Bishop of the
Episcopal Church (2006–2015), the first female
primate in the Anglican Communion The first woman to become a bishop in the Anglican Communion was
Barbara Harris, who was ordained
suffragan bishop of
Massachusetts in the United States in February 1989. As of August 2017, 24 women have since been elected to the episcopate across the church. The election in December 2009 and consecration on 15 May 2010 of
Mary Glasspool, who is openly gay and lives with her partner of 20 years, as a suffragan bishop in the
Diocese of Los Angeles attracted attention owing to the continued controversy over
gay bishops in Anglicanism. The Episcopal Church in the United States also elected the first woman to become a
primate (or senior bishop of a
national church),
Katharine Jefferts Schori, who was elected as 26th Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church at the 2006 General Convention for a nine-year term (2006-2015).
Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and Polynesia The
Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia first ordained women as priests in 1977 and was the first Anglican province to elect a woman as a diocesan bishop when, in 1989,
Penny Jamieson was elected
Bishop of Dunedin. She retired in 2004. In 2008 the
Diocese of Christchurch elected
Victoria Matthews, former
Bishop of Edmonton in the
Anglican Church of Canada, as 8th Bishop of Christchurch. In 2013,
Helen-Ann Hartley became the first woman ordained in the Church of England to become a bishop when she was elected as Bishop of Waikato and joint diocesan bishop in the
Diocese of Waikato and Taranaki. From 2017 to 2022, the Rt Rev Dr
Eleanor Sanderson had served as Assistant Bishop of Wellington.
Wai Quayle became the first indigenous woman to be elected a bishop in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia in 2019.
Anglican Church of Canada Following the first ordinations of women as priests in 1976, the first woman to become a bishop in the Anglican Church of Canada was
Victoria Matthews. She was elected
suffragan bishop in the
Diocese of Toronto on 19 November 1993 and was ordained to the episcopate on 12 February 1994. She later was the first woman to become a diocesan bishop in Canada when she was elected as
Bishop of Edmonton in 1997, an office she held until 2007 when she resigned. She was subsequently elected Bishop of Christchurch in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and Polynesia in 2008. Since Matthews' election, fifteen more women have been elected to the episcopate in Canada. They are
Ann Tottenham (suffragan, Toronto, 1997; retired 2005);
Sue Moxley (suffragan, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, 2004; diocesan, 2007; retired 2014);
Jane Alexander (diocesan, Edmonton, 2008);
Linda Nicholls (suffragan, Toronto, 2008; diocesan, Huron, 2016; Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, 2019 );
Barbara Andrews (Bishop Suffragan to the Metropolitan with responsibilities for the Anglican Parishes of the Central Interior, 2009);
Lydia Mamakwa (Area Bishop for Northern Ontario within the Diocese of Keewatin, with special responsibility for the predominantly Aboriginal parishes of the area, 2010; subsequently Bishop of Mishamikoweesh, the church's
Indigenous Spiritual Ministry with the status of a diocese, established in 2014);
Melissa Skelton (diocesan,
New Westminster, 2013),
Mary Irwin-Gibson (diocesan
Bishop of Montreal, 2015),
Riscylla Shaw (suffragan, Toronto, 2017),
Jenny Andison, (suffragan, Toronto, 2017), Anne Germond (diocesan, Algoma, 2017),
Susan Bell (diocesan, Niagara, 5 May 2018),
Lynne McNaughton (diocesan, Kootenay, January 2019),
Lesley Wheeler-Dame (coadjutor, Yukon, 2019),
Sandra Fyfe (diocesan, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, 2020), and
Clara Plamondon (diocesan, Territory of the People, 2023). On 12 May 2018,
Melissa Skelton was elected Metropolitan (which includes the title 'Archbishop') of the
Ecclesiastical Province of British Columbia and Yukon.
Anglican Church of Australia The
Anglican Church of Australia began to ordain women as priests in 1992 and in the late 1990s embarked on a protracted debate over the ordination of women as bishops, a debate that was ultimately decided through the church's appellate tribunal, which ruled on 28 September 2007 that there is nothing in the church's constitution that would prevent the consecration of a woman priest as a bishop in a diocese which by ordinance has adopted the law of the Church of England Clarification Canon 1992, which paved the way for the ordination of women as priests. Following the agreement at the April 2008 bishops' conference of the "Women in the Episcopate" protocol for the provision of pastoral care to those who reject the ministry of bishops who are women, the first women ordained as bishops were
Kay Goldsworthy (assistant bishop,
Diocese of Perth) on 22 May 2008 (subsequently elected 12th bishop of the
Diocese of Gippsland in the south-eastern Australian state of
Victoria and installed on 21 March 2015; and
Barbara Darling (assistant bishop,
Anglican Diocese of Melbourne) on 31 May 2008. More women have since been ordained as bishops:
Genieve Blackwell, Regional Bishop in Wagga Wagga and subsequently an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Melbourne (31 March 2012);
Alison Taylor, Bishop of the Southern Region,
Diocese of Brisbane (6 April 2013);
Sarah Macneil,
Bishop of Grafton, who was the first woman diocesan bishop (1 March 2014);
Kate Wilmot, assistant bishop in the Diocese of Perth (6 August 2015);
Sonia Roulston, assistant bishop,
Diocese of Newcastle (May 2018);
Kate Prowd, assistant bishop, Diocese of Melbourne (October 2018);
Denise Ferguson, assistant bishop,
Diocese of Adelaide (21 July 2019);
Carol Wagner, assistant bishop,
Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn (2020);
Sarah Plowman, Assistant Bishop and Bishop for the Northern Region, Brisbane (21 June 2024);
Sophie Relf-Christopher, Assistant Bishop, Adelaide (15 August 2024); and
Vanessa Bennett, Assistant Bishop, Canberra and Goulburn (24 August 2024). On 29 August 2017,
Kay Goldsworthy was elected Archbishop of
Perth in the Province of Western Australia. On taking up her appointment on 10 February 2018, she became the first woman in the Anglican Communion appointed or elected to the office of
archbishop.
Anglican Church of Southern Africa The first woman to become a bishop in the Anglican Church of South Africa was
Ellinah Ntombi Wamukoya, who was elected bishop of the
Diocese of Swaziland on 18 July 2012 and ordained and installed on 10 November 2012. Her appointment was closely followed by the election, on 12 October 2012, of
Margaret Vertue as bishop of the
Diocese of False Bay. She was consecrated and installed on 19 January 2013.
Church in Wales On 2 April 2008, the Governing Body of the
Church in Wales considered but did not pass, a bill to enable women to be ordained as bishops. Though the bill was passed by the House of Laity (52 to 19) and the House of Bishops (unanimously), it failed by three votes (27 to 18) to secure the required minimum two-thirds majority in the House of Clerics. However, the Church in Wales decisively ended the role of provincial bishop, whose responsibility was to minister to opponents. On 12 September 2013, the Governing Body passed a bill to enable women to be ordained as bishops subject to the finalisation of a Code of Practice, ultimately published in September 2014. On 2 November 2016,
Joanna Penberthy was elected as
Bishop of St David's in the
Church in Wales. She was consecrated in January 2017 and enthroned in St Davids Cathedral in February 2017. On 25 February 2017
June Osborne was elected 72nd
Bishop of Llandaff. She was consecrated on 15 July 2017 and installed at
Llandaff Cathedral on 22 July 2017. In 2022,
Mary Stallard's consecration as
Assistant Bishop of Bangor made the Welsh Bench of Bishops majority-female, a situation presumed to be a first in any Anglican church.
Church of England Since the ordination of women as priests began in 1994, dioceses generally have on the Bishop's senior staff a Dean of Women's Ministry (or Bishop's Adviser in Women's Ministry or similar), whose role it is to advocate for clergy who are women and to ensure the Bishop is appraised of issues peculiar to their ministry. These Advisers meet together in a National Association (NADAWM). In 2005, 2006, and 2008, the General Synod of the Church of England voted in favour of removing the legal obstacles preventing women from becoming bishops. The process did not progress quickly due to problems in providing appropriate mechanisms for the protection of those who cannot accept this development. On 7 July 2008 the synod held a more-than-seven-hour debate on the subject and narrowly voted in favour of a national statutory code of practice to make provision for opponents, though more radical provisions (such as separate structures or overseeing bishops) proposed by opponents of the measure failed to win the majority required across each of the three houses (bishops, clergy, and laity). The task of taking this proposal further fell largely to a revision committee established by the synod to consider the draft legislation on enabling women to become bishops in the Church of England. When, in October 2009, the revision committee released a statement indicating its proposals would include a plan to vest some functions by law in male bishops who would provide oversight for those unable to receive the ministry of women as bishops or priests, there was widespread concern both within and outside the Church of England about the appropriateness of such legislation. In the light of the negative reaction to the proposal, the revision committee subsequently announced the abandonment of this recommendation. The synod, meeting in York from 9 to 12 July 2010, considered a measure that again endorsed the ordination of women as bishops. The measure included provisions for individual bishops to allow alternative oversight for traditionalists who object to serving under them, but opponents of the measure argued for stronger provisions. A compromise plan put forward by the archbishops of Canterbury and York (involving the creation of a mechanism providing for "co-ordinate jurisdiction" in parishes refusing the ministry of a bishop who is a woman whereby another bishop would fulfil episcopal function) was endorsed by the House of Bishops and the House of Laity but narrowly failed (90 votes against to 85 in favour) in the House of Clergy. The draft measure, with only minor amendments, passed in all three houses on 12 July 2010, to be considered by individual dioceses. The measure was approved by 42 of the 44 dioceses, but an amendment by the House of Bishops, offering further concessions to opponents, meant that many proponents of the measure would have reluctantly voted it down, and the synod at York in July 2012 adjourned the decision to a later synod. On 20 November 2012, the General Synod failed to pass the proposed legislation for the ordination of women as bishops. The measure was lost after narrowly failing to achieve the two-thirds majority required in the House of Laity after being passed by the House of Bishops and the House of Clergy. At its meeting on 7 February 2013, the House of Bishops decided that eight senior women clergy, elected regionally, would participate in all meetings of the house until such time as there were six women who were bishops sitting as of right. In May 2013, the House of Bishops expressed its commitment "to publishing new ways forward to enable women to become bishops". In July 2013, the synod decided to reintroduce legislation to be addressed in November. In November 2013, the General Synod approved a package of measures as the next steps to enable women to become bishops, generally welcoming a package of proposals outlined for Draft Legislation of Women in the Episcopate (GS 1924). The steering committee's package of proposals followed the mandate set by the July synod and included the first draft of a House of Bishops declaration and a dispute resolution procedure. The debate invited the synod to welcome the proposals and five guiding principles already agreed by the House of Bishops. The General Synod again considered the matter in February 2014 and sent further draft legislation to all the dioceses of the Church of England. All dioceses that were able to meet within the necessary time frame (43 of 44) approved the draft legislation in time for it to be debated at the General Synod in York in July 2014. That legislation passed all three houses of General Synod on 14 July 2014, achieving the two-thirds majority required in all three. It gained the necessary parliamentary approvals and royal assent in the subsequent months and was finally approved by the General Synod on 17 November 2014. The first woman to be ordained as a bishop in the Church of England was
Libby Lane, whose appointment as
Bishop of Stockport (a suffragan see in the
Diocese of Chester) was announced on 17 December 2014. She was consecrated at
York Minster on 26 January 2015 (the Feast of the
Conversion of St Paul).
Alison White was appointed
Bishop of Hull (suffragan,
Diocese of York) on 25 March 2015 and consecrated at York Minister on 3 July 2015 (the Feast of
St Thomas). The third woman to be appointed bishop, and the first to be a diocesan bishop, was
Rachel Treweek, whose appointment as 43rd
Bishop of Gloucester was announced on 26 March 2015. She became Bishop of Gloucester on 15 June 2015 following the confirmation of her election. On 22 July 2015 (the Feast of St
Mary Magdalene) she and
Sarah Mullally (
Bishop of Crediton, a suffragan see in the
Diocese of Exeter) were the first women to be ordained as bishops at
Canterbury Cathedral. Pursuant to the
Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015, which makes time-limited provision for vacancies among the
Lords Spiritual (the bishops who are members of the
House of Lords) to be filled by diocesan bishops who are women, Treweek also become the first to sit in the House of Lords, where she was introduced on 26 October 2015. On 30 June 2015, it was announced that
Ruth Worsley would be
Bishop of Taunton (suffragan,
Diocese of Bath and Wells). On 2 July 2015 the appointment of
Anne Hollinghurst as the
Bishop of Aston (suffragan,
Diocese of Birmingham) was announced. Both were consecrated at
St Paul's Cathedral, London, on 29 September (the Feast of
St Michael and All Angels). On 2 September 2015, it was announced that
Christine Hardman would be 12th
Bishop of Newcastle and, therefore, the second woman to be a diocesan bishop in the Church of England and the first in the
Province of York. Hardman became Bishop of Newcastle upon the
confirmation of her election on 22 September 2015; she was consecrated on 30 November 2015 at York Minster. Hardman also sits in the House of Lords. On 26 November 2015, the appointment of
Karen Gorham as
Bishop of Sherborne (suffragan,
Diocese of Salisbury) was announced. She was the first woman to be consecrated in
Westminster Abbey, at a service that took place on 24 February 2016. Between 2014 and 2018, almost half of new bishop appointments in the Church of England were women. Dame
Sarah Mullally was announced on 3 October 2025 as 106th
Archbishop of Canterbury, making her the first woman to be appointed to lead the Church of England in that role.
Church of Ireland The
Church of Ireland approved the ordination of women as priests and bishops in 1990 and the first women were ordained as priests on 24 June that year. The first woman in the episcopate was
Pat Storey, who was consecrated
Bishop of Meath and Kildare on 1 December 2013. On 19 September 2013, Storey was chosen by the House of Bishops to succeed
Richard Clarke as
Bishop of Meath and Kildare.
Church of North India In 2024,
Violet Nayak became the first woman in the episcopate of the
Church of North India when she was consecrated for the
diocese of Phulbani.
Church of South India The
Church of South India has admitted women to holy orders since 1984.
Eggoni Pushpa Lalitha was the first woman elected as a bishop on 25 September 2013. She was ordained and installed as bishop of the
Diocese of Nandyal on 29 September 2013.
Episcopal Church of South Sudan The
Episcopal Church of South Sudan (formerly the Episcopal Church of South Sudan and Sudan until the creation, on 31 July 2017, of separate provinces for Sudan and South Sudan) provided for the ordination of women to all three orders of ministry in 2000. The first woman ordained as a bishop in the church was the Rt Rev
Elizabeth Awut Ngor, who was consecrated as an assistant bishop in the
Diocese of Rumbek on 31 December 2016. Hers was the first appointment of a woman as a bishop in any of the so-called
GAFCON-aligned provinces of the
Anglican Communion, which broadly resist the ordination of women as priests and bishops. The first woman to be appointed was the Rev Canon
Anne Dyer, who was elected Bishop of the
Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney by the Episcopal Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church on 9 November 2017. She was consecrated on 1 March 2018.
Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil The first woman appointed as a bishop in the
Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil is the Right Rev.
Marinez Santos Bassotto, who was elected as
Bishop of the Diocese of the Amazon on 20 January 2018 and was ordained on 21 April 2018. She was elected as
Presiding Bishop on 13 November 2022.
Anglican Church of Kenya The first woman appointed as a bishop in the
Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) is
Emily Onyango who was elected Assistant Bishop of
Bondo Diocese in January 2021.
Rose Okeno, age 54, became the second female bishop and the first full bishop in the history of the ACK on 12 September 2021. She is the Anglican Bishop of Butere Diocese.
Anglican Church of Mexico The first woman elected as a bishop in the
Anglican Church of Mexico is
Alba Sally Sue Hernández who was consecrated the bishop of the
Diocese of Mexico in January 2022. She was elected primate in March 2026
Extraprovincial churches In addition to the 42 provinces of the Anglican Communion, there are five
Extra-provincial Anglican churches which function semi-autonomously under limited metropolitical oversight and are largely self-determining when it comes to the ordained ministry. Several have provided for the ordination of women as priests for some years. The extra-provincial churches are under the metropolitical leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Since 2026, the Archbishop of Canterbuy has been Dame Sarah Mullally, the first woman to be metropolitan bishop of the extra-provincial churches. The
Episcopal Church of Cuba was the only extra-provincial church to ordain women as bishops, the first of whom was
Nerva Cot Aguilera who was appointed as a bishop suffragan in 2007. Aguilera was appointed by the Metropolitan Council, the ecclesiastical authority for the Episcopal Church of Cuba which in January 2010 appointed
Griselda Delgado del Carpio (who, along with Aguilera, was one of the first two women priests ordained in Cuba in 1986) as bishop coadjutor (assistant bishop with the right of succession). She was ordained to the episcopate on 7 February 2010 and installed as diocesan on 28 November 2010 following the retirement of
Miguel Tamayo-Zaldívar, the interim bishop since 2005. The Episcopal Church of Cuba became a Diocese of The Episcopal Church in 2020. ==Controversies and breakaway groups==