Challenges faced by women in the Church in Wales

History will be made this weekend when Wales' first female bishop is consecrated - but women in the church have had to overcome many challenges over the years in order to reach this significant moment.

A long, slow sigh sounded in the room. Then a consolatory hand on her shoulder. Shortly after, the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Canon Enid Morgan remembers the moment a bill to enable women to become bishops failed by three votes in 2008.

She was sat among the church's governing body in Lampeter, Ceredigion, when the result was announced.

"There was this feeling of 'we're going to carry on discussing this yet again'," she recalled.

• First woman bishop consecrated

Ever since the first woman was made an Anglican deaconess in Usk, Monmouthshire, in 1884, women have been campaigning for greater equality in the church, fighting to prove they were capable of holding the same positions as men.

The ordination of women priests in 1997

Just 11 years before the failed vote for bishops, the Church in Wales governing body had accepted women becoming priests by one vote in 1997.

Canon Morgan, of Aberystwyth, who was among the first 61 women to be ordained, said: "There were women there who had been deacons for many years, I had been one for 12 years, so there was a lot of frustration.

"So much energy had gone into arguing the case which would have been better going into our work.

"Yet there was also the realisation this had not happened before and will not happen again. It was hugely important."

Some of the first women ordained at St Asaph Cathedral in January 1997

Canon Morgan, now 76, has been among the "lucky ones" who has received much support over the years.

She was a lay reader for a decade and studied at the Theological College, Aberystwyth, before being ordained deacon in 1984.

She saw her ordination as a priest "as a sign that times were changing" and would later become director of the Board of Mission of the Church in Wales.

"I didn't have much in the way of humiliation or rudeness but some women got a rough ride," she said.

"Some bishops were very suspicious of us, some thought we might plot.

"If men and women can't get along in the church, then how are they expected to do so anywhere else?"

The move for women bishops would go on to be passed five years later, in 2013.

Canon Morgan was among the first women to be ordained as priests 20 years ago

But the barriers women faced in the past still remain today.

As Revd Mary Stallard, of Llangollen, Denbighshire, said: "The whole gender debate has a long way to go. Having women bishops is fabulous but it's not the end of the road in terms of how the church looks at gender.

"The decision-making committee for the finances of the church, for example, has 26 places on the representative body but only two are women.

"Yet if you look across Wales at who balances the books of households, I'm betting women are doing the lion's share."

She and her husband Andrew were the first paid ordained couple in the Church in Wales before both becoming priests - she was among the first women in 1997 - and have gone on to achieve similar qualifications and experiences.

Yet Revd Stallard, a chaplain at an Anglican school, said jobs have been more readily offered to her husband while she has often been asked to work part-time or even without a salary.

When she found herself in a higher position than her husband, she said she had to "argue that bit harder for it".

"I hope we continue on a trajectory of change and if we are going slower in the church, it doesn't mean we won't catch up," she said.

"The future for the church is a struggle, but it would be less of a struggle if we stop fighting internally about matters like this.

"We are so much more empowered if we harness the powers of everyone."

Canon Joanna Penberthy will be consecrated as Bishop of St Davids on Saturday

Both Canon Morgan and Revd Stallard hope the appointment of Canon Joanna Penberthy as Wales' first female bishop will inspire other women and open further opportunities in the church.

"It matters a great deal for the church, for women and for the women who died before their hopes were realised," Canon Morgan said.

"It's a wonderful feeling of completion but in fact it's only really the start."