There are certain career fields dominated by men, but there have always been women bucking the trends.

Women serving in the ministry is no different.

Many churches allow women to hold leadership roles, even the senior pastor position. But the struggle women may face in working toward their goals depends on the individual woman and the denomination of which she is a part.

"Women have been serving as pastors in the United Methodist Church for over 50 years," said the Rev. Paige Bennett, pastor at Chicopee United Methodist Church. "And they went through so many hardships and barriers with being the first in pulpits all over the world.

"I am so thankful that I am where I am today ... A lot of the hardships that they endured we reap the benefits of by having congregations open to women. It's been a great experience here at Chicopee."

But for the Rev. Carrie Veal, the road to ordination was not as simple.

Churches that are deeply aligned with the Georgia Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention do not allow women in pastoral roles. First Baptist Church in Gainesville, where Veal ministers, is a member of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which allows women to serve in the ministry, including senior leadership roles.

"There have been moments, even before I was on a church staff, where I was just told that I had not heard God's calling all my life because God would not call a woman," said Veal, minister to children and program leader at First Baptist. "I was going to be limited in what I could do because of Scripture that was taken out of context and people deciding that men are the superior beings and they are more called by God than women are."

Veal said at times she feels like she has to prove herself more to her male counterparts.

"I'm fortunate enough to be in a place where I don't feel like I need to constantly prove myself," she said. "I've known females who were fired when a different pastor came in who didn't have the same beliefs as the previous leadership and didn't believe that the woman could do the job, simply because she was a woman, not based on anything about experience or job performance ... solely based on gender."

The Southern Baptist Convention's Faith and Message states, "While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture."

The convention cites biblical passages, including 1 Timothy 2:12-13, as the basis for its stance. The verses in 1 Timothy state "I (Paul) do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve."

On Nov. 11, the convention approved a policy that diminishes the role of churches led by female pastors.

The policy gives the Georgia Baptist Convention the ability to refuse donations from entities out of sync with Southern Baptist beliefs. The only church that currently falls into that category is the 2,700-member First Baptist Church Decatur, led by the Rev. Julie Pennington-Russell.

"Basically, the gist of what we passed was more about who we receive funds for. It was in line with what our national convention already has and other entities," said the Rev. Bucky Kennedy, president of the Georgia Baptist Convention and current pastor of First Baptist Church Vidalia. "It covers a wide range of stuff."

Kennedy mentioned there were a couple cases when land was offered to the convention and it wasn't beneficial.

"We didn't have anything within our grasp to say that we could say no," he said. "Most colleges, institutions and agencies all have something that gives them that ability to do (that)."

Kennedy is the former pastor of Riverbend Baptist Church in Gainesville.

Southern Baptist doctrine states that only men may be head pastors, and J. Robert White, executive director of the convention, said there was talk last year of breaking ties with First Baptist Church Decatur.

Pennington-Russell was out of town and did not attend the convention. She said no one told her those matters would be discussed.

"Georgia Baptists, we are aligned with the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message in regard to women in ministry," Kennedy said. "That's where we are. We don't have a new stance on women in ministry. That's what we've always said in the 1963 and 2000 Baptist Faith and Message.

"I think people will think what they want to think. If you try to predict what people are going to think, you know, that's a rough game to play."

Veal said she takes some issue with the recent policy of the convention.

"Here's a church that has given substantial amounts of money to the convention over the years, and so all of the sudden the convention is saying, ‘You know what, your money is no good to us anymore,.'" Veal said. "One of the fundamental beliefs of Baptists is the autonomy of the local church, so when you decide that you're just going to issue these mandates, then you are totally negating the belief of autonomy of the local church."

Veal, who has met Russell-Pennington said, "Julie is an amazing preacher and one of the nicest people you could ever meet, and so they're targeting her because she is at a major church."

Chicopee UMC's Bennett said women do have a specific role in the church and cited examples of when Jesus empowered women to spread the Gospel.

"Jesus was very open to using women in his ministries from Mary and Martha to the woman at the well," she said "I think of Ruth and Esther and even Jesus' mother Mary.

"He empowered women to go out and speak the word and to tell others who he was, and I believe he did that on purpose. In Matthew he did not say only men, he said everybody needs to be a disciple."

Bennett, who has been in the ministry for seven years, said when reading the Bible we should think of it in a broader context.

"In doing that, looking at what was going on in their social lives, what was going on in civilization, women were seen as lowest of the low in society," she said. "They had no social rights whatsoever. We have come such a long way from that now that I think we have to look at the difference of how we regard women as a whole.

"Sometimes I think we try to bundle things up in a nice, neat package. The world is not a nice neat package. God is not a nice, neat package - God is huge. We have to consider the changes that have taken place today."

Veal added that there are women who serve in most Christian denominations as pastor.

"There are a lot of Episcopalian priests, American Baptists have female ministers and pastors," she said. "It's pretty much just the Southern Baptists."

Both Veal and Bennett agree that women can add a certain element to church leadership, for example, an ability to nurture and be sympathetic in certain circumstances.

"I think sympathetic and empathetic; I think that women can handle emotional crises from both men and women better than most men can," Veal said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.