Ellen White herself became a role model and mouthpiece for the women of her time. She encouraged women to make full use of their gifts in both traditional and public roles.
"Women can be instruments of righteousness, rendering holy service. It was Mary that first preached a risen Jesus. . . . If there were twenty women where now there is one, who would make this holy mission (one-to-one ministry) their cherished work, we should see many more converted to the truth. The refining, softening influence of Christian women is needed in the great work of preaching the truth." (Evangelism, 471)
Ellen White appreciated the role of the mother in the education of her children. She saw the family as her first mission field. But as time passed, she became more and more convinced that women had their place in public evangelism. She was also very clear about paying women fair wages for their work.
“We may do a noble work for God if we will. Woman does not know her power for God. . . . There is a higher purpose for woman, a grander destiny. She should develop and cultivate her powers, for God can employ them in the great work of saving souls from eternal ruin.” (Evangelism, 465)
As documented by the SDA Yearbook (from 1883 onward), there were at least 53 women to whom ministerial licenses were granted between 1884 and 1975. Most worked in the US, but others also in Finland, New Zealand, China, and South Africa. 28 of these women were licensed in the 31 years between 1884 and 1915. From then on, fewer ministerial credentials were issued. In the sixty years from 1915 to 1975, there were only twenty-five. And then the church completely stopped giving ministerial licenses to women because the question of ordination came up.
At the time of Ellen White, many women worked in senior church positions. Many of the Conference treasurers were women. Most department heads of the Education Department and the Sabbath School Department were women between 1905 and 1915. Adelia Patten Van Horn (1871-1873), Fredricka House Sisley (1875-1876), and Minerva Jane Loughborough Chapman (1877-1883) were Treasurers of the General Conference. There was even a woman, Flora Plummer, who was elected secretary-general of the Iowa conference in 1897. When the president was called to California in 1900, Plummer served for a while as president of the conference. Flora Plummer was also department head of the Sabbath School Department of the GC (1913-1936). Nobody has held this position for a longer time. However, after the death of Ellen White in 1915 fewer women were appointed to leadership positions.
This is an extract from the Book Tired of Waiting – Women in Church and Society by Hannele Ottschofski, available on amzn.to/3HSyP3e