NEWSWEEK FOCUSES on women in religion, an article prompted by Katherine Schori's election as presiding bishop in the Episcopal Church. I found this telling:

[O]nly two other American women have reached the pinnacle of a religion's organizational chart: Mary Baker Eddy, who founded Christian Science in 1879, and Ellen White, who helped to found the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1863.

I think that pretty much says all that needs to be said about the matter.