Johnson, Miriam

Miriam Johnson was a leading theorist in the sociology of sex and gender, and contributed a significant body of work to the study of heterosexual relations (including traditional marriage and parenting) and gender differences and inequalities. She was born in Atlanta, Georgia.

Miriam earned an undergraduate degree in sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she met her future husband, Benton Johnson. In 1948, the two entered Harvard's new graduate program in the Department of Social Relations. Miriam earned her Ph.D. seven years later, with a dissertation on gender roles of Harvard's female undergraduates.

Inspired by the new wave of feminist writing in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Johnson wrote and taught as a professor of sociology at the University of Oregon. ...