Johnson, Miriam

Influential Works

Johnson's pivotal book, Strong Mothers, Weak Wives: The Search for Gender Equality (1988), contrasts the power women have in motherhood with the power that is denied them in marriage, and explores the way that male dominance is maintained by the institution of marriage. Johnson posited that marriage, and the traditional constructions of parenting, are structured from a male-dominant vantage point that treats women as juveniles. In her book, she also responds to a number of claims within feminism—denying, for instance, the school of thought that treats motherhood and female sexuality as opposing forces, and in fact ascribes this way of thinking to the influence of patriarchal ideas. Her views somewhat span the chasm in feminism between those who emphasize gender equality and those who promote feminine superiority.

In her survey of various studies, Johnson argues that males (beginning with young children) show more interest in defining, enforcing, and maintaining gender-based distinctions, whether role-oriented (men are firefighters), language-oriented (female actors are actresses), or ability-oriented (boys are good at sports). She looks at three specific structures of behavior to explore her argument: children's play; the institution of marriage, and the way it transfers power from the wife and children to the husband; and motherhood, where women enjoy power, albeit power that is delegated from the father and perpetuates the cycle of male dominance by raising boys who grow up to perceive women in a subjugated role.

Johnson argues that male-dominated marriages are not inevitable given women's role in bearing and raising children and (in distinction to Chodorow) that male misogyny cannot be ended by men taking a larger role in childcare. Johnson argues that fathers, by treating male and female children differently, prepare them for their adult roles: Women are trained to look up to their husbands as they do their fathers, boys to become the peers of their fathers. Male peer groups also play a role by teaching boys what is properly male and what is not, and while girls resist deferring to boys in childhood, they give in due to social pressures by their late teenage years and accept male-dominated marriage as normal.

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