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Johnson, Sonia

Sonia Johnson is an American feminist activist, author, and speaker. Born February 27, 1938, Johnson was raised in Logan, Utah, by a religiously conservative family who belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She practiced Mormonism until she was excommunicated from the church in 1979 for her public feminist positions. Since that time, Johnson has developed a self-reflective, personal feminist philosophy that has as its focus as women and their experiences, rather than patriarchy and male experiences.

Johnson earned a B.A. in English from the Utah State University, and her M.A. and Ed.D. degrees from Rutgers University. She married soon after completing her undergraduate degree, and she and her husband had four children together. Johnson and her husband were both employed as teachers in various positions in locations that included California, Malaysia, and Virginia.

A Time of Reinvention

Soon after the family settled in Virginia, Johnson became interested in feminist politics. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was publically opposed to the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)-a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would ensure equality between men and women-but Johnson supported the amendment. She marched in a public rally for the ERA in Washington in July 1978 under a banner that read “Mormons for the ERA,” which received attention when she was invited to speak at a Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights as a female representative of Mormon supporters. She continued a period of activism over the next several months that included public speeches and demonstrations, along with negotiation with members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but she was ultimately excommunicated in 1979 for her public support of the ERA.

This experience, followed by a divorce from her husband, is described by Johnson as a time of reinvention for her, in which she reconsidered her previously held beliefs and interpretations. She began using methods of civil disobedience, including chaining herself to the Republican National Headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 1980 to protest their removal of the ERA from the presidential platform. She also participated in a hunger fast to support the ERA that involved sitting in the Illinois Legislature wearing purple banners to draw attention to the struggle for equal rights. Although Illinois ultimately failed to ratify the amendment, Johnson was well known for her activism by the end of this time.

Government Discontent

In 1981, Johnson published her first book, From Housewife to Heretic, which was an autobiography of her development as a feminist activist. She would go on to publish five additional books including Going Out of Our Minds: The Metaphysics of Liberation (1987), in which she details her discontent with government as a patriarchal force, and The Ship That Sailed Into the Living Room: Sex and Intimacy Reconsidered (1991), in which she redefines relationships outside of the lens of patriarchy. She ran for president in 1984 as a candidate for the Citizens Party, although she garnered little media notice in this move. She continues to refine her feminist philosophies to focus on women and a women-centered world, and she has adopted a stance that does not include nor consider men or patriarchal constraints. Although Johnson identifies with lesbianism, her later writings suggest a move away from any limitations in her definition of relationships, which is an extension of her move away from institutions she sees as constructed by patriarchy.

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