Mormon women led by Claudia Bushman started the Exponent II organization in Boston while her husband Richard Bushman was stake president. Claudia caused waves when she spoke about Mormon feminism and black priesthood ordination in the 1970s before the Equal Rights Amendment & black ordination became bigger issues in the LDS Church. Salt Lake City sent an apostle to shut down the organization. Award winning authors Katie Rich & Heather Sundahl detail these early days of Exponent II in their history of 50 years in the organization. Check out our conversation…

https://youtu.be/CGUWDGlv87I

0:00 Meet the Authors
5:06 Living History
19:46 Bushmans in Boston

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Award-winning authors Katie Rich and Heather Sundal chronicled the five-decade history of the organization in their book, 50 Years of Exponent II. The story began in July 1974, when a group of LDS women in Boston felt inspired to create a new platform for women’s voices. This inspiration was sparked by the discovery of the original Woman’s Exponent (1872–1914) in Harvard’s Widener Library—a suffragist paper that showcased the complex lives of early Mormon women who balanced faith with activism.

The organization grew out of a successful community project: a guidebook titled Beginners’ Boston. While the local Elders Quorum dismissed the guidebook as a “stinker of an idea,” the Relief Society took it on, eventually selling 23,000 copies! This success provided the women with both the confidence and the funds to launch a more ambitious project: Exponent II. The timing was critical, as the official Relief Society Magazine had been shuttered in 1970 due to the church’s correlation movement, leaving women without an official outlet for their unique perspectives.

However, the publication quickly faced tension with Church leadership in Salt Lake City. In 1975, Area Authority Robert D. Hales met with founder Claudia Bushman, specifically requesting that the paper cease publication because he believed it would “come to no good”. Leadership was particularly concerned about the paper’s hand-drawn art, which they felt looked “subversive,” and Claudia’s public comments in the Boston Globe regarding racial policies in the Church. Later, Apostle L. Tom Perry met with the staff, strongly suggesting they shut down and explicitly stating that Claudia Bushman must resign as editor to avoid the appearance that the paper was an official church publication, given that her husband, Richard Bushman, was the Stake President.

Despite these pressures, the women chose to continue, prioritizing community over ideological purity. When Claudia Bushman eventually resigned, the organization avoided collapse by shifting from a model based on a charismatic leader to a collective, decentralized effort. By focusing on personal narratives rather than a “one-size-fits-all” perspective, Exponent II has remained a vital lifeline for women seeking to explore the complexities of their lives and faith for over fifty years.

Don’t miss our other conversations with Mormon feminism: https://gospeltangents.com/lds_theology/feminism/

Copyright © 2025

Gospel Tangents

All Rights Reserved

Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission