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…

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.

Claudia Bushman

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.

Ordain Women & Equal Rights Amendment were part of the sometimes turbulent history of Exponent II during the late 20th century and its evolution into the digital age. The discussion centers on the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and how it marked a “watershed moment” for Mormon feminism. While many LDS women initially supported the ERA, the Church’s stance shifted after Phyllis Schlafly convinced leadership that the amendment was a threat to the family. This led to a massive, coordinated effort where the church deployed 13,000 women to the 1977 International Women’s Year meeting in Salt Lake City to vote against nearly every proposal, including protections for victims of rape and childhood education.

A central figure in this era was Sonia Johnson, a “firebrand” who founded Mormons for ERA and publicly challenged the church’s covert lobbying efforts. Her excommunication in 1979 was particularly shocking because it was based on her political activism and public reach rather than moral failings. The authors note that the Church often distinguishes between private belief and public dissent; while many shared Sonia’s views, her large platform made her a target for disciplinary action.

The conversation also highlights how Exponent II has navigated these tensions by prioritizing “community over ideological purity”. Unlike more direct activist groups like Ordained Women, Exponent II provides a platform for a wide spectrum of voices, from those seeking ordination to those who find power in traditional roles. This is exemplified in their “priesthood issue,” which contrasted the experiences of women who felt marginalized by their inability to give blessings with those who, like Diane Pritchette, believe women already possess inherent spiritual power. The authors conclude by discussing the historical precedent of Mormon women giving blessings by the laying on of hands—a practice that was common until the 1930s and continues in private settings today, despite official discouragement.

We highlighted the distinction between direct activist movements and the platform-based approach of Exponent II. While the two share common threads, Exponent 2 remaines a space for diverse perspectives rather than an organization that took an official stance on the ordination of women.

The authors describe Ordain Women as a movement focused on direct activism, whereas Exponent II is a feminist platform that hosts a “Mormon continuum” of voices, including those who are active, inactive, ex-Mormon, or never Mormon. Many early profiles for the Ordain Women movement, which utilized a style similar to the “I’m a Mormon” campaign, were actually Exponent II bloggers.

Kate Kelly, the founder of Ordain Women, participated in Exponent II retreats. She was featured on a panel that specifically discussed women and the priesthood, showcasing how the organization fostered dialogue on controversial topics without mandating a “universal stance”.

A specific quarterly issue of the Exponent 2 magazine was dedicated to the priesthood to explore the topic’s complexity. This issue highlighted two contrasting viewpoints:

◦ Abby Hansen, a member of Ordain Women, shared the pain of feeling disconnected from spiritual power, specifically the difficulty of needing to seek blessings from “random” home teachers while her husband was away in the military.

◦ A Relief Society president in Boston, recounted an instance where she laid her hands on a woman’s head to give a blessing during a crisis, operating under the belief that women already possess inherent spiritual power and do not need to “agitate” for others to give it to them.

The desire for ordination is often linked to the lost history of Mormon women giving blessings. Women historically performed healings by the laying on of hands until the 1930s, as mentioned by Jonathan Stapley and Kristine Wright. The practice still occurs in private, “unauthorized” settings today among both feminists and traditionalists who feel a spiritual confidence to act in moments of crisis.

The most shocking part of Exponent II‘s history is the organization’s “FBI embezzlement story.” In 2017, the board discovered that a trusted treasurer and close friend had embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars over a six-year period. The theft was hidden because the money—often retreat deposits and subscription fees—was occasionally covered privately by the treasurer’s family to prevent the retreat centers from reporting non-payment. The discovery led to a federal investigation, and the treasurer eventually served 17 months in federal prison. This crisis forced Exponent II to professionalize its operations, moving away from a purely trust-based system to one utilizing outside auditors, forensic accounting, and transparent financial reporting.

Exponent II, the organization has evolved from its 1970s roots into a modern, inclusive platform that now explicitly welcomes trans and non-binary individuals, as well as other gender minorities marginalized within the LDS Church. The authors highlight how their new book acts as an anthology, curating thousands of blog posts and magazine issues to show the organization’s growth from a focus on traditional feminism to a broader “Mormon continuum” of belief and identity.

The authors also highlights the literary heart of the organization through specific essays:

  • Lavina Fielding Anderson: An essay on “spiritual autobiography” that challenges the idea that women must always subsume their desires, instead arguing that seeking personal joy is a spiritually healthy and “radical” pursuit.
  • Laurel Thatcher Ulrich: A 1981 piece describing the grueling balance of being a mother of five and a doctoral candidate, famously noting that “well-behaved women seldom make history”.

Despite the financial betrayal, the authors emphasize that the community’s response was one of overwhelming generosity. From Laurel Thatcher Ulrich offering immediate financial help to the journal Dialogue paying Exponent II a $10,000 guest-editing fee, the organization’s survival proved that its “baby” was too important to the Mormon feminist community to let fail.

What are your memories of Exponent II?