JOHNSON-MASTERS, Virginia

Born 11 February 1925, Springfield, Missouri

Daughter of Harry Hershel and Edna Evans Eshelman; married George Johnson, 1950 (divorced 1956); William H. Masters, 1971 (divorced 1993); children: Scott, Lisa

Virginia Johnson-Masters, scientist and psychologist, contributed to the study of human sexuality in her work and writings with William H. Masters. Johnson-Masters began working with William H. Masters as a research assistant in 1957. They became the team known as Masters and Johnson, who pioneered the development of research methods, treatment of sexual dysfunctions, training of therapists, treatment of sexual offenders, and textbooks. Using a behavioral science approach, they defined human sexuality by extending knowledge about the physiology and psychology of sexual function. They cofounded the Masters Johnson Institute in 1970.

Educated in music, Johnson-Masters studied at Drury College in Springfield, Missouri, from 1940 to 1942 and the University of Missouri in Columbia from 1944 to 1946. She continued with graduate study in voice directed toward operatic singing at Washington University in St. Louis from 1964 to 1965. Following her studies, she worked for the St. Louis Daily Record as an administrative assistant and editorial writer, and for radio station KMOX in St. Louis in the advertising department.

Though she had no formal training whatsoever, from her position as a research assistant for Masters in reproductive biology in the obstetrics and gynecology department at the Washington University School of Medicine, she advanced to research instructor and lecturer. She held the positions of research associate, then assistant director when the Reproductive Biology Research Foundation was established in 1964. The Foundation became the Masters and Johnson Institute, with her as cofounder. She was codirector, then director and president, and then cochairman of the Board of Directors until 1994. Since 1983 she has been the president of MVM Enterprises, Inc., a video production company.

As a scientist, she received two honorary Doctor of Science degrees from the University of Louisville in 1978 and the University of Rochester in 1987 and several awards, including the Paul H. Hoch award from the American Psychopathological Society in 1971; the SIECUS Citation award in 1971; the Distinguished Service award from the American Association of Marriage and Family Counselors in 1976; the Modern Medicine Award for Distinguished Achievement in 1977; the Biomedical Research award from the World Association of Sexology in 1979; she was named one of the Twenty-Five Most Influential Women in the American World Almanac for 1975, 1978, 1979, and 1980; and a Paul Harris Fellow from Rotary International in 1976.

As coauthor with Masters, Johnson-Masters wrote the major textbooks in the study of human sexuality. Based on research in behavioral science and psychology, Human Sexual Response (1966) describes the sexual response cycle of men and women during intercourse and masturbation. A bestseller, the book took its place alongside the works of Sigmund Freud, Havelock Ellis, and Alfred Kinsey in its breakthrough in understanding human sexuality and in securing its study as a distinct discipline. Their next book, Human Sexual Inadequacy (1970), launched the field of sex therapy.

Their later research and publications focused on the role of love and commitment, homosexuality, ethical issues, safe sex, AIDS, addictions, and aging. Although their work has received criticism for its masculinist bias, their influence in view of the presently extensive field of sexual research, therapy, and advice is evident in a remark by Johnson-Masters in a 1994 interview about their teamwork: "We are like Kleenex to tissue."

Other Works:

Coauthored with William H. Masters and others: The Pleasure Bond: A New Look at Sexuality and Commitment (1975); Ethical Issues in Sex Therapy and Research, Volume 1

(1977); Homosexuality in Perspective (1979); Textbook of Sexual Medicine (1979); Ethical Issues in Sex Therapy and Research, Volume 2 (1980); Crisis: Heterosexual Behavior in the Age of AIDS (1988); Heterosexuality (1994).

Bibliography:

Bullough, V. L., Science in the Bedroom (1994). Fisher, W., and Azy Barak, "Bias and Fairness in the Diagnosis of Primary Orgasmic Dysfunction in Women," in American Psychologis 44 (July 1989). Irvine, J. M., "From Difference to Sameness: Gender Ideology in Sexual Science, in Journal of Sex Research 27 (Feb. 1990). Schwartz, M. F., "The Masters and Johnson Treatment Program for Sex Offenders: Intimacy, Empathy and Trauma Resolution," in Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity 1 (1994). Tiefer, L., "Historical, Scientific, Clinical, and Feminist Criticisms of 'the Human Sexual Response Cycle' Model," in Annual Review of Sex Research 2 (1991).

Reference works:

Complete Marquis Who's Who Biographies (1995). NYT (24 Mar. 1994). Virginia Johnson-Masters Web Page (1999).

—KAREN J. MCLENNAN