Johnson, Virginia E. (1925—)

American psychologist and sociologist. Name variations: Virginia Johnson Masters; Virginia E. Johnson-Masters. Born Virginia Eshelman in Springfield, Missouri, on February 11, 1925; daughter of Hershel Eshelman and Edna (Evans) Eshelman; attended Drury College, Springfield, as a music student, 1940–42; attended University of Missouri, 1944–47; attended Washington University, St. Louis, 1964; honorary D.Sc., University of Louisville, 1978; married George Johnson, on June 13, 1950 (divorced, September 1956); married William Howell Masters (a professor of obstetrics and gynecology and author), on January 7, 1971 (divorced 1992); children: (first marriage) Scott Forstall Johnson;Lisa Evans Johnson .

Worked on St. Louis Daily Record (1947–50); worked at radio station KMOX, St. Louis (1950–51); employed with division of reproductive biology, department of obstetrics and gynecology, Washington University School of Medicine (1957–63), research instructor (1962–64); served as research associate, Masters and Johnson Institute (formerly Reproductive Biology Research Foundation), St. Louis (1964–69), assistant director (1969–73), co-director (1973–94); director of the Virginia Johnson Masters Learning Center, St. Louis (starting 1994); served on advisory board, Homosexual Community Counseling Center.

Selected writings, all with William H. Masters except as noted:

Human Sexual Response (1966); Human Sexual Inadequacy (1970); The Pleasure Bond (1975); Homosexuality in Perspective (1979); Textbook of Sexual Medicine (1979); Textbook of Human Sexuality for Nurses (1979); Sex Therapy and Research (Vol. 1, 1977, Vol 2., 1980); (with Robert Kolodny) Crisis: Heterosexual Behavior in the Age of AIDS (1988).

Although she possessed no academic credentials, Virginia Johnson wanted to study sociology; in 1957, she became a research assistant to William Masters, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Together they researched the physiology and psychology of modern sexual behavior, a subject which had begun to receive serious attention only with the first famous "Reports" of Alfred Kinsey in the late 1940s and early 1950s. At the Reproductive Biology Research Foundation in St. Louis, Masters and Johnson compiled information on human sexuality which both documented the sexual revolution of the 1960s and made their names part of the American lexicon. Although their research was sometimes controversial, it also helped to develop new treatments for sexual dysfunction. Johnson and Masters divorced in 1992 and closed their St. Louis institute in 1994. Together, they had published several works based on their research, including Human Sexual Response (1966), Human Sexual Inadequacy (1970), The Pleasure Bond (1975), and Crisis: Heterosexual Behavior in the Age of AIDS (with Robert Kolodny, 1988).

Karina L. Kerr , M.A., Ypsilanti, Michigan