Oral history interview with Guion Griffis Johnson, May 17, 1974
Subtitle: interview G-0029-2, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Frederickson, Mary E., interviewer; Southern Oral History Program; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library
Edition: Electronic ed.
Publisher: University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Published: 2006
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; Feminists; Women's rights; Women; Social conditions; Employment; Sex role; Work and family
Other titles: Interview G-0029-2, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Guion Griffis Johnson, May 17, 1974; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Guion Griffis Johnson was born and raised in Texas. She graduated in 1923 from the University of Missouri with a degree in journalism before moving to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with her husband, Guy Johnson. Johnson studied sociology at the University of North Carolina, graduating with her Ph.D. in 1927. While at UNC, both Johnson and her husband worked with the Institute for Research in Social Science. Johnson began to establish her career by studying poor and disadvantaged people in the South and race relations. In this interview, Johnson focuses primarily on her involvement with the women's movement and her efforts to balance work and family. Growing up in a family that had progressive beliefs about race and gender, Johnson was immersed in the women's suffrage movement. Encouraged by her mother to become economically independent, Johnson married a man whom she describes as supportive of her desire to have a career. The Johnsons began their family in the late 1920s; Johnson describes the challenges of balancing family and career during those years. In so doing, she emphasizes the importance of having outside help for childcare and housekeeping and the support of her husband and employers. In addition, Johnson discusses the changing role of women in American society during the twentieth century, focusing on such topics as her involvement in women's voluntary organizations; the impact of advances in birth control and abortion; and the evolving nature of marriage, divorce, and family.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on July 21, 2008).

Interview participants: Guion Johnson, interviewee; Mary Frederickson, interviewer.

Duration: 01:27:39.

This electronic edition is part of the UNC-CH digital library, Documenting the American South.  It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.

Text encoded by Mike Millner.  Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 148.6 kilobytes, 160.5 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series G, Southern women, interview G-0029-2, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Original transcript: 35 p.

Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

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