Bushman grew up in the Sunset District of San Francisco, where LDS church attendance was a regular part of her family life.
[1][2] Bushman attributed her admittance into the English PhD program to her husband's employment there, although she said that the chairman openly scorned her status as part-time student and housewife.
For the 2007–08 academic year, Bushman was an adjunct professor at Claremont Graduate University while her husband held the Howard W. Hunter chair at that institution.
By the time all the articles were written, England had given up the editorial position to Robert Rees, who believed that polygamy and the priesthood were more important issues for Mormon women than birth control and church service.
[3][6] To celebrate their work on the institute course, Bushman and her group held an Exponent dinner, where Jill Mulvay (Derr) met Maureen U. Beecher, a worker in the church history department under Leonard Arrington.
They gained attention from some influential people in Salt Lake City, and the group of women wrote letters defending their involvement with the magazine, although at this point Bushman had decided to resign from working on Exponent II.
[3] When Claudia Bushman was publishing Exponent II, her husband Richard was a stake president in the LDS church and writing for Dialogue.
From 2008–2011[9] Claremont University appointed Richard Bushman to start a Mormon studies program, and Claudia taught classes as an adjunct professor.
[8] The oral history project created more primary documents for students to study, and the book Mormon Women Have Their Say compiles some of the experiences gathered.
She felt that a woman who chose to be a housewife shouldn't be demeaned: "If some women find themselves in prison at home, others consider it heaven on earth and make it that for their little angels.
"[2]: 116 Bushman found that when she was a part-time student, "school made housework a pleasure," and noted that "there is lots of space between being a devoted stay-at-home mom and being an executive in a Fortune 500 company.
[9] In giving advice to young women, Bushman advises them to choose something reasonable and make it the right thing, rather than zealously pursuing an impossible goal.