Prospectus: Eugenics and the First Wave Feminist Movement
The eugenics movement gained popularity throughout the world in the late 19th century and early 20th century by combining science with nationalism, and a fair bit of elitism. Countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada became concerned about the “degradation” of their citizens through the frequent birth of “unfit” children through genetically inferior parents. This concern, which was often founded and funded by rich caucasian males, became a matter of legislature through the passing of immigration restriction, marriage and sterilization laws. Reaching it’s peak of influence during the decade following 1910, eugenics became “unfashionable” following the publication of the negative eugenics employed by the Nazi party through the sterilization of 300,000-400,000 Jews and the horrors of concentration camps.
While the eugenics movement was reaching its height in the 1910s as was the women’s suffrage movement and other feminist movements under first wave feminism. …show more content…
Michael Willrich asserts that feminist supporters involvement in the eugenics movement is consistent with their support for a class-based program of social control (Ziegler 212). Disagreeing Linda Gordon claims that feminist reformers who supported eugenics slowly abandoned their interest in social issues of women and later supported purely eugenic reforms (Ziegler 212). Other historians believe that feminists conformed to a popular and dominant cultural trend in order to protect their own interests while others believe their eugenics involvement was due to personal based racism (Ziegler 213). These issues of historiography are also found in most key figures of the feminist movement, such as Margaret Sanger, where the degree to which eugenics was a part of her legal agenda differs greatly upon the interpretation (Ziegler
The eugenics movement gained popularity throughout the world in the late 19th century and early 20th century by combining science with nationalism, and a fair bit of elitism. Countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada became concerned about the “degradation” of their citizens through the frequent birth of “unfit” children through genetically inferior parents. This concern, which was often founded and funded by rich caucasian males, became a matter of legislature through the passing of immigration restriction, marriage and sterilization laws. Reaching it’s peak of influence during the decade following 1910, eugenics became “unfashionable” following the publication of the negative eugenics employed by the Nazi party through the sterilization of 300,000-400,000 Jews and the horrors of concentration camps.
While the eugenics movement was reaching its height in the 1910s as was the women’s suffrage movement and other feminist movements under first wave feminism. …show more content…
Michael Willrich asserts that feminist supporters involvement in the eugenics movement is consistent with their support for a class-based program of social control (Ziegler 212). Disagreeing Linda Gordon claims that feminist reformers who supported eugenics slowly abandoned their interest in social issues of women and later supported purely eugenic reforms (Ziegler 212). Other historians believe that feminists conformed to a popular and dominant cultural trend in order to protect their own interests while others believe their eugenics involvement was due to personal based racism (Ziegler 213). These issues of historiography are also found in most key figures of the feminist movement, such as Margaret Sanger, where the degree to which eugenics was a part of her legal agenda differs greatly upon the interpretation (Ziegler