Gendering the Nation Online Museum Exhibit
Created by the class of HIST 465 (Topics in Women's History) 2015-16
Queens University, Canada
The Link Between Eugenics and Feminism in Alberta's Early 20th Century
Eugenics in Alberta was used as a platform for feminists during the early 20th century to express women’s social and political ideas to the public without repercussion. Unfortunately, some feminists supported negative eugenics, which refers specifically to the “breeding out of certain characteristics in the population”. Women embraced this ideology because they were not only fighting to be considered as vital to society for their childbearing capacities, but they also wanted to be noticed for their moral education and reform in Alberta. Without the vote, women were not considered full citizens; therefore, they were extremely active in the eugenics movement to ensure “positive results” for the next generation. In a way, eugenics allowed feminism to create a niche for itself. From this, maternal feminism became an appropriate reason for feminists to voice their opinions on eugenics across the province.
These feminists were considered progressive at the time and believed that they could improve society by restricting fertility amongst certain groups of people, and promoting fertility to others. Through community groups and campaigns, these women promoted negative eugenics and the practice of compulsory sterilization. Alberta passed the Sexual Sterilization Act in 1928, which created eugenics programs across the province. In 1937, Alberta amended its Sexual Sterilization Act to remove the need for informed consent. This allowed the Eugenics Board the ability to perform legal sterilization of subjects who were considered feebleminded. In 1942, Alberta changed its law again (with the support of the public), and move the eugenics program outside of institutions. As a result, more individuals were identified and sterilized “in the community, at schools, and through health visits”. Through time, support for eugenics from feminists in Alberta created a divide in public opinion about how much power individuals should have over others’ health.
Oral History of Leilani O’Malley, 2015
Leilani O’Malley is the only woman to date who has successfully sued the Alberta government for wrongful sterilization. She received $740,000 in damages for the pain and suffering she experienced during and after her sterilization. O’Malley explains in the interview that she was a teenager when she was allowed to leave an institution in Alberta, however; her doctor explained that she needed to get her appendix removed before she left. Years later, O’Malley arranged to see Dr. Goodwin to explore why she was having trouble getting pregnant. Dr. Goodwin explained that her fallopian tubes had been removed and she would never be able to have children. A few years later, her attempt at an adoption also fell through because she had been in an institution in the past. Now, she shares her story as a way to preserve her history and ensure negative eugenics and sterilization remains in the past.
Leilani Muir. Performed by Leilani Muir. University of Alberta Living Archives Project, 2015. Film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5Lp9Ga3HY4
Leilani Muir. Performed by Leilani Muir. University of Alberta Living Archives Project, 2015. Film.
Uniting Feminism and Negative Eugenics
Women have played a large role in both the eugenics and feminist movements. Many women’s organizations, including the United Farm Women of Alberta and the National Council of Women of Canada, embraced eugenics, in the first half of the twentieth century. They would often be seen advocating for child health and welfare programs that would improve the human race, while also fighting for increased validation from their male peers. Feminists claimed that the legalization of birth control would “result in superior offspring and racial betterment”. In order to “protect future children”, some feminist organizations supported the sterilization of potential parents they considered unfit. Feminists also supported eugenics because it acted as a way for the women’s voices to be heard in society. By advocating for certain issues, the women assisted with persuading the government to pass legislation that supported negative eugenics.
The Sexual Sterilization Act of Alberta, 1928
On March 21, 1928 the Legislative Assembly of Alberta passed The Sexual Sterilization Act that was directed at individuals in institutions who had been labelled as having undesirable traits, to act as an aid to negative eugenics. This document was separated into four parts, authorizing conditions and procedures for sexual sterilization. First, it created a Eugenics Board with the purpose of making decisions about sterilization candidates. It then specified who the ideal sterilization candidates were. Most often inmates who were considered well enough to be released from their institution were chosen for sterilization. Next, it outlined the conditions required for sterilization; so the individual must have been at risk of having a child with a disability. Finally, it specifies that physicians and surgeons cannot be held liable for the surgeries. This document negatively affected thousands of people in Alberta for a long period of time, and unfortunately was seen as a victory for many feminists in Alberta who supported the legislation. The Sexual Sterilization Act of Statutes of the Province of Alberta 1928. The Alberta Law Collection.
http://www.ourfutureourpast.ca/law/page.aspx?id=2906151. Original Act.
Photo of United Farm Women of Alberta Board, 1920
From 1919 to 1928, women were welcome to join and participate in the United Farm Women of Alberta (UFWA). The mandate of the board was to: provide for farm women a social centre where she may meet her neighbours and enjoy an exchange of ideas in matters of interest. With three committees by 1916 (health, education, and social welfare), and a majority government by 1921, it was no surprise when the women began writing official legislation relating to public health. In one speech by the UFWA, the president Marion Sears declared that “the race will be extinct in two hundred years if the ill health in rural Alberta is not dealt with”. By sharing proposed solutions for the “increase of mental defectives” and recommending sterilization of people deemed “mentally deficient”, the UFWA went on to be large supporters for the Sexual Sterilization Act in 1928.
Photo Retrieved from: United Farm Women of Alberta Board (c. 1920). Glenbow Archives (NA-402-2). Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
A Photo of a Eugenics Poster Supporting Selective Breeding, 1926
This poster, (although from America) is an example of propaganda that could have been seen in Alberta during the eugenics movement. The poster is advocating for the removal of individuals who were different or labelled “feeble-minded”. The words on this poster show what a profound impact that language could have on people. Not only did language affect the way those who were mentally handicapped looked at themselves, it also impacted the way people treated those who were mentally handicapped. Many sterilization victims were overlooked by authority figures in society and had to face posters like this every day. By leaving up posters like this, middle-class people encouraged those in power to create a system where they could decide who entered the institutions and what would happen to the patients afterwards.
Steven Selden's "Transforming Better Babies Into Fitter Families" (2005, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 149).
A Photo of a Eugenics Poster Supporting Selective Breeding, 1926
This poster, (although from America) is an example of propaganda that could have been seen in Alberta during the eugenics movement. The poster is advocating for the removal of individuals who were different or labelled “feeble-minded”. The words on this poster show what a profound impact that language could have on people. Not only did language affect the way those who were mentally handicapped looked at themselves, it also impacted the way people treated those who were mentally handicapped. Many sterilization victims were overlooked by authority figures in society and had to face posters like this every day. By leaving up posters like this, middle-class people encouraged those in power to create a system where they could decide who entered the institutions and what would happen to the patients afterwards.
Steven Selden's "Transforming Better Babies Into Fitter Families" (2005, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 149).
Leaders of the Future Race
Motherhood has always been central to eugenics because women are, and have been, primarily responsible for the bearing and rearing of children. Since eugenics aims to improve the quality of the human population through “better” breeding and reproduction, motherhood had an unfortunate but direct link to the cause. Specifically in the early 20th century, women began to tackle more social and political issues that would “better society” such as “poverty, crime, health, immigration, and temperance”. The need to “better” ones race lead to women promoting eugenic ideas such as pregnancy and parenting. In the early 20th century, new developments in science and medical technology distorted vague knowledge about health and normality into “coercive social policies”.
Jon Faulds. Performed by Jon Faulds. University of Alberta Living Archives Project, 2015. Film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_fFiB-peQc
"[...] to bring children into the world, suffering from the handicaps caused by ignorance, poverty, or criminality of the parents, is an appalling crime against the innocent and hopeless, and yet one about which practically nothing is said. Marriage, homemaking, and the rearing of children are left entirely to chance, and so it is no wonder that humanity produces so many specimines who, if they were silk stockings or boots, would be marked “seconds”.
Nellie McClung
McClung, N. L. (1915). In Times Like These. Toronto: McLeod and Allen.
Interview with Jon Faulds, 2015
Jon Faulds is a lawyer in Alberta who specializes in defending clients who have been violated by the province of Alberta on a civil or constitutional level. Fauld worked for and assisted Leilani O’Malley in winning her suit against Alberta for wrongful sterilization in 1996. In his interview, he talks about reading a set of the minutes from an Alberta Eugenics Board meeting. Fauld remarks that “evil things happen” as the people in power make unacceptable things become acceptable because they themselves are not affected. In the minutes the Board talked about patients that were seen, expense honoraria, and where the next meeting as if they were not dealing with human lives. These Board members were making life changing decisions that were causing immense damage to people’s lives because they had power from either their job or community status without even realizing the harsh consequences.
Postcard of Provincial Mental Hospital, Ponoka, Alberta
This photograph was originally a postcard of the primary mental care facility in the province of Alberta. The Ponoka Mental Hospital, also known as Alberta Hospital for the Insane, was founded in 1911, and was Alberta’s first mental hospital. The site was deliberately isolated and placed in a rural area away from civilization for the benefit of the patients, as well as to remove any concern from mothers who wanted the NIMBY experience. Medical professionals at the time advised fresh air and immersion in nature as remedies for those with mental disabilities. The hospital was completely self-sustaining using gardens to supply its own food. This was the major centre in Alberta where the Eugenics Board enforced Sexual Sterilization. The institution still stands and continues to run as an educational facility today.
Provincial Mental Hospital, Ponoka, Alberta. Canada. 1912. Peel's Prairie Provinces. http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/postcards/PC012401.html. Postcard.
"What's really striking is that the people carrying out these acts were not thugs. They were respected, even well-intentioned, members of society and the medical establishment […] It shows how power can be abused.”
–Allan Garber
Honore, C. (1998, March 8). “Alberta Faces Suits for Sterilizing Teenagers.” South Florida Sun Sentinal.
A Photo of the Famous Five at a Plaque Unveiling, 1929
In 1929, these women from Alberta were crucial in influencing the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council that women were persons under the law. These women became known as the Famous Five and were: Nellie McClung, Irene Parlby, Emily Murphy, Louise McKinney and Henrietta Muir. The Famous Five were quite progressive, taking on Eugenics as an issue that belonged in the “woman’s sphere”. As mothers and protectors of the generation, these women believed that they were very important to the Anglo-Saxon race. During this period, many individuals were concerned about “race degeneration, low birth rates, increased immigration, and increased births amongst those who were ‘unfit’”. The Famous Five were key in spreading eugenic ideology and campaigning for the implementation of eugenics across the province.
Photo Retrieved from: Library and Archives Canada (online MIKAN no. 3193154. Item no. XA-93. Other accession no. 1971-271 NPC).
A PA photo of The Original Alberta Eugenics Board Members, 1928-1972
The Alberta Eugenics Board was founded in 1928, when the Sexual Sterilization Act was passed. The Act had specific requirements for the Board members, two of which had to be medical practitioners, and two non-medical members who “were appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council, and had to be well-known and of prominent reputation”. Of the original four Board members was Mrs. Jean H. Field (top left), a Health Convener for the United Farm Women of Alberta. The United Farm Women of Alberta was one of the most powerful forces lobbying for sterilization laws and negative eugenics. To carry out sterilizations, the Board had to make a unanimous decision. Previous to the 1937 Amendment to the Sexual Sterilization Act, consent had to come from the patient, the parent, or the guardian. The Amendment however, allowed the Board to authorize sterilizations without consent. When the Board was finally disbanded, the Board saw “4,800 cases of proposed sterilization and approved 4,739 of these”.
Photo Retrieved from: University of Alberta Archives Accession # 81-104-259 (J. MacEachran Collection). Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Eugenics Board Meeting Minutes, 1947
In 1928, the Sexual Sterilization Act established and appointed a four-member Alberta Eugenics Board. Often, the Board reviewed patient’s cases for sterilization without the individual present, and there was little time spent getting to know the patient’s medical history. In an analysis of the full set of Board minutes, it was found that the average time spent discussing a patients case was “slightly less than 10 minutes per person”. In this particular file of the meeting minutes, the Board spent a large majority of the meeting discussing a doctor who had passed away in comparison to their patient’s procedures and their current status. Another thing to note in these minutes is the way the doctors referred to their patients as numbers, and are very concerned about their “travelling expense accounts”.
Eugenics to Newgenics. United Farmers of Alberta:
http://eugenicsnewgenics.com/2014/05/14/eugenics-in-alberta/
Page Created by Claire
Feminism and Positive Eugenics
Many feminist organizations were focused on negative eugenics, but it is important to recognize some women who fought instead for positive eugenics during the early 20th century. Positive eugenics refers to the procreation of fit people rather than the sterilization of those deemed unfit. In the 1940s, parents of children with intellectual disabilities petitioned for educational programs and community services for people with disabilities. Feminist groups, such as the Committee for Abortion Rights and Sterilization Abuse, also fought against coercive sterilization in the 1970s. Positive eugenics, was achieved through law and public policy, such as “the baby bonus, tax policies favouring married couples with children, and legal restrictions on birth control or abortion”. As time went on, the most effective positive eugenics measures aimed to “persuade rather than force”, and focused on: marriage counseling, fitter family contests, TV shows promoting suburban domesticity during the 1950s baby boom, and cautions about professional women’s “biological clock”.