Group 1: Women and Eugenics

(taken from http://www.fashion-era.com/images/Victorians/swimearlyvics400new.jpg)

Authored by: Ryne J. Cantwell and Kali A. Enyeart

Published: 2007

For many, eugenics, “the study of hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled selective breeding,” is a science of evil, led by racists and fueled by discrimination (McPhail). However, when this science is placed within the contexts of its time, it proves to be a significant catalyst for the nineteenth-century women’s movement, a time when women began to break away from the conventional Victorian ideals of a woman and redefine themselves through a new and modern perspective. By providing women with ideological support to strengthen their desires, supplying them with empowering opportunities to improve themselves, and playing an important role in the Birth-Control Movement, eugenics significantly helped women not only further their movement, but also free themselves from the confines of the Victorian era’s repressive expectations of a woman and her roles.

Eugenics: A Catalyst for the Social Uprising and Sexual Liberation of Victorian Women

The Changing Role of a Woman During the Victorian Era

(taken from http://www.antiquebottles.com/rl/tc/DiamondWomen.jpg)

During the Victorian Era, the role of a woman was one of powerlessness and confinement. Women were considered inferior to men and were expected to accept their subordinate places to men in the sexual hierarchy.

From birth, women were taught to be passive and submissive. They were taught to obey their fathers and to engage themselves solely in activities that made them more attractive marriage candidates. As Betty Friedan reveals in The Feminine Mystique, because many parents and a number of educators felt that “girls could not use as housewives” the education they would receive from formal schooling, many girls were not enrolled in school (23). Thus, during this time, few women received formal educations.

In addition to education, women were also discouraged from entering the public sphere. Victorian society defined a woman’s role as one that revolved around the domestic sphere of the home and family. As a result, Victorian women seldom went out by themselves and rarely sought employment outside of the home. Yet, as the Victorian Era progressed, women became more and more anxious to break free from these conventional ideals. Specifically, women yearned to better themselves both academically and financially as well as gain entrance into the public sphere.

Interestingly, through eugenics, many women found the ideological support necessary to make this transition.

Eugenics Gives Women the Ideological Support They Need

(taken from http://www.blonnet.com/life/2004/02/09/images/2004020900190401.jpg)

1. Education

During this time, many eugenicists argued for the education of women. They felt that, in order to create a eugenically sound society, women must receive a formal education. For instance, in a speech, entitled “The Regeneration of Society,” Lillian Harman points out that many eugenicists felt that if “a girl were brought up with any rational knowledge of herself and of the pains and perils as well as the pleasures of maternity, the dangers of indiscriminate procreation in her case would be reduced to a minimum.” Similarly, Helen Gardener notes in her work, Pulpit, Pew, and Cradle, that many eugenicists claimed that as “no man c[ould] give…brains to his children if their mother is the victim of superstition and priestcraft,” practices common to uneducated women (2).

2. Freeing Women from the Confines of Motherhood

For centuries, motherhood has been regarded as a burden to women. It has prevented women from attaining an education as well as seeking a job outside the home. However, through eugenics, women found ideological support to overcome this burden. As Linda Gordon notes in her work, The Moral Property of Women, eugenicists encouraged women to make motherhood voluntary. Citing Moses Harman, a leading early eugenist, Gordon reveals that many eugenists tried to persuade women to decrease the number of births because it decreased the number of degenerate offspring (81). Though their purpose was somewhat self-serving, by encouraging fewer births, eugenists indirectly opened the door for women to pursue other avenues. Without having to care for many children, for instance, women would have more time on their hands to engage in other activities, including education and work.

3. Power, Equality, and Freedom

Eugenics also indirectly promoted women’s attainment of power and equality. For instance, by encouraging fewer births, eugenics encouraged women to take control over their sex lives. In his work, In the Name of Eugenics, Daniel J. Kevles writes: “[Eugenics] encouraged women to take greater control over their…sex and, in consequence, over the frequency with which they would bear children….[This] would promote the eugenic interest of the race” (65). By placing the sexual control in their hands, women became the decisions makers and, therefore, attained powers over their male counterparts. Thus, through this ideology, women began to escape the state of powerlessness that many women experienced in their patriarchal societies.

Similarly, many eugenicists also stressed the importance of gender equality. As Kevles further reveals, Karl Pearson, one of the founders of eugenics, was highly concerned with women’s unequal status. Inspired by his own mother’s misery, Kevles states that Pearson advocated not only for the improvement of women’s status, but also for their freedom from the repressive hierarchy implemented by male-dominated societies. In order to reach out to women, Pearson founded the Men and Women’s Club in 1885. Here the club discussed a range of topics, including women’s economic and intellectual opportunities (24).