Mary Lagerway, Western Michigan University
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania
Time: 12:00 p.m.
Place: 2U Conference Room, Room 2019, Claire Fagin Hall
Information: nhistory@nursing.upenn.edu or 215-898-4502
Abstract: Prior to WWII, professional nursing discourse reflected popular views of eugenics in terms of both the positive eugenics of promoting reproduction among the healthy, attractive (often of Northern European descent) middle to upper classes to the negative eugenics which forced sterilization of the "unfit" (who were often poor and uneducated and more recent immigrants). Eugenic themes appear most prevalent in Public Health, psychiatric nursing, and maternal-child health nursing texts. Margaret Sanger's complex support of some of the tenants of eugenics is well known, but the support of other nursing leaders such as Lillian Wald, Mary Breckenridge, and Lavinia Dock is less well understood. This presentation will trace and analyze some of the ways in which U.S. nursing played a seldom-recognized role in the eugenics movement.