DATE LECTURER 3/5/2013 Aaron Pascal Mauck MA, PhD Internationalism and Health Lecture: productive Health in the Interwar Period
Feb 22, 2016
DATE LECTURER3/5/2013 Aaron Pascal Mauck MA, PhD
Internationalism and Health
Lecture:
Reproductive Health in the Interwar Period
I. Reproductive Health before the War
II. Margaret Sanger and Birth Control
III.Eugenics and Reproduction
IV. WWI and Pronatalism
V. Population Control and Internationalism
Reproductive Health before the WarInterest in Infant Mortality coincidesWith the rise of statistics in the Middle of the nineteenth century. Mortality becomes an index of Progress
Focus centers on maternal behaviorAnd the socioeconomic conditionsEncountered by the infant/child
State & Private Welfare AgenciesStress maternal responsibility
Maternity and childbirth become central objects of Progressive politics, integratingA platform of behavior modification and social change as the means to reducingInfant mortality
Maternal Health goals increasingly align with the Suffrage Movement and otherClaims for women’s independence
Maternal health discourse functions for both the political Left and political Right
Margaret Sanger’s Interest in Birth Control DerivedFrom her experience as a nurse working at theHenry Street Settlement and witnessing the destructive economic and physical effects of Pregnancy.
Birth Control linked to multiple progressive socialcauses: suffrage, socialism, equal pay, and sexual freedom.
Sanger became the most vocal advocate of birth Control, seeking alliances with a wide variety of Movements consistent with this political goal.
By the twenties, the birth control movement becameGlobal in scope, with efforts centered on Europe andThe US, but extending especially to Japan, China,and India.
Sanger increasingly cultivates connections with theEugenics movement, which shares some (thoughnot all) of her goals.
Eugenics & ReproductionThe term “eugenics” and its basic principlesDeveloped by Francis Galton in 1883. RefererredLoosely to the promotion of positive geneticQualities. Linked to the rise of population researchAnd genetics in the late nineteenth century
From the beginning, there was nothing like a Singe eugenics movement, but early advocatesOf eugenics tended to be highly racialist and Concerned with processes of social and Biological degeneration caused by modernity
Many eugenicists advocated selective reproduction as a means of counteringModern trends, either by promoting certain births (pronatalism) or by restricting Births through a variety of social policies, including forced sterilization
Eugenics strove for scientific legitimacy from its inception, but its professionalizationWas limited by a lack of shared scientific foundation or social principles.
Poster from Second International Eugenics Conference, 1921
WWI revolutionizes new anti-personnel techniques aimed at indiscriminate death of military and Non-military alike: aerial bombing,Blockade, forced labor.
Total Casualties from WWI ~ 37 Million. ~17 Million deaths, Including ~ 7 Million Civilian deaths
Many war conscripts show signs of disability, suggesting the need forimproved nutrition/public health
New war realities underscore theImportance of populationManagement as a form ofnational defense
General Eric Ludendorff: “Worse than the losses through the war is the decline in the figure of our population owing to the falling birth rate”
WWI and Pronatalism
WWI and PronatalismFollowing WWI, several nations developStrongly pronatalist policies as a means ofRebuilding their populations.
Pronatalist policies linked to a renewed interestOn nutrition and maternal health as the Foundation of effective population promotion
Opposition to birth control becomes widespreadIn Europe and the United States (“race suicide”),encouraging Sanger and other advocates to reframe their mission in international terms
Increasing alignment takes place betweenBirth control advocates and eugenicists,Largely linked to population control in the Global South and among the dysgenic in the GlobalNorth
Population Control and Internationalism
The Janus-Face of population management:Pronatalism versus antinatalism
Challenges of technology: How to actuallyControl births?
Homegrown eugenics: India, China, & Japan
Challenges of International coordinationAnd cooperation