Eugenics in the Community: the United Farm Women of Alberta
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EUGENICS IN THE COMMUNITY: THE UNITED FARM WOMEN OF ALBERTA, PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING, TEACHING, SOCIAL WORK, AND SEXUAL STERILIZATION IN ALBERTA, 1928-1972 A Thesis Submitted to the College of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the Department of History University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon By AMY SAMSON © Amy Samson, December 2014. All rights reserved. PERMISSION TO USE In presenting this thesis/dissertation in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Postgraduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of this University may make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying of this dissertation in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor or professors who supervised my dissertation work or, in their absence, by the Head of the Department or the Dean of the College in which my thesis work was done. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this dissertation or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my dissertation. Requests for permission to copy or to make other uses of materials in this thesis/dissertation in whole or part should be addressed to: Head of the Department of History Room 522, Arts 9 Campus Drive University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A5 Canada OR Dean College of Graduate Studies and Research University of Saskatchewan 107 Administration Place Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A2 Canada i ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the historical relationship between eugenics, the United Farm Women of Alberta (UFWA), and the gendered professions of teaching, public health nursing, and social work in Alberta. In the wake of the Leilani Muir trial, scholarship on Alberta’s Sexual Sterilization Act (1928-1972) has tended to centre on male medical professionals, and the largely male run provincial psychiatric institutions. When a female is mentioned she tends to be someone in a position of power, including members of the Famous Five whose feminism and support for eugenic thought have often been viewed as incompatible. The historiography has consequently constructed an image in which male medical professionals, and a few exceptional women controlled the reproductive rights of largely female patients, overlooking the women that served on the program’s frontlines. By recasting the province’s eugenic sterilization program within a broader public health framework, and focusing on the UFWA, teachers, public health nurses and social workers, this dissertation not only provides a more comprehensive understanding of how the legislation functioned at the ground level, but also challenges prevailing ideas about maternalism, feminism, women’s professional work, and eugenics in Canada. It offers an alternative reading of eugenics in Canada by moving beyond formal institutions to the significant role played by gendered political organizations and health, welfare, and education professionals in the community. The Canadian mental hygiene and eugenics movements, which were fundamentally connected, provided them with an opportunity to maintain and extend their authority, and to meet their political and professional goals. The gendered, classed, and ethnic stereotypes that defined public nursing, teaching, and social work allowed them to define a niche for themselves within the eugenics program, but also limited the extent to which they operated as authorities of mental hygiene and eugenic science. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to my supervisor, Erika Dyck, for your support throughout this project. I could not have asked for a more insightful, inspiring, and generous mentor. I feel incredibly privileged to have been able to learn from you over the last 6 years. I am grateful for the assistance and expertise of my committee members, Valerie Korinek, Simonne Horwitz, and Harley Dickinson, and my external examiner Geertje Boschma. Your thoughtful comments and questions have been incredibly helpful, and will continue to influence how I conceptualize the history of eugenics, feminism, and professionalization moving forward. A special thank you to Geoffrey Hudson for your support over the last decade, for encouraging me to purse graduate studies, and for connecting me with Erika. I feel tremendously fortunate that I enrolled in your fourth year disability history course. Thank you also to Nadine Penner, and Linda Dietz for your administrative support, Kristin Burnett, Jayne Elliott, and Cynthia Toman for providing comments on an early version of Chapter four, Molly Ladd-Taylor for your encouragement and guidance, and to Harvey Krahn for your helpful suggestions as I prepared for my defense. I also wish to thank Maggie Shane at the Alberta Teachers Association Archives, Raymond Frogner, formerly of the University of Alberta Archives, and the staff at the Red Deer and District Archives, Fort Ostell Museum, Glenbow Museum and Archives, Galt Museum & Archives, and the College & Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta Museum and Archives for your help locating and suggesting sources. I am grateful for the financial assistance provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Marta Danylewycz Memorial Fund administered by the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW), the Department of History at the University of Saskatchewan, and the Community University Research Alliance (CURA), and later SSHRC-funded Living Archives on the History of Eugenics in Western Canada project. I have been involved in the Living Archives project run by Rob Wilson and Moyra Lang at the University of Alberta since 2009. Through this project I have had the privilege of connecting with, and learning from sterilization survivors, disability rights organizations, and a wide range of students and scholars. It has shaped the way that I iii approach the history of eugenics, disability, and reproductive rights, and has provided me with a framework for thinking about community-engaged research. I will be forever grateful for the many learning opportunities that I received from this project. I was fortunate to be in a PhD cohort with six incredibly intelligent and amazing women, many of whom are now my dearest friends. Omeasoo Wāhpāsiw, Elizabeth Scott, and Leslie Baker thank you for the amazing conversations, laughter, dancing, and much needed retail therapy. Rod and Betty Todd, thank you for welcoming me into your family, and for your encouragement and generosity. Matthew Todd, thank you for everything. Thomas Synnott, I am grateful for your infectious love of history, your generosity, unwavering support, and your genuine interest in my academic pursuits. Finally, thank you to Audrey Norris, Lori, Randy, Joseph, Johanna, Henry, Robert, David, and Denise Samson for being my cheerleaders. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS PERMISSION TO USE …...…………………………………………………………… i ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………………………. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……………………………………………………..……. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ……………………………………………………………… v INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………………... 1 CHAPTER ONE Legislating Eugenics: the Alberta Sexual Sterilization Act, 1928-1972 ………………. 29 CHAPTER TWO Politics of Women’s Bodies: the United Farm Women of Alberta, Public Health, and Eugenics …………………………………………………………………………………65 CHAPTER THREE “A teacher knows what pupils are bright and what pupils are dull”: School Teachers, and Eugenics ………………………………………………………………………………. 95 CHAPTER FOUR “A Strategic and Rather Enviable Position:” Public Health Nurses and Eugenics ……131 CHAPTER FIVE "Keep the welfare costs down": Social Workers, and Eugenics ……………………….156 CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………………… 186 BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………………………… 192 v INTRODUCTION In the 1990s Leilani Muir successfully sued the Provincial Government of Alberta in court for wrongful sexual sterilization. Leilani had been sterilized under Alberta’s Sexual Sterilization Act, introduced in March 1928 by the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) government. The eugenic1 legislation remained in effect until 1972 and resulted in the sexual sterilization of more individuals considered to be mentally defective or insane than any other jurisdiction in Canada.2 As the first, and only individual to sue the Alberta government in court for wrongful sexual sterilization, Leilani Muir has become the face of the backlash against the Alberta eugenics movement. Leilani’s trial brought to light the abuses that had occurred not only with respect to the province’s sterilization program, but also within Alberta’s psychiatric institutions. Her lawsuit sparked a wave of scholarly publications on eugenics in Canada, and in many ways continues, to this day, to influence the secondary literature. Leilani was a trainee at the Red Deer Provincial Training School for Mental Defectives (PTS) between 1953 and 1965 when she was removed against the recommendation of the Superintendent, Dr. L.J. LeVann. In 1959, at the age of fourteen, she was sterilized without her knowledge, based on an inaccurate IQ score. Leilani’s case against the Provincial Government of Alberta went to court in June 1995 with a decision being reached in January 1996.3 In her judgement, Justice Veit ruled in favour of Leilani stating, “[t]he circumstances of Ms. Muir’s sterilization