Fixing the Poor: Eugenic Sterilization and Child Welfare in the Twentieth Century by Molly Ladd-Taylor (review)

Eugenics, a pseudoscience of the twentieth century, not only remains on the books, but it also has crippled the modern US welfare state. Public welfare policies such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Social Security, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, unemployment insurance, and Medicaid rest upon the bedrock assumption that a distinction can be made between the "deserving" and the "undeserving" poor. To be sure, beliefs about poverty, especially stigmatizing ones, have colonial roots. However, a new book by Molly Ladd-Taylor argues that colonial history notwithstanding, the modern bureaucratic structure that undergirds the current public welfare state is rooted in Progressive-era eugenics policies that prioritized the institutionalization and sterilization of the "feebleminded." Her message is that to overcome the debilitating inadequacy of our public welfare system, we first must come to grips with its eugenic bones. This bold premise carries a significance of national proportions, yet Ladd-Taylor stakes her claims on a research project conducted in a single state, Minnesota.

Not all state eugenic sterilization programs were alike, and that is a central point in this book. Ladd-Taylor argues that Minnesota's relatively modest sterilization plan is precisely why it requires study. The "North Star State," home of the Ojibwe and Chippewa indigenous populations, executed a "voluntary" sterilization plan far less egregious in scope than other states, such as California, Virginia, and North Carolina. Scholars typically have singled out other states with long-term and heavily used sterilization programs rooted in white supremacy. Racism, Ladd-Taylor argues, is an undeniable element. However, she states, "when eugenic sterilization is examined from a social welfare perspective, it appears less like a deliberate plan for genetic improvement than a mundane and all-too-modern tale of fiscal politics, troubled families, and deeply felt cultural attitudes about disability, welfare dependency, sexuality and gender" (2).

The author grounds her claims in Minnesota state records as well as state and national studies on eugenics, defectiveness, dependency, and delinquency. In chapter 1, she traces the development of eugenics as a long-term state effort to replace the "poorhouse" and to relieve localities of the financial burden of supporting the "undeserving" poor. In chapter 2, Ladd-Taylor examines two proposed paths for sterilization. While eugenicists loudly touted sterilization as a measure to eliminate the unfit, Progressive-era reformers, both women and men, supported a "voluntary" sterilization plan in which a patient or relative could sign to approve a procedure as a way to safely reduce overpopulation at state institutions. Chapter 3 examines the category of feebleminded and who were deemed unfit. Poverty, class, IQ test results, and behavior were each factors that raised suspicions. Judges might commit both women and men for sexual deviance. However, a gendered double standard resulted in far more women than men committed for minor or no infractions. Women and girls might land in an institution if they were victims of rape, sexual assault, domestic violence, or from "troubled" families. Chapter 4 discusses the Minnesota sterilization program. Minnesota sterilized its first patient in 1916 and statutorily legalized it in 1925 to permit inmates a chance at parole. Minnesotans prided themselves on the "voluntary" nature of the program, as sterilization required consent from the patient or a near relative. Ladd-Taylor argues that there was hardly very much choice involved for most patients, as state officials exerted pressure on patients and on parents, who sometimes exhibited conflicts of interest with their minor child. The last two chapters discuss the peak of sterilization during the Great Depression and its decline after World War II. Ladd-Taylor argues that sterilization peaked during the economic crisis because it was used as a routine welfare practice. After the war, advocates for the disabled launched a civil rights campaign that ended sterilization—however, Ladd-Taylor shows us that the bureaucratic structure stayed in place. The subsequent federal War on Poverty tried to correct systemic abuses...