United Farm Women of Alberta campaigns for eugenic sterilization

United Farm Women of Alberta campaigns for eugenic sterilization

1919 - 1928. Women were invited to be equal members in the United Farmers of Alberta in 1913 with the mandate to “provide for farm women a social centre where she may meet her neighbours and enjoy an exchange of idea in matters of interest” (as cited in Gibbons, 2014, p.1). By 1916, the newly emerged United Farm Women of Alberta (UFWA) had struck its first three committees - health, education, and social welfare. These were later the focus of all future endeavours of the group.

In 1921, the UFA won a majority government in Alberta and began their term as the longest serving agrarian government in Canada. As equal partners in the organization, the UFWA often drafted official legislation relating primarily to public health. In a speech commending the UFA on their victory, new president of the UFWA Marion Sears projected that "the race will be extinct in two hundred years," (as cited in Gibbons, 2014, p.1) if the ill health in rural Alberta was not dealt with.

The UFA, by advisement of the UFWA, began passing internal resolutions for handling the “question of the increase of mental defectives” in 1919, with formal legislation officially drafted in 1925 (as cited in Gibbons, 2014, p.1). The question of how to deal with degeneration dominated UFWA discussions throughout the late 1920s. This culminated in the 1925 adoption of a resolution recommending sterilization of people deemed “mentally deficient”. The UFWA would go on to be central to the garnering of support for the formal passage of the Sexual Sterilisation Act in 1928.

-Sheila Gibbons

  • Gibbons, S. (2014). “Our Power to Remodel Civilisation”: Institutional Expressions of Eugenics Feminism in Alberta. Canadian Bulletin for Medical History, Special Eugenics Volume, 1.

United Farm Women of Alberta campaigns for eugenic sterilization

United Farm Women of Alberta campaigns for eugenic sterilization

1919 - 1928. Women were invited to be equal members in the United Farmers of Alberta in 1913 with the mandate to “provide for farm women a social centre where she may meet her neighbours and enjoy an exchange of idea in matters of interest” (as cited in Gibbons, 2014, p.1). By 1916, the newly emerged United Farm Women of Alberta (UFWA) had struck its first three committees - health, education, and social welfare. These were later the focus of all future endeavours of the group.

In 1921, the UFA won a majority government in Alberta and began their term as the longest serving agrarian government in Canada. As equal partners in the organization, the UFWA often drafted official legislation relating primarily to public health. In a speech commending the UFA on their victory, new president of the UFWA Marion Sears projected that "the race will be extinct in two hundred years," (as cited in Gibbons, 2014, p.1) if the ill health in rural Alberta was not dealt with.

The UFA, by advisement of the UFWA, began passing internal resolutions for handling the “question of the increase of mental defectives” in 1919, with formal legislation officially drafted in 1925 (as cited in Gibbons, 2014, p.1). The question of how to deal with degeneration dominated UFWA discussions throughout the late 1920s. This culminated in the 1925 adoption of a resolution recommending sterilization of people deemed “mentally deficient”. The UFWA would go on to be central to the garnering of support for the formal passage of the Sexual Sterilisation Act in 1928.

-Sheila Gibbons

  • Gibbons, S. (2014). “Our Power to Remodel Civilisation”: Institutional Expressions of Eugenics Feminism in Alberta. Canadian Bulletin for Medical History, Special Eugenics Volume, 1.

United Farm Women of Alberta campaigns for eugenic sterilization

1919 - 1928. Women were invited to be equal members in the United Farmers of Alberta in 1913 with the mandate to “provide for farm women a social centre where she may meet her neighbours and enjoy an exchange of idea in matters of interest” (as cited in Gibbons, 2014, p.1). By 1916, the newly emerged United Farm Women of Alberta (UFWA) had struck its first three committees - health, education, and social welfare. These were later the focus of all future endeavours of the group.

In 1921, the UFA won a majority government in Alberta and began their term as the longest serving agrarian government in Canada. As equal partners in the organization, the UFWA often drafted official legislation relating primarily to public health. In a speech commending the UFA on their victory, new president of the UFWA Marion Sears projected that "the race will be extinct in two hundred years," (as cited in Gibbons, 2014, p.1) if the ill health in rural Alberta was not dealt with.

The UFA, by advisement of the UFWA, began passing internal resolutions for handling the “question of the increase of mental defectives” in 1919, with formal legislation officially drafted in 1925 (as cited in Gibbons, 2014, p.1). The question of how to deal with degeneration dominated UFWA discussions throughout the late 1920s. This culminated in the 1925 adoption of a resolution recommending sterilization of people deemed “mentally deficient”. The UFWA would go on to be central to the garnering of support for the formal passage of the Sexual Sterilisation Act in 1928.

-Sheila Gibbons

  • Gibbons, S. (2014). “Our Power to Remodel Civilisation”: Institutional Expressions of Eugenics Feminism in Alberta. Canadian Bulletin for Medical History, Special Eugenics Volume, 1.