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Reproductive Technology. Dr. Tanya Bakhru. Feminist Inquiry. There are many systems within society that send us messages about what it means to be a “real” man or woman. Science is often seen as an objective and unbiased way to seeing the world.
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Reproductive Technology Dr. Tanya Bakhru
Feminist Inquiry • There are many systems within society that send us messages about what it means to be a “real” man or woman. • Science is often seen as an objective and unbiased way to seeing the world. • Feminists challenge the apparent neutrality of science. • Feminists challenge the lack of participation by women and minority groups in the making and carrying out of science.
Feminist critiques of Science • The categories that science creates are seen as “Truths.” • Individuals create the ideas and methods for science based on their idea of what is important. • Feminists ask, how have women and men been identified, described, and categorized over time and place?
Feminist critiques of Science • How is science used to justify inequalities between genders, races, sexualities, and social classes? • What are some stereotypes about men and women that are justified by science?
Social Construction of Race • Race remains a powerful construct which is carried out through legal, scientific, and political institutions • In the present is generally accepted that race is not determined by genetic difference, however society continues to organize itself around racial difference
(Neo)Malthusianism, Eugenics, and Women’s Bodies • Malthus: overpopulation itself is the major cause of poverty and individuals’ lack of restraint cases overpopulation • Women’s bodies become embedded with meaning • Various groups of women face different pressures to or not to have children, how to raise them, etc.
Reproductive Politics in the U.S. • “Reproductive politics in America inevitably involves racial politics” (Dorothy Roberts, 1997). • Eugenics: • Improvement of the human gene pool through human intervention • Movement and social policies of influence during the early 20th century • Scientific Racism
Reproductive Politics in the U.S. • Wide use of sterilization to “purify the race” • 1929-1941 U.S. government carries out over 700,000 involuntary sterilizations • Targets: epileptics, alcoholics, criminals, “feeble minded,” poor women, and women of color (Black, Latina, Native women), those who relied on federally subsidized clinics or Medicaid funds, those who came in contact with the state • “Feeble minded” included mentally disabled individuals and women of “sexually immorality”
Black Women, Feminism, and Reproductive Rights • Evidence showed that in 1970 Black women had been sterilized at over twice the rate of white women. • Data from 1975-76 show women receiving Medicaid were sterilized at a rate 2-4 times higher than non Medicaid recipients. • Feminist scholars argue sterilization was pushed on women who were deemed unworthy to reproduce.
Reproductive Politics in the U.S. • Forced sterilization continued into the 1970s and early 1980s • Dubbed “Mississippi Appendectomies” • High prevelance of sterilization abuse in teaching hospitals • Simultaneously, middle class White women were struggling to gain access to birth control and abortion
Black Women, Feminism, and Reproductive Rights • 1973 involuntary sterilization of Minnie Lee Relf. • Occurred in a federally funded (under Health, Education, and Welfare) health clinic. • Based on the ideology: if this woman could not care for a child, she had no right to her fertility.
Building an Inclusive Movement • Most people think the reproductive rights movement centered around abortion rights. • Women of color argued that race and class informed one’s reproductive experience • Contributions of women of color created a more inclusive movement by the 1970s and 1980s to include “bread and butter issues” • Sterilization abuse • Pre and post natal health care • Child care • Economic sustainability
CARASA • Committee for Abortion Rights and Against Sterilization Abuse (1976) • Coined the term “reproductive rights.” • Placed abortion within economic contexts • Aimed to obtain safe and legal abortions for all women and end sterilization abuse.
Relevance in the Contemporary Era • Read together the article from the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3189763.stm • Find your neighbor and take 3-4 minutes each discussing your reaction to the article. • What can we say about this news article in light of the readings for this week? What kind of ideologies is CRACK based on? What is problematic about the organization’s approach?
