Hera Cook
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199252183
- eISBN:
- 9780191719240
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199252183.003.0015
- Subject:
- History, Social History
The public debate and legislative changes generated by women's demand for an acceptable female controlled method of contraception resulted in a huge increase in availability of all methods of birth ...
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The public debate and legislative changes generated by women's demand for an acceptable female controlled method of contraception resulted in a huge increase in availability of all methods of birth control. This chapter considers the role of population control fears, women's rights, eugenics, and lobbying groups such as the Family Planning Association. The passing of legislation in 1973 to make contraception available to all men and women over the age of sixteen, married and unmarried, from 1975 was a watershed in the history of English sexuality. It occurred in the context of an erosion of deference throughout the society.Less
The public debate and legislative changes generated by women's demand for an acceptable female controlled method of contraception resulted in a huge increase in availability of all methods of birth control. This chapter considers the role of population control fears, women's rights, eugenics, and lobbying groups such as the Family Planning Association. The passing of legislation in 1973 to make contraception available to all men and women over the age of sixteen, married and unmarried, from 1975 was a watershed in the history of English sexuality. It occurred in the context of an erosion of deference throughout the society.
Luigi Boitani, Cheryl S. Asa, and Axel Moehrenschlager
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198515562
- eISBN:
- 9780191705632
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198515562.003.0007
- Subject:
- Biology, Biodiversity / Conservation Biology
This chapter focuses on the rapidly evolving canid conservation tools that use recent advances in several fields of conservation biology and take into account sociological aspects. It considers the ...
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This chapter focuses on the rapidly evolving canid conservation tools that use recent advances in several fields of conservation biology and take into account sociological aspects. It considers the use of conservation tools in (1) assessing the status of wild canid populations; (2) limiting canids that become too numerous; (3) restoring canids that are threatened; (4) protecting canids in an ecosystem context; and (5) influencing socio-political change for canid conservation.Less
This chapter focuses on the rapidly evolving canid conservation tools that use recent advances in several fields of conservation biology and take into account sociological aspects. It considers the use of conservation tools in (1) assessing the status of wild canid populations; (2) limiting canids that become too numerous; (3) restoring canids that are threatened; (4) protecting canids in an ecosystem context; and (5) influencing socio-political change for canid conservation.
Eileen Stillwaggon
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195169270
- eISBN:
- 9780199783427
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195169271.003.0009
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
This chapter examines the impact of misguided development policy and inadequate epidemiology and health economics methodology on the choice of interventions for HIV and other health problems in poor ...
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This chapter examines the impact of misguided development policy and inadequate epidemiology and health economics methodology on the choice of interventions for HIV and other health problems in poor countries. It discusses the influence of post-World War II development policy and its preoccupation with population control in promoting HIV/AIDS prevention plans that are narrowly focused on provision of condoms, behavior modification, and treating cofactor STDs. It criticizes the programs of UNAIDS, USAID and its private-sector partners, and other AIDS organizations.Less
This chapter examines the impact of misguided development policy and inadequate epidemiology and health economics methodology on the choice of interventions for HIV and other health problems in poor countries. It discusses the influence of post-World War II development policy and its preoccupation with population control in promoting HIV/AIDS prevention plans that are narrowly focused on provision of condoms, behavior modification, and treating cofactor STDs. It criticizes the programs of UNAIDS, USAID and its private-sector partners, and other AIDS organizations.
Ashwini Tambe
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780252042720
- eISBN:
- 9780252051586
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042720.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
Chapter 5 examines how the age of marriage in India was finally raised in the 1970s to 18 years for girls. It describes how worries about population control drove the change, and it traces the ...
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Chapter 5 examines how the age of marriage in India was finally raised in the 1970s to 18 years for girls. It describes how worries about population control drove the change, and it traces the prominent role that India and Indian experts played in demographic writing in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. It demonstrates how closely aligned Indian population control policies were with the intellectual positions of the international population control establishment: Indian demographers treated the age of marriage as a technocratic measure aimed at reducing population growth rather than a measure focused on expanding life chances and preventing forced sex for girls. A shift occurred from an overwhelming focus on potentially vulnerable girls to potentially overfertile girls who could be threats to the future of the nation. This chapter explains why Indian feminists were not at the forefront of the 1978 measure raising the age of marriage. It is one more reminder of how the seemingly well-meaning focus on early marriage among girls is tethered to interests that have very little to do with girls themselves.Less
Chapter 5 examines how the age of marriage in India was finally raised in the 1970s to 18 years for girls. It describes how worries about population control drove the change, and it traces the prominent role that India and Indian experts played in demographic writing in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. It demonstrates how closely aligned Indian population control policies were with the intellectual positions of the international population control establishment: Indian demographers treated the age of marriage as a technocratic measure aimed at reducing population growth rather than a measure focused on expanding life chances and preventing forced sex for girls. A shift occurred from an overwhelming focus on potentially vulnerable girls to potentially overfertile girls who could be threats to the future of the nation. This chapter explains why Indian feminists were not at the forefront of the 1978 measure raising the age of marriage. It is one more reminder of how the seemingly well-meaning focus on early marriage among girls is tethered to interests that have very little to do with girls themselves.
Johanna Schoen
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195150698
- eISBN:
- 9780199865185
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195150698.003.13
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
In the 1930s, public health professionals launched birth control programs as part of their infant and maternal health measures. In addition to reducing infant and maternal mortality rates, offering ...
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In the 1930s, public health professionals launched birth control programs as part of their infant and maternal health measures. In addition to reducing infant and maternal mortality rates, offering birth control to poor women also seemed attractive for economic and eugenic reasons. Public health birth control services simultaneously offered women reproductive control and provided control over poor women's reproduction. Although clients recognized the race and class prejudices behind many family planning programs, they took advantage of the services offered, and bargained with authorities over the conditions of contraceptive advice. Women's lack of access to contraceptive services, their poverty, their race, and gender significantly influenced their decision to participate in contraceptive field trials or take advantage of birth control programs.Less
In the 1930s, public health professionals launched birth control programs as part of their infant and maternal health measures. In addition to reducing infant and maternal mortality rates, offering birth control to poor women also seemed attractive for economic and eugenic reasons. Public health birth control services simultaneously offered women reproductive control and provided control over poor women's reproduction. Although clients recognized the race and class prejudices behind many family planning programs, they took advantage of the services offered, and bargained with authorities over the conditions of contraceptive advice. Women's lack of access to contraceptive services, their poverty, their race, and gender significantly influenced their decision to participate in contraceptive field trials or take advantage of birth control programs.
Susan Greenhalgh
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520253384
- eISBN:
- 9780520941267
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520253384.003.0007
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter discusses the search for credibility among groups of scientists. It examines the turn-of-the-century population-control target, which reveals a hidden process whereby politics and ...
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This chapter discusses the search for credibility among groups of scientists. It examines the turn-of-the-century population-control target, which reveals a hidden process whereby politics and science worked together to create a highly restrictive goal that would nearly authorize a one-child-for-all policy. The chapter then discusses the various communicational vehicles and rhetorical strategies used by the scientists to extend their influence among the key groups, the reactions of those targeted for persuasion, and the scientific resources and cultural context that facilitated their goals. It ends with a study of the responses of the social scientists, whose influence and credibility were quickly fading.Less
This chapter discusses the search for credibility among groups of scientists. It examines the turn-of-the-century population-control target, which reveals a hidden process whereby politics and science worked together to create a highly restrictive goal that would nearly authorize a one-child-for-all policy. The chapter then discusses the various communicational vehicles and rhetorical strategies used by the scientists to extend their influence among the key groups, the reactions of those targeted for persuasion, and the scientific resources and cultural context that facilitated their goals. It ends with a study of the responses of the social scientists, whose influence and credibility were quickly fading.
Simone M. Caron
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813031996
- eISBN:
- 9780813039220
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813031996.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter discusses changes in reproductive policy from 1963 to 1975. The first decade of government cooperation with private organizations in contraception reduced some social and economic ...
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This chapter discusses changes in reproductive policy from 1963 to 1975. The first decade of government cooperation with private organizations in contraception reduced some social and economic “problems” associated with the indigent and low-income clients. Katherine Oettinger of DHEW reported that in 1964 only thirteen states allowed health departments to provide contraceptive services, but by 1967 forty-six states did so. By 1970, both state and federal governments had incorporated contraception as a principal component of public policy. This evolution resulted primarily from a desire to decrease mounting welfare expenditures. Individual women on the local level benefited from expanded clinic services and research into safe and effective methods of birth control.Less
This chapter discusses changes in reproductive policy from 1963 to 1975. The first decade of government cooperation with private organizations in contraception reduced some social and economic “problems” associated with the indigent and low-income clients. Katherine Oettinger of DHEW reported that in 1964 only thirteen states allowed health departments to provide contraceptive services, but by 1967 forty-six states did so. By 1970, both state and federal governments had incorporated contraception as a principal component of public policy. This evolution resulted primarily from a desire to decrease mounting welfare expenditures. Individual women on the local level benefited from expanded clinic services and research into safe and effective methods of birth control.
Gerard Daniel Cohen
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195399684
- eISBN:
- 9780199918423
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195399684.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
The chapter shows how the DP experience crucially shaped the system of international migration after the Second World War. Supervised by the IRO between 1947 and 1951, the “resettlement” of displaced ...
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The chapter shows how the DP experience crucially shaped the system of international migration after the Second World War. Supervised by the IRO between 1947 and 1951, the “resettlement” of displaced persons around the world was an unprecedented instance of planned population redistribution. Mass emigration to Israel or New World countries was not simply the final act of a long humanitarian drama; worries about “surplus population” and a desire to disseminate “freedom loving” Europeans in order to countenance the global spread of communism added demographic and ideological urgency to the departure of refugees from the continent.Less
The chapter shows how the DP experience crucially shaped the system of international migration after the Second World War. Supervised by the IRO between 1947 and 1951, the “resettlement” of displaced persons around the world was an unprecedented instance of planned population redistribution. Mass emigration to Israel or New World countries was not simply the final act of a long humanitarian drama; worries about “surplus population” and a desire to disseminate “freedom loving” Europeans in order to countenance the global spread of communism added demographic and ideological urgency to the departure of refugees from the continent.
Alison Bashford
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691177342
- eISBN:
- 9780691189918
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691177342.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter shows how, in the twentieth century, states aimed to implement new ideas of population planning in order to foster the emergence of stable middle classes. The control of fertility thus ...
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This chapter shows how, in the twentieth century, states aimed to implement new ideas of population planning in order to foster the emergence of stable middle classes. The control of fertility thus became an integral part of the global history of the middle classes. Because the nuclear family was at the core of middle-class lifestyle and a prerequisite for its reproduction and economic capacity, states across the globe resorted to population planning after the early twentieth century. For economic and political planners immersed in adapted Malthusian arguments, limiting fertility was a means by which widespread poverty could be mitigated and standards of living raised at a population level to allow everyone to afford middle-class lifestyles. Population control was thus part of the dream of, and for, a global middle class.Less
This chapter shows how, in the twentieth century, states aimed to implement new ideas of population planning in order to foster the emergence of stable middle classes. The control of fertility thus became an integral part of the global history of the middle classes. Because the nuclear family was at the core of middle-class lifestyle and a prerequisite for its reproduction and economic capacity, states across the globe resorted to population planning after the early twentieth century. For economic and political planners immersed in adapted Malthusian arguments, limiting fertility was a means by which widespread poverty could be mitigated and standards of living raised at a population level to allow everyone to afford middle-class lifestyles. Population control was thus part of the dream of, and for, a global middle class.
David French
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199587964
- eISBN:
- 9780191731365
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199587964.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Military History
Coercion, which was the mainstay of British counter-insurgency practice, took a variety of forms. Measures ranged from the use of exemplary force (such as cordon and search operations, curfews, and ...
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Coercion, which was the mainstay of British counter-insurgency practice, took a variety of forms. Measures ranged from the use of exemplary force (such as cordon and search operations, curfews, and collective fines) to the waging of counter-terrorism through mass arrests, deportation, detention without trial, forced resettlement, food denial operations, the creation of free-fire zones where anyone was liable to be shot by the security forces, and ‘aerial proscription’, that is the bombing of otherwise inaccessible villages.Less
Coercion, which was the mainstay of British counter-insurgency practice, took a variety of forms. Measures ranged from the use of exemplary force (such as cordon and search operations, curfews, and collective fines) to the waging of counter-terrorism through mass arrests, deportation, detention without trial, forced resettlement, food denial operations, the creation of free-fire zones where anyone was liable to be shot by the security forces, and ‘aerial proscription’, that is the bombing of otherwise inaccessible villages.
John Firor and Judith Jacobsen
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300093209
- eISBN:
- 9780300133448
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300093209.001.0001
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Climate
This book presents the strongest possible arguments about human population, climate change, and the relationship between Earth and human beings, discussing how people on Earth should act to stabilize ...
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This book presents the strongest possible arguments about human population, climate change, and the relationship between Earth and human beings, discussing how people on Earth should act to stabilize human population, and why and how they should act to stabilize the composition of the atmosphere. Three arguments are offered in service of the ultimate goal that is to strike a new balance in which the scale of human activities is in keeping with the scale of natural systems. The book describes the approach to population issues that prevailed from the time population became a widespread public concern in the 1960s, and the shift in approach which took place as women's health organizations and other feminist groups weighed in on population at the Cairo conference in 1994. It outlines the current knowledge about the science of climate change, recapitulates the development of the science in the past hundred years, and describes the history and content of the negotiations, including the Rio and Berlin meetings and the Kyoto Protocol. The book explains the difficult equity issues involved, continued resistance to the negotiations, and the economic models on which much of this resistance is based. It focuses on the policy agenda that is believed to be most powerful for stemming climate change: a revenue-neutral tax shift. The book also covers the scale of emission reductions required to stabilize the climate, and the importance of energy and materials efficiency.Less
This book presents the strongest possible arguments about human population, climate change, and the relationship between Earth and human beings, discussing how people on Earth should act to stabilize human population, and why and how they should act to stabilize the composition of the atmosphere. Three arguments are offered in service of the ultimate goal that is to strike a new balance in which the scale of human activities is in keeping with the scale of natural systems. The book describes the approach to population issues that prevailed from the time population became a widespread public concern in the 1960s, and the shift in approach which took place as women's health organizations and other feminist groups weighed in on population at the Cairo conference in 1994. It outlines the current knowledge about the science of climate change, recapitulates the development of the science in the past hundred years, and describes the history and content of the negotiations, including the Rio and Berlin meetings and the Kyoto Protocol. The book explains the difficult equity issues involved, continued resistance to the negotiations, and the economic models on which much of this resistance is based. It focuses on the policy agenda that is believed to be most powerful for stemming climate change: a revenue-neutral tax shift. The book also covers the scale of emission reductions required to stabilize the climate, and the importance of energy and materials efficiency.
Chikako Takeshita
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262016582
- eISBN:
- 9780262298452
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262016582.001.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Bioethics
The intrauterine device (IUD) is used by 150 million women around the world. It is the second most prevalent method of female fertility control in the global South and the third most prevalent in the ...
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The intrauterine device (IUD) is used by 150 million women around the world. It is the second most prevalent method of female fertility control in the global South and the third most prevalent in the global North. Over its five decades of use, the IUD has been viewed both as a means for women’s reproductive autonomy and as coercive tool of state-imposed population control, as a convenient form of birth control on a par with the pill and as a threat to women’s health. This book investigates the development, marketing, and use of the IUD since the 1960s. The book offers a biography of a multifaceted technological object through a feminist science studies lens, tracing the transformations of the scientific discourse around it over time and across different geographies. It describes how developers of the IUD adapted to different social interests in their research and how changing assumptions about race, class, and female sexuality often guided scientific inquiries. The IUD, the book argues, became a “politically versatile technology,” adaptable to both feminist and nonfeminist reproductive politics because of researchers’ attempts to maintain the device’s suitability for women in both the developing and the developed world. The book traces the evolution of scientists’ concerns—from contraceptive efficacy and product safety to the politics of abortion—and describes the most recent, hormone-releasing, menstruation-suppressing iteration of the IUD.Less
The intrauterine device (IUD) is used by 150 million women around the world. It is the second most prevalent method of female fertility control in the global South and the third most prevalent in the global North. Over its five decades of use, the IUD has been viewed both as a means for women’s reproductive autonomy and as coercive tool of state-imposed population control, as a convenient form of birth control on a par with the pill and as a threat to women’s health. This book investigates the development, marketing, and use of the IUD since the 1960s. The book offers a biography of a multifaceted technological object through a feminist science studies lens, tracing the transformations of the scientific discourse around it over time and across different geographies. It describes how developers of the IUD adapted to different social interests in their research and how changing assumptions about race, class, and female sexuality often guided scientific inquiries. The IUD, the book argues, became a “politically versatile technology,” adaptable to both feminist and nonfeminist reproductive politics because of researchers’ attempts to maintain the device’s suitability for women in both the developing and the developed world. The book traces the evolution of scientists’ concerns—from contraceptive efficacy and product safety to the politics of abortion—and describes the most recent, hormone-releasing, menstruation-suppressing iteration of the IUD.
Raúl Necochea Pearson
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781469618081
- eISBN:
- 9781469618104
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469618104.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
This chapter discusses how family planning influenced government policies striving for socioeconomic development and improved health for women and children. It examines how world organizations such ...
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This chapter discusses how family planning influenced government policies striving for socioeconomic development and improved health for women and children. It examines how world organizations such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization cooperated with local institutions in conducting studies and seminars to promote population control. It also considers the interactions between Peruvian, Latin American, and American ideas, which led to the consideration of family planning as an aspect of national policy. In general, Latin American governments viewed population policy as an intersectorial means to control migration, enhance education and health, and increase employment and economic productivity.Less
This chapter discusses how family planning influenced government policies striving for socioeconomic development and improved health for women and children. It examines how world organizations such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization cooperated with local institutions in conducting studies and seminars to promote population control. It also considers the interactions between Peruvian, Latin American, and American ideas, which led to the consideration of family planning as an aspect of national policy. In general, Latin American governments viewed population policy as an intersectorial means to control migration, enhance education and health, and increase employment and economic productivity.
Jade S. Sasser
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781479873432
- eISBN:
- 9781479860142
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479873432.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
Chapter 2 explores the history of how population came to be known as an environmental problem, emerging through debates about eugenics, war, geopolitical stability, and land use. I begin the chapter ...
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Chapter 2 explores the history of how population came to be known as an environmental problem, emerging through debates about eugenics, war, geopolitical stability, and land use. I begin the chapter by exploring how population was first identified as a central problem of state-making and security, and its role in the evolution of ecological sciences. Next, I trace the ways the environmental sciences and population politics have entwined and overlapped in subsequent decades. Throughout, I analyze the ways knowledge production linking population to environmental problems moved between political advocacy motivated by concerns about war and geopolitical security, concerns about planetary limits, and a site of scientific knowledge development and struggle.Less
Chapter 2 explores the history of how population came to be known as an environmental problem, emerging through debates about eugenics, war, geopolitical stability, and land use. I begin the chapter by exploring how population was first identified as a central problem of state-making and security, and its role in the evolution of ecological sciences. Next, I trace the ways the environmental sciences and population politics have entwined and overlapped in subsequent decades. Throughout, I analyze the ways knowledge production linking population to environmental problems moved between political advocacy motivated by concerns about war and geopolitical security, concerns about planetary limits, and a site of scientific knowledge development and struggle.
Rickie Solinger
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- December 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199311071
- eISBN:
- 9780190245627
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199311071.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics, International Relations and Politics
Throughout US history, “reproductive politics”—the terrain of struggle regarding who has power over sex, pregnancy, and satellite issues—has been a crucial aspect of policies and laws devised to ...
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Throughout US history, “reproductive politics”—the terrain of struggle regarding who has power over sex, pregnancy, and satellite issues—has been a crucial aspect of policies and laws devised to solve certain large social, economic, political, and moral problems. In the United States these problems have included defining and reproducing racial difference; legalizing and perpetuating the body as real property; and structuring women’s conditioned and variable access to full citizenship. State-driven solutions have pressed women variously over time to reproduce or not, according to their race and class. This chapter sets out “first principles” of US population policy and focuses on the deployment of mid-twentieth-century iterations, when the state promoted robust population policies; the Catholic Church reacted and adapted; and feminist reproductive politics emerged in the midst of these challenges.Less
Throughout US history, “reproductive politics”—the terrain of struggle regarding who has power over sex, pregnancy, and satellite issues—has been a crucial aspect of policies and laws devised to solve certain large social, economic, political, and moral problems. In the United States these problems have included defining and reproducing racial difference; legalizing and perpetuating the body as real property; and structuring women’s conditioned and variable access to full citizenship. State-driven solutions have pressed women variously over time to reproduce or not, according to their race and class. This chapter sets out “first principles” of US population policy and focuses on the deployment of mid-twentieth-century iterations, when the state promoted robust population policies; the Catholic Church reacted and adapted; and feminist reproductive politics emerged in the midst of these challenges.
Alison Bashford
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231147668
- eISBN:
- 9780231519526
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231147668.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This chapter explores the reproductive politics of postwar eugenics and overpopulation concerns, as well as that of a reproductive “freedom” that eventually transcended to a “human right.” ...
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This chapter explores the reproductive politics of postwar eugenics and overpopulation concerns, as well as that of a reproductive “freedom” that eventually transcended to a “human right.” Reproductive freedom here is characterized by persuasion rather than force (“Babies by choice and not by chance”)—it is the liberty accorded to all individuals to make an informed decision in the shaping of their own lives and those of their families. Postwar eugenics is often treated as the antithesis of this freedom, as it had been characterized by more coercive tactics such as those employed in Nazi Germany, with similarly illicit eugenics activities being presumed hidden under an innocuous veneer of “population control” in more recent times. The truth, however, is that postwar eugenics remains an open and explicit movement, its discourse inextricable from that of reproductive freedom.Less
This chapter explores the reproductive politics of postwar eugenics and overpopulation concerns, as well as that of a reproductive “freedom” that eventually transcended to a “human right.” Reproductive freedom here is characterized by persuasion rather than force (“Babies by choice and not by chance”)—it is the liberty accorded to all individuals to make an informed decision in the shaping of their own lives and those of their families. Postwar eugenics is often treated as the antithesis of this freedom, as it had been characterized by more coercive tactics such as those employed in Nazi Germany, with similarly illicit eugenics activities being presumed hidden under an innocuous veneer of “population control” in more recent times. The truth, however, is that postwar eugenics remains an open and explicit movement, its discourse inextricable from that of reproductive freedom.
Rickie Solinger and Mie Nakachi
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- December 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199311071
- eISBN:
- 9780190245627
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199311071.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics, International Relations and Politics
For centuries, nations have been concerned about the size and the composition of their populations. Are there enough adults to meet military and labor needs and to satisfy territorial aspirations? Is ...
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For centuries, nations have been concerned about the size and the composition of their populations. Are there enough adults to meet military and labor needs and to satisfy territorial aspirations? Is there enough food to feed the current population and the next generation? How are birth rates, migration, and immigration shaping national and regional population growth and impacting resources? Nations have developed policies to meet these demographic needs, in each case rendering the ordinary female body and its intimate practices a key political resource. In all cases, female bodies have been deployed in the biopolitical project of shaping the state’s size, character, and place in the world. With new technological tools and new social welfare bureaucracies, all states—those attempting to slow population growth and those attempting to stimulate growth—believed that significant state management of sexuality and fertility was an effective way to solve myriad social, economic, political, environmental, strategic, and other problems facing the nation.Less
For centuries, nations have been concerned about the size and the composition of their populations. Are there enough adults to meet military and labor needs and to satisfy territorial aspirations? Is there enough food to feed the current population and the next generation? How are birth rates, migration, and immigration shaping national and regional population growth and impacting resources? Nations have developed policies to meet these demographic needs, in each case rendering the ordinary female body and its intimate practices a key political resource. In all cases, female bodies have been deployed in the biopolitical project of shaping the state’s size, character, and place in the world. With new technological tools and new social welfare bureaucracies, all states—those attempting to slow population growth and those attempting to stimulate growth—believed that significant state management of sexuality and fertility was an effective way to solve myriad social, economic, political, environmental, strategic, and other problems facing the nation.
Simone M. Caron
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813031996
- eISBN:
- 9780813039220
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813031996.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Social History
Government subsidies and population control advocacy of contraception and sterilization continued through the end of the twentieth century. By the year 2000 female sterilization was the most common ...
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Government subsidies and population control advocacy of contraception and sterilization continued through the end of the twentieth century. By the year 2000 female sterilization was the most common contraceptive, especially among women of color and lower economic means. The use of public funds for abortion, on the other hand, came under increasing attack. The battleground shifted from efforts to legalize abortion to organized and sometimes violent attempts to recriminalize or restrict access to it. The modern antichoice campaign resembles nineteenth-century efforts to undermine women's demands for equal rights by forcing them to revert to the traditional role of mother. While both campaigns portrayed aborting women as selfish and unnatural, few in the nineteenth century debated the legal status or personhood of the fetus. The post-Roe opposition, on the other hand, prioritized the legal and constitutional protection of the fetus over the mother. The vocal antiabortion camp led population controllers to emphasize instead sterilization and long-acting contraceptives, especially Depo Provera (DP) and Norplant, as the answer to perceived population problems. As abortion became too politically charged to promote as a cost-saving method for governments, state and federal funding dried up. Funds for sterilization and long-acting contraceptives, on the other hand, remained intact. These methods better suit the population control agenda as they are permanent, or semipermanent, and thus avoid any accidental pregnancies that indigent women could not afford to abort.Less
Government subsidies and population control advocacy of contraception and sterilization continued through the end of the twentieth century. By the year 2000 female sterilization was the most common contraceptive, especially among women of color and lower economic means. The use of public funds for abortion, on the other hand, came under increasing attack. The battleground shifted from efforts to legalize abortion to organized and sometimes violent attempts to recriminalize or restrict access to it. The modern antichoice campaign resembles nineteenth-century efforts to undermine women's demands for equal rights by forcing them to revert to the traditional role of mother. While both campaigns portrayed aborting women as selfish and unnatural, few in the nineteenth century debated the legal status or personhood of the fetus. The post-Roe opposition, on the other hand, prioritized the legal and constitutional protection of the fetus over the mother. The vocal antiabortion camp led population controllers to emphasize instead sterilization and long-acting contraceptives, especially Depo Provera (DP) and Norplant, as the answer to perceived population problems. As abortion became too politically charged to promote as a cost-saving method for governments, state and federal funding dried up. Funds for sterilization and long-acting contraceptives, on the other hand, remained intact. These methods better suit the population control agenda as they are permanent, or semipermanent, and thus avoid any accidental pregnancies that indigent women could not afford to abort.
Charles J. Krebs
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226010359
- eISBN:
- 9780226010496
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226010496.003.0016
- Subject:
- Biology, Ecology
This chapter provides a comparative population dynamics of rodents and other mammals. Its main objective is to identify the factors that affect population growth rates, and it begins by discussing ...
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This chapter provides a comparative population dynamics of rodents and other mammals. Its main objective is to identify the factors that affect population growth rates, and it begins by discussing the evolution of intrinsic processes which regulate population. The chapter then examines the population control of large herbivorous mammals, in which human hunting or poaching is the main cause of population change. A multiple-factor explanation for population changes in small herbivorous mammals is also discussed.Less
This chapter provides a comparative population dynamics of rodents and other mammals. Its main objective is to identify the factors that affect population growth rates, and it begins by discussing the evolution of intrinsic processes which regulate population. The chapter then examines the population control of large herbivorous mammals, in which human hunting or poaching is the main cause of population change. A multiple-factor explanation for population changes in small herbivorous mammals is also discussed.
Aiko Takeuchi-Demirci
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469636269
- eISBN:
- 9781469636276
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469636269.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
This chapter demonstrates how transnational religious networks, racial tensions, and competing sexual norms affected official policies during social and political changes in postwar Japan and the ...
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This chapter demonstrates how transnational religious networks, racial tensions, and competing sexual norms affected official policies during social and political changes in postwar Japan and the United States. Following World War II, U.S. intellectuals and political leaders feared that an overpopulated Japan posed a racial and ideological threat to global stability. Attributing Japan’s military expansionism during World War II to its high fertility, U.S. officials and scholars in Occupied Japan considered population control—primarily through the use of contraceptives—as vital to Japan’s peaceful recovery and transformation into a democratized ally. Against the backdrop of the Cold War and a growing Holocaust consciousness, American Catholic protesters raised the specters of genocide and imperialism to call attention to the eugenic ideas infiltrating the Anglo-Protestant mission to fight “overpopulation” in Japan and other parts of the developing world. American Catholic priests, Catholic organizations, and the Catholic press in Japan effectively used transnational networks to stymie what they saw as the rapid degeneration of sexual morals caused by the spread of contraceptives. The religious-inspired controversy over birth control policies in Japan was, for American Catholics, ultimately an interreligious American battle over the politics of procreation, sexual morality, and a national-racial future.Less
This chapter demonstrates how transnational religious networks, racial tensions, and competing sexual norms affected official policies during social and political changes in postwar Japan and the United States. Following World War II, U.S. intellectuals and political leaders feared that an overpopulated Japan posed a racial and ideological threat to global stability. Attributing Japan’s military expansionism during World War II to its high fertility, U.S. officials and scholars in Occupied Japan considered population control—primarily through the use of contraceptives—as vital to Japan’s peaceful recovery and transformation into a democratized ally. Against the backdrop of the Cold War and a growing Holocaust consciousness, American Catholic protesters raised the specters of genocide and imperialism to call attention to the eugenic ideas infiltrating the Anglo-Protestant mission to fight “overpopulation” in Japan and other parts of the developing world. American Catholic priests, Catholic organizations, and the Catholic press in Japan effectively used transnational networks to stymie what they saw as the rapid degeneration of sexual morals caused by the spread of contraceptives. The religious-inspired controversy over birth control policies in Japan was, for American Catholics, ultimately an interreligious American battle over the politics of procreation, sexual morality, and a national-racial future.
