Overview: A short talk uncovering how the British welfare state forcibly controlled the reproduction of thousands of women deemed to be unfit from the 1940s to the 1970s and beyond. It focuses on how they were influenced by the eugenics movement even after the horrors of Naziism were exposed during the Second World War. Long hidden from history, the use of forcible birth control constitutes a historical injustice against groups deemed unfit by the welfare state and its experts.

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Content warnings: descriptions of violent acts against women; use of historic discriminatory language; 

 

Keywords: eugenics, reproductive injustice, welfare state, Britain, poverty, history

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Michael Lambert is a Fellow in Social Inequalities at Lancaster University:  https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/sociology/people/michael-lambert2 

Centre for Alternatives to Social and Economic Inequalities: http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/casei/