(Ad published by the Sterilization League of New Jersey-October, 1937)
The period where the eugenics movement became popular (from 1900 to 1940), was called the Progressive Era. This era was one of great social and economic instability, and progressivist policy “supported the ideology of scientific planning and management” of economic, political, and social processes and was “devoted to the ‘cult of efficiency,’ that is, among other things, preventing problems before they occurred rather than letting them take place and then having to deal with catastrophic consequences” (Allen). This political ideology cultivated the American government’s increasing power of social control over its citizens. They looked at eugenics as a preventative and efficient measure: those with defective genes cause a variety of social problems, so the efficient solution is to prevent these genes from being passed on to future generations.
America’s rapid economic shift from an agricultural to an industrial society around this time brought about a variety of social and economic problems that plagued society. The Great Depression, monopolies, unsafe/unfair working conditions, increasing racial tensions, increasing immigration, segregation, disease, social discrimination, and poverty were just some of the problems that the government looked to solve with progressive policy. Eugenics ideology explained these problems as a result of poor genetics and implemented various programs to eliminate these genes from the population instead of actually trying to fix the problems.
The eugenics movement had “lingering associations with racism, fascism and elitism,” (Allen) in that eugenicists provided scientific justification for and promoted such attitudes already present in society. The eugenics movement largely distracted from social solutions and placed blame on the “genetically unfit” individuals in society in hopes of providing a quick fix for these deeply-rooted issues. The victims of eugenics policy were “socially inadequate” individuals… people who were the victims of social prejudice for being poor, diasbled, mentally ill, colored, etc.