Abstract
The twenty-first century debates about Eugenics have often influenced the interpretation of Marie’s achievements both in scholarly and popular work. This chapter argues the case for a reassessment of Marie’s relationship with Eugenics. Three fundamental questions are addressed: What did Eugenics mean to intellectuals in inter-war Britain? What were Marie’s public pronouncements on Eugenics? How far were her public statements in accord with her private actions? The answers to these questions shed a new light on Marie’s achievements as sexual revolutionary and birth control pioneer.
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Notes
- 1.
British Library Stopes Papers: Correspondence. Stopes to Cora Hodson, 24 March 1934 BLStopes Papers Add 58645.
- 2.
Murray, Jennie, A History of Britain in 21 Women. (London, 2016) p. 2.
- 3.
Jenkins, Lyndsey, Lady Constance Lytton: Aristocrat, Suffragette. Martyr. (London, 2015) p. 221.
- 4.
Bucur, Maria, Gendering Modernism. A Historical Reappraisal of the Canon. (London, 2017, Bloomsbury) p. 86.
- 5.
Overbury, R. The Morbid Age. Britain Between the Wars. (London, 2010).
- 6.
Garrett, William (ed.) Marie Stopes, Feminist, Eroticist, Eugenicist. Essential Writings. (San Francisco, 2016) pp. xli–lxv.
- 7.
Debenham, Clare, Birth Control and the Rights of Women. (London, 2014) pp. 109–130.
- 8.
Hall, Lesley A. ‘Archives of Birth Control in Britain’. Journal of Society of Archivists, 1995, vol. 6, no. 2.
- 9.
Peel, Robert, Marie Stopes, Eugenics and the English Birth Control Movement. (London, 1997).
- 10.
Redvaldsen, Donald, ‘The Eugenics Society Outreach to the Labour Movement’. Labour History Review, vol. 78, no. 3, pp. 301–329.
- 11.
Cleminson, Richard, Catholicism, Race and Empire. Eugenics in Portugal. (Budapest, 2014).
- 12.
Ibid.
- 13.
Hall, Lesley A. ‘Archives of Birth Control in Britain’. Journal of Society of Archivists, 1995, vol. 6, no. 2.
- 14.
Redvaldsen, Donald, p. 301.
- 15.
Paul, D.B. Controlling Human Hereditary. (New Jersey, 1995) p. 20.
- 16.
Perry, M.W. (ed.) Eugenics and Other Evils by G.K.Chesteron, Additional articles by Galton and Saleeby. (Seattle, 2000).
- 17.
Stopes, Marie, Radiant Motherhood. (London, 1920) p. 175.
- 18.
BBC Archives Caversham Park. File 1. Marie Stopes 1931–1962. Interview 1.11.1935.
- 19.
Stopes, Marie, Radiant Motherhood. p. 179.
- 20.
Hall, Lesley A. ‘Women, Feminism and Eugenics’ in Peel, Robert, Essays in the History of Eugenics. (London, 1998) p. 48.
- 21.
Mary Stopes-Roe to Clare Debenham 2012.
- 22.
Rose, June, Marie Stopes and the Sexual Revolution. (London, 1992) pp. 219–210.
- 23.
Stopes, Marie, Black Record. (London, 1941).
- 24.
Szreter, S. Fertility Class and Gender in Britain. (London) p. 156.
- 25.
Cohen, Deborah, ‘Marie Stopes and the Mothers’ Clinics’ in Peel, Robert, Marie Stopes, Eugenics and the English Birth Control Movement. (London, 1996) pp. 77–94.
- 26.
Ibid., p. 81.
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Debenham, C. (2018). Marie Stopes as a Maverick Eugenicist. In: Marie Stopes’ Sexual Revolution and the Birth Control Movement. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71664-0_9
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