Women and eugenics in Britain: The case of Mary Scharlieb, Elizabeth Sloan Chesser, and Stella Browne

Summary

Existing literature on eugenics only touches briefly upon the role played by women. This article sets out to examine the reason for the high participation of women in the British eugenics movement by focusing on the role of three individuals in the early part of the twentieth century. It concludes that an important objective of women in eugenics was the ‘feminization’ of its social agenda.