The emergence of eugenics in the 20^th century exploited not only women’s labour, but also their bodies. The study of eugenics sought to use genetic data to find which traits were hereditary, and in doing so control reproduction, so that “undesirable” genes like poverty and mental illness were eliminated (Week 5, Slide 42). Governments in the United States, Canada, and other countries pushed the narrative of progress that the use of eugenics, through data collection and reproduction control, would optimize societies’ productivity and intelligence (Week 5, Slide 14). Eugenics was based on the hereditary nature of peas, which is not relevant to human biology and does not factor in complex human relationships and socio-economic factors (Week 5, Slide 68). Women’s labour was used to gather this data by taking advantage of punch card tabulating technologies which were being developed to aid the counting of US census data (Week 5, Slide 24). There were also special family tree charts and cataloguing systems used to collect data (Week 5, Slides 52-54). The methods and reliability of this scientific exploration yielded data that was doubted by the women doing the fieldwork (Bix, 1997). Yet, their doubts and voices were not valued in this data collection process. For example, Amey (Eaton) Watson, questioned the information gathering method’s ability to reliably deduce hereditation of intellectual abilities within the confines of traditional scientific theory (Bix, 1997). She was unconvinced, writing, “I began to wonder if traits were inherited at all” (Bix, 1997, p. 647). Despite this, eugenics data was used to justify the forced sterilization of women, especially women of colour, without their consent and often without their knowledge (Week 5, Slide 61). In Canada, Indigenous people were disproportionately victims of forced sterilization, and this is further complicated by the difficulties in locating and accessing sterilization records (Leason & Ryan, 2019). The narrative that society could be become more efficient, paired with new information collection technologies, lead to the exploitation of women’s labour and the control and violation of their bodies. The biopolitical control of reproductive health continues today, in areas like legalization and access to abortion and access to birth control. 

Alongside eugenics, women’s mental and physical labour was being exploited to advance the new science of food, called dietetics. Dietetics emerged in the 19^th century and advanced in the 20^th century, from the narrative that the increased efficiency of a population’s bodies would benefit societies’ efficiency overall (Week 5, Slide 70). This includes the emergence of the concept of food as energy, or calories, and the emergence that it was an individual's responsibility to themselves and society to maximize their calories within their own budget (Rebrovick, 2015). Research was done to create tools that would aid households in optimizing their diets through tables like The Economic Values of Foods (Smith, 1864). The chart was intended to be used as a guide, as it itemized foods, their prices, and their nutrient values (Smith, 1864). However, what goes unsaid is that this was passing the responsibility from the state onto the individual. This was a scenario where state ideologies of efficiency and food as energy were permeating into the way households were meant to be organized, putting the pressure largely on women who held these gendered roles in society. Dietetics as a women's job inside and outside the home would continue in the 20^th century, with dietician careers being promoted to women (Oglesby, 1931). The idea of cooking being labour more than leisure for women is still relevant today. Szabo (2013) found that there are many distinct factors that lead to men to see cooking as “leisure” and lead women to see it as “work”, including that men often have fewer domestic responsibilities outside of the cooking itself. 

Similarly to histories of the body, the history of computing often benefits from the erasure of women’s mental and physical labour. The first computers were humans, usually women doing skilled mental calculation (Hicks, 2017). During WWII, women were employed in skilled computational positions and helped work on calculations and machines like the ENIAC in the United States and the Colossus in the UK (Hicks, 2017). These efforts were valuable to military exploits such as codebreaking (Hicks, 2017). The narrative sold to women was that they were helping their countries and doing valuable work (Hicks, 2017). However, after the war, very few women stayed in computing roles (Hicks, 2017). Women were encouraged to go back to domestic work within the home or accept low-level undervalued office jobs (Hicks, 2017, pp. 22-23). The feminized computational labour that helped define early computing and the war effort was largely erased. For example, women’s labour was invaluable to the creation of the ENIAC computer, but there was little recognition for their efforts (Light, 1999). This devalues women's work in the wartime effort as simply a necessary replacement of male workers, where women “did their part” and then were expected to subvert back to dependent domestic societal roles. These histories and labour are dominated by white women. The emergence of the personal computer and programming in the 20^th century brought narratives of opportunity for people of colour, but like we have seen with computing history, these new tech positions often maintained racist social inequalities and devalued the labour of people of colour (Gibbons, 2022).  

The following exhibit is split into three sections, Eugenics, Dietetics and Computing. These sections contain artifacts from the 19^th century to today that illustrate the ways in which women’s labour and bodies were exploited to advance narratives of progress surrounding new information technologies.  

This 1967 article promotes computing science positions for women, with the false narrative that this is a "natural" position for women and their labour and will be valued in this area. In reality the work they were being offered was often seen as low-skilled (Hicks, 2017).

Source:

Staiti, A. (2021). Just like “planning a dinner”? The feminization of computer programming. National Museum of American History. https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/just-planning-dinner-feminization-computer-programming 

Source:

Kidwell, P. A., & Grabowski, A. (2018). Grace under pressure. National Museum of American History. https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/grace-under-pressure 

The capillaries in my eyes are bursting,
If our love died, would that be the worst thing?
For somebody I thought was my saviour,
You sure make me do a whole lot of labour.

(Paris Paloma, 2024)

This song, and its video, indicate a modern acknowledgement and rejection of women's traditional roles within society. The same powers that have historically exploited and erased women's labour still exist today. The clips are compiled from social media, indicating the ways in which modern technologies are being used to question and reject these long held social expectations of women.

Source:

Paris Paloma. (2024). Paris Paloma - LABOUR (the cacophony) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JDFRTRjozc

Source:

Mitchell, H. S. (1941). America expects every cook to do her duty. Good Housekeeping, 113, 138-138, 175. Retrieved from http://proxy.lib.sfu.ca/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/magazines/america-expects-every-cook-do-her-duty/docview/1847829463/se-2

Bartik explains decades later about the skilled complexity of the labour needed for programmers of the ENIAC, alongside the lack of recognition her and her fellow programmers received for their work, highlighting the erasure of their labour.

Source:

Jean Bartik: ENIAC’s Programmers - CHM Revolution. (2011). https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/birth-of-the-computer/4/78/2258

The CHM section "Computers before Computers" highlights male "innovators" of computation as those who have "saved" society from this repetitive and tedious work. This highlights the continued devaluation and erasure of women's labour in early computing history, as even today these narratives of innovation pervade history telling.

Source:

Large-scale tabulating operation - CHM Revolution. (n.d.). https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/birth-of-the-computer/4/83/272

Source:

The New York Times ENIAC article - CHM Revolution. (n.d.). https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/birth-of-the-computer/4/78/323

Source:

Wallace, R. (2022). Admiral Grace Murray Hopper: When Women Were Computers. The National WWII Museum | New Orleans. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/grace-hopper-woman-computer#:~:text=She%20became%20associate%20professor%20at,important%20to%20the%20war%20effort.

Source:

Wallace, R. (2022). Admiral Grace Murray Hopper: When Women Were Computers. The National WWII Museum | New Orleans. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/grace-hopper-woman-computer#:~:text=She%20became%20associate%20professor%20at,important%20to%20the%20war%20effort.

Sources:

IBM. The punched card tabulator | IBM. (n.d.). https://www.ibm.com/history/punched-card-tabulator

Source:

Smith, E. (1864). Practical Dietary for Families, Schools, and The Labouring Classes. Walton and Maberly. Retrieved from

https://canvas.sfu.ca/courses/82243/files/23227644?module_item_id=3235334

Source:

McCain, M. (2022). Robbing Reproductive Autonomy: Forced Sterilizations in the Americas and the Inter-American Human Rights System’s Response. Princeton University: Journal of Public and International Affairs. https://jpia.princeton.edu/news/robbing-reproductive-autonomy-forced-sterilizations-americas-and-inter-american-human-rights

Source:

National Museum of American History. Critical intersections: Histories of Latinos, reproduction, and disability. (2013). https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/critical-intersections-histories-latinos-reproduction-and-disability

Works Cited:

University of Michigan Reproductive Justice Exhibit Planning Team. Birthing Reproductive Justice: 150 years of Images and Ideas | Whose Reproductive bodies? · Online exhibits. (n.d.). https://apps.lib.umich.edu/online-exhibits/exhibits/show/reproductive-justice/overview

Source:

Dick, S. (2024a). CMNS 353 D100: The Information Age: Week 5: Bodies [Lecture Slides].

Source:

Tribole, E. (1992). National center for nutrition and dietetics. Ladies' Home Journal, 109, 178. Retrieved from http://proxy.lib.sfu.ca/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/magazines/national-center-nutrition-dietetics/docview/1926463725/se-2