The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt

The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt
by Audrey Clare Farley

I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for this very informative and emotional book! The review is all my own opinion.

This book really showed that a lot of research went into this! It is very informative, very frustrating, agitating, and emotional. It not only tells the story about Ann Cooper Hewitt, her horrid mother, her inventive father, but the deliberate laws to make America a white only population!

I would never have guessed that legal laws were on the books to sterilize minorities, "imbeciles", epileptics, rape victims, and the poor. The upper middle class white and rich could also have their children sterilized if they show more were one of the undesirable.

"Why did the Pilgrims come to America? What is the duration of a presidential term? What is the longest river in the United States? When was the Battle of Hastings fought?"
If you couldn't answer these questions, regardless of age, education, language, disability, well you are an " imbecile " and could be sterilized without your consent. Hundreds of thousands were. These were some of the questions asked to Ann who was not in school often.

The book briefly touches on a couple of other cases to make a few points. One case involved a girl of 18 in foster care which only had a 6th grade education because the foster family took her out of school and made her work the fields. The nephew of the foster family raped the girl and got her pregnant. She was deemed oversexed ( because she was raped), imbecile (because she didn't pass the tests because she wasn't educated enough), and untruthful (probably told about the rape which the foster family was hiding the nephew). The attorney for both sides felt she needed the sterilization! Even her own attorney was against her.

Later, 1940's- 1960's, pressure was put on white women to reproduce. Thus, the baby boom. The sterilization keep going on the undesirables!

Ann Cooper Hewitt was born to a female con artist that was pretty, Maryon. Maryon wanted material things and power. She went through several husbands to get it. Ann was a mistake to Maryon. She didn't want her and let her know constantly. I won't tell you about it except to say she did as the title of the book says, arranged for Ann to be sterilized. The will left by her husband said Maryon gets all the money if Ann is childless. Read the evidence for yourself and decide.

It also goes through a very through look a Maryon's life and Ann's life separately. Each one is extremely sad and pitiful. It seems to me that Maryon was seeking material and Ann was seeking someone just to love her.

In a strange way, Ann's case reminds me of the young Kennedy girl's case. Lobotomy to correct a mental embarrassment to the famous father. A socially excepted thing to do with your undesirables at the time. So sad! What has society turned us into? show less

really interesting period of time discussed here. i found the history more interesting than the person biography that she used as the backdrop of the time and to explain the forced sterilization of so many (thousands!) of people. this whole idea of eugenics and forced sterilization (which means poor women, women of color, and working women were targeted - not just against their will but often without their knowledge) is an awful period of history that we should know more about. this book is a great start for that.

"This popular characterization of white men as blunderers developed in the 1920s and 30s to challenge the Victorian notion that the male species was prone to sexual aggression, requiring the female species to tame it. Social show more reformers now insisted that men were simply ignorant about the ways to keep their women partners sexually and emotionally satisfied, and so they needed gentle instruction. Black men, long perceived to constitute the greatest threat to white women, continued to be perceived as depraved. The new perspective accorded women some respect in marital matters, while ensuring that men remained in control. Since men were simply buffoons, women no longer had permission to be squeamish about sex." show less

Interesting work of social history using the story of Ann Cooper Hewitt to launch an examination of the history of eugenics and related ideologies particularly in the USA. Cooper Hewitt's story is featured but the main points are what factors allowed her non-consensual sterilization to occur and to stand as an example for all the non-consensual sterilization inflicted on other women.

An amazing story about a woman who was sterilized against her will by her mother to avoid her inheriting anything from her father's estate.
Eugenics was the "thing" of the day to control women and their bodies.

Eugenics