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Initial Questions: The Brodie Papers

The chain of events leading to my discovery of Dr. Jessie Laird Brodie and her work in Haiti was somewhat unusual. While searching for ways to engage with local cultural organizations last summer, I was offered the opportunity to explore French-language material at the Drexel Legacy Center Archives and Special Collections. As I was introduced to various collections with a connection to the Francophone world, I found myself particularly intrigued by the papers of Dr. Jessie Laird Brodie (1898-1990), a specialist in pediatrics and gynecology as well as an early birth-control advocate. In 1967, Brodie took on the role of Latin American Field Representative for family planning organization The Pathfinder Fund — a position which, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, saw her involved in efforts to help initiate a family planning program in Haiti. My own academic interests have often centered on the French-speaking Caribbean, and while my previous research on Haiti has revolved almost exclusively around the revolutionary era, I nevertheless decided to see what I could uncover of Brodie’s work in the country.

The research process — essentially diving in with no particular idea of either what I was looking for, or what I might find — was a novel one for me; my previous experience with archives had always seen me arrive with either greater context for the materials or specific figures I hoped to locate. This new approach had its frustrations; while I could comprehend the collection’s mix of English and French documents, the organization of folders by thematic rather than chronological order made piecing together a linear narrative more difficult. As I constructed my own rough timeline of events, I also began to grapple with broader questions of purpose: what was I hoping to take from this story, and this process? And what aspects of Brodie’s activity for Pathfinder might help me to refine how I was reading and assessing the documents?

A Lens to Look Through: Pathfinder’s Troubling Past 

Here, outside research proved essential. Today, the Pathfinder Fund is known as Pathfinder International; their mission — supporting “women, young people, and communities by expanding access to sexual and reproductive health care” (“Our History”), — remains similar, if not identical. The nuances behind the shift in Pathfinder’s values became clearer to me as I discovered both their own statement on “Entering a New Era” at 65 and scholarly articles that provided additional context into the early days of birth control, including how the term — something I had long viewed as a pillar of women’s rights — often bears links to a more ambiguous (and frequently more problematic) history. Birth control may mean women’s rights, and reproductive rights overall, but it has also famously overlapped with movements involving population control and eugenics. 

Fig. 1: Dr. Clarence Gamble

Fig. 2: Dr. Jessie Laird Brodie

Questions of whose population is meant to be controlled, and why — essentially, in eugenicist thinking, of who is seen as worthy of contributing to the next generation of humanity — often directly counter notions of reproductive rights, and it is at this historical crossroads that Pathfinder now finds itself situated. The Pathfinder Fund was founded by Dr. Clarence Gamble, who, as Pathfinder notes “used his wealth to operationalize the eugenics agenda, funding contraceptive research, experimentation, and distribution without regard for the voluntary and informed consent of the people affected” (“Entering a New Era”). Among other initiatives, such as his support of Human Betterment Leagues, Gamble’s work often targeted minoritized groups — often rural, poor, and non-white women — for sterilization. In their 2021 article “The Racialization of Privacy,” Jessica Vasquez-Tokos and Priscilla Yamin illustrate Gamble’s disdain for the working class by noting his own remark that, “birth control, intensively applied, can control the dangerously expanding population of an unambitious and unintelligent group” (729). Laura Doyle’s 2004 paper “The Long Arm of Eugenics” notes that Gamble also acted upon racist ideology, noting that he “helped to fund… the Negro Project in Georgia,” where “his project proposal deemed blacks ‘careless’ and ‘disastrous breeders’” (532).

After the Second World War, Gamble appears to have turned his efforts from population groups within the United States to those outside its borders. As the eugenics movement faltered due to its association with Nazi Germany, the revised concept of “population control” — in which “fears that population growth in the global south could undermine US political, economic, and colonial interests” (“Entering a New Era”) — flourished in its stead. And though Dr. Jessie Brodie’s work on behalf of the Pathfinder Fund began at the end of 1967, over a year after Gamble’s death, I found it impossible (and historiographically irresponsible) to consider the Haiti papers without a particular focus on how concepts of white western superiority might have impacted the process. Did Brodie align ideologically with Gamble? And to what extent might that have manifested in her work?

Intention, Perception, and Impact: Brodie in Haiti 

There is evidence that Brodie was familiar with, and involved in, issues of population control. The concept arises in a March 1970 newsletter from the Planned Parenthood Association of Oregon (for which Brodie had previously served as Executive Director) — which, alongside its news articles, bears an ominous reminder: “WHATEVER YOUR CAUSE IT IS A LOST CAUSE UNLESS WE CONTROL POPULATION GROWTH.” Brodie’s own support for population control, as indicated in a 1966 letter written on Planned Parenthood stationary, appears based more on environmental concerns and resource availability than any articulations about race, class, or United States interests. Though more research would need to be done to determine the extent to which she possessed detailed knowledge of, or a definitive stance on, Gamble’s racist and classist ideologies, her own work in Haiti appears to have been genuinely service-focused, and her sense of connection to the country, though occasionally paternalistic, is evident.

Brodie visited Haiti in January 1969; she returned in October of the same year for a four-month stay. Her report, written after her first visit, is stark: “I have,” she writes, “visited no country in which poverty is as evident as in Haiti.” Her observations, however, are often astute — her descriptions of the “large number of beggars in rags, filth, and disease who are asking for alms,” are complimented by the “enormous and glittering white” President’s Palace, then home of François “Papa Doc” Duvalier. Life under the Duvalier dictatorship made itself known in other ways as well; in a November 1969 letter, Brodie noted the climate of fear that frequently surfaced among Haitian medical personnel: “One of the women physicians said there are things we can’t talk about — ‘I saw colleagues killed who just talked.’” Brodie’s guide and translator, a doctor named Nicole Garnier, also struggled to navigate the danger: “Even in groups where Nicole is translating for me she will refuse to ask a question or translate a remark until we are in the hotel room with all the windows shut and the air conditioner on.” Family planning discussions in the country took place informally — by necessity, Brodie writes, given “the government’s objection to public gatherings and to organized movements” (the members of the group that did meet regularly to discuss family planning even referred to themselves jokingly as the “Family Planning non-Committee Committee”).

Fig. 3: Control of the Use of Contraceptives: the Duvalier government’s order forbidding the operation of all private family planning programs and clinics. After having navigated various other setbacks, Pathfinder’s planned pilot program was finally terminated in the aftermath of this decree.

Throughout her involvement in Haitian family planning initiatives, Brodie was in close consultation with local physicians; while Pathfinder appeared willing to provide organizational assistance and financial support, their overall strategy involved working in tandem with in-country networks to implement a new, further-reaching program. Brodie’s dedication to the project, as well as her commitment to spending time in Haiti itself (and thus appreciating its nuances and obstacles better than many other Pathfinder employees) were recognized by her Haitian colleagues, with Dr. Nicole Garnier noting in a December 1970 letter, that, “having spent time in my country you can understand the problems better than someone who has heard them spoken of.” Whether attempting to aid Dr. Garnier in supplying tool kits and training courses for midwives, collaborating with the “non-Committee Committee” to hold a multi-week family planning seminar for healthcare professionals from across the country (and ensuring that the participants were paid for their time), or attempting to keep the envisioned Pathfinder-funded family planning initiative from being subsumed into the Duvalier government’s own burgeoning program, Brodie was also relentlessly service-focused. When Pathfinder involvement in Haiti was forced to end — as a result, ultimately, of a decree by the Duvalier government forbidding family planning services, ostensibly in an attempt to better regulate them by placing them solely within the purview of the government  — Brodie was devastated. Still, however, she pushed her own supervisors at Pathfinder to ensure that their partners in Haiti had been properly compensated for their time and work as per preexisting agreements, and kept in touch with Dr. Garnier for several years to come.

Despite the genuine effort Brodie seems to have made to familiarize herself with Haitian politics and culture, as well as the work she put into supporting pre-existing family planning efforts rather than completely overriding them, it is impossible to view the Pathfinder Haiti project in an entirely positive light. Many of the methods of birth control provided by Pathfinder and offered in Haitian clinics — including the pills Ovulen and Ovral, assorted IUDs, and the shot Depo Provera — appear to have been insufficiently tested, with their usage being seen both as a benefit for individual women and an opportunity to continue to study their effects. IUDs were repeatedly reported as an unpopular method, with many patients requesting removal not long after insertion; the degree to which these women had been informed about the nature, purpose, and potential side effects of an IUD remains unknown. Multiple options for birth control were not always available, and when formal studies regarding methods took place, it is not certain whether informed consent was obtained.

Brodie’s own view of Haiti and its people, while shaped by her desire to help, also slid easily into a version of infantilization. While in April 1970 she phrased her affection in a more egalitarian way, noting that she had “developed a tremendous fondness for that country and their people,” in August 1971, while encouraging Pathfinder’s Executive Director to reimburse a partner organization in Haiti (see fig. 4), she justified the sharp tone of her letter by saying, “I still feel as though Haiti is my handicapped and retarded child.” In addition to her use of a term now considered a slur, Brodie’s terminology reveals a perception of Haiti that is not only ableist but dismissive: the country, she seems to say, requires her additional support, as it is unable to fully function on its own. Also worth noting is that while Haiti’s struggles are, to this day, real and numerous, Brodie — whether due to a genuine lack of historical knowledge or an unwillingness to implicate her own country — also never delves into the ways in which outside interference, including the 1915-1934 U.S. Occupation, has historically hindered Haiti’s development and prosperity. In her consequently narrowed view, Haiti may deserve the care a physician would provide — but it remains unworthy of the respect that Brodie would afford an adult.

Fig. 4: 1971 letter from Dr. Brodie to Richard Gamble, displaying the full, perhaps contradictory range of Brodie’s sentiments: she manages to infantilize Haiti as a country while urging Gamble to fulfill professional obligations and compensate allied group Service Chrétien d’Haïti for expenses incurred on Pathfinder’s behalf (click each page for larger view).

Conclusion: Ambiguity, Ever-Present

Did Brodie’s ideology — and Pathfinder’s ideology in the late 1960s/early 1970s — align, ultimately, with that of Clarence Gamble? Though more research — including delving far deeper into Brodie’s own life, as well as her involvement with other Latin American countries on Pathfinder’s behalf — would need to be conducted before coming to a definite conclusion, the glimpses of Brodie’s thoughts and actions obtained through her work in Haiti seem to suggest not — or not entirely. Though her perception of Haiti and its people may appear paternalistic, even somewhat disdainful, her commitment to the project and her willingness to collaborate with local grassroots movements showcase her work as a dynamic and sympathetic professional. And though Brodie’s stance on the crucial differences between reproductive rights vs. population control remains ambiguous, that ambiguity has in itself become my greatest takeaway from this project. Thoughts and actions are often contradictory; consequences of actions can vary widely; degrees of superiority and compassion can exist within the same urge to help. It is the task of the researcher and historian, therefore, to search for and grapple with that nuance; to understand intention and to balance it with impact; and to conduct thorough research and analysis before making any definitive statement or judgment. After all, humans — and history — rarely adhere to dichotomies.

Works Cited

Brodie, Jessie Laird. Letter to Richard Gamble. 17 August 1971. Jessie Laird Brodie Papers. 
WM.244, Box 1, Folder 20. Legacy Center Archives, 91��Ƭ��, Philadelphia, PA. 
— — —. Letter to Edmund Kellogg. 29 November 1969. Jessie Laird Brodie Papers. 
WM.244, Box 1, Folder 22. Legacy Center Archives, 91��Ƭ��, Philadelphia, PA. 
— — —. Letter to Unknown Recipient. 1966. Jessie Laird Brodie Papers. WM.244, Box 1, 
Folder 18. Legacy Center Archives, 91��Ƭ��, Philadelphia, PA. 
— — —. Letter to Mrs. Wallace Turnbull. 20 April 1970. Jessie Laird Brodie Papers. 
WM.244, Box 2, Folder 17. Legacy Center Archives, 91��Ƭ��, Philadelphia, PA. 
— — —. “Report of Field Trip to Haiti for The Pathfinder Fund.” 1969. Jessie Laird 
Brodie Papers, WM.244, Box 2, Folder 9. Legacy Center Archives, 91��Ƭ��, Philadelphia, PA.
— — —. “Summary of Reports on Family Planning Survey Trip to Haiti For the Pathfinder 
Fund.” Date Unknown. Jessie Laird Brodie Papers, WM.244, Box 2, Folder 7. Legacy Center Archives, 91��Ƭ��, Philadelphia, PA.

Doyle, Laura. “The Long Arm of Eugenics.” American Literary History, vol. 16, no. 3, 2004, pp. 
520-535. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3568064.

Entering a New Era: Pathfinder Reckons with Our Past and Envisions a New Future at 65.”

Pathfinder, www.pathfinder.org/impact-stories/entering-a-new-era/.

Garnier, Nicole. Letter to Jessie Laird Brodie. 5 December 1970. Translated by Jessie Brodie. 
Jessie Laird Brodie Papers, WM.244, Box 2, Folder 8. Legacy Center Archives, 91��Ƭ��, Philadelphia, PA.

“Our History.” Pathfinder, www.pathfinder.org/our-history/.

“Planned Parenthood Association, Inc. Newsletter.” March 1970. Jessie Laird Brodie Papers, 
WM.244, Box 2, Folder 1. Legacy Center Archives, 91��Ƭ��, Philadelphia, PA.

Vasquez-Tokos, Jessica and Priscilla Yamin. “The Racialization of Privacy.” Theory and Society, 
vol. 50, no. 5, 2021, pp. 717-740. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/48763068.

Further Reading

For an overview of the Duvalier era: 
Bellegarde-Smith, Patrick. “Dynastic Dictatorship: The Duvalier Years, 1957-1968. (Excerpt 
from Haiti: The Breached Citadel).” Haitian History: New Perspectives, edited by Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall, Routledge, 2013, pp. 273-284.

For an in-depth look at Brodie’s life and career: 
Adams, Sadie Anne. “‘We Were Privileged in Oregon’: Jessie Laird Brodie and Reproductive 
Politics, Locally and Transnationally, 1915-1975.” PDXScholar, pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/781/.