From the 1920s to the 1950s, California sterilized approximately 20,000 people in state homes and hospitals based on a eugenic law that authorized medical superintendents to perform reproductive surgeries on patients deemed unfit and "suffering from a mental affliction likely to be inherited." Working with a unique resource - a dataset created from 19,000 sterilization recommendations - my team and I have reconstructed patterns and experiences of institutionalization of sterilizations. This article presents several of our important initial findings related to ethnic and gender bias in sterilization policies, and reflects on the relevance of the history for contemporary issues in genomics and social justice.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 206. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 18 September 2026.
All research outputs
#241,279
of 34,644,748 outputs
Outputs from História, Ciências, Saúde-Manguinhos
#3
of 1,661 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#3,878
of 455,578 outputs
Outputs of similar age from História, Ciências, Saúde-Manguinhos
#1
of 54 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,644,748 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,661 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.9. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 455,578 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 54 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.
