1960's an Interdisciplinary Approach Essay

Today, the availability of birth control is taken for granted. There was a time, not long passed, during which the subject was illegal (“Margaret Sanger,” 2013, p.1). That did not stop the resilient leader of the birth control movement. Margaret Sanger was a nurse and women’s activist. While working as a nurse, Sanger treated many women who had suffered from unsafe abortions or tried to self-induce abortion (p.1). Seeing this devastation and noting that it was mainly low income women suffering from these problems, she was inspired to dedicate her life to educating women on family planning—even though the discussion of which was highly illegal at the time (p.1). She was often in trouble with

Thesis: Margaret Sanger changed the world by rallying for the availability and use of contraceptives for all women.

The 1960’s was an eventful time period for the American people that could easily display various personalities from its events. The personality of being determined to overcome adversity can be seen greatly through the science area and all its achievements. A prime example of an achievement was the underwater sea lab, and an online article about it tells us “Sealab, experimental program sponsored by the U. S Navy intended to determine whether humans could live and work successfully for long periods of time

In the mid-1800s American women united to participate in social reforms movements more than ever before. This movement’s involved: struggle to abolish slavery, outlaw alcohol, and ban child labor among others (Rupp, 1987). Despite the failure of the women's movement to attain one among its primary goals, the passage of the ERA , the movement overall accomplished an excellent deal. For several women activists, management over their bodies was a central issue in the campaign. Women needed to be liberated to explore and control their gender, while not being judged by society. An oversized a part of management during this arena concerned having access to birth control, or contraception ways (Fishman, 1998). The contraception pill, associate inoculant,

Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement highlighted a variety of important issues. These issues include women’s right to make decisions privately versus the right of a community to regulate moral behavior; the ethnic demographics of the American people; the ability of women to control their own physical destinies by limiting family size; and the idea that small families were the way to keep the American dream alive. The debate over birth control spoke to personal and political issues, which poses the question: Was birth control merely a matter of individual choice, or was it about power, wealth, opportunity and similar issues? Birth control was not merely a technique to expand the realm of personal freedom; it grew out of a radical

Margaret Sanger was, at large, a birth control activist, but this speech was more about the questioning of birth control corrupting morality in women. People must remember, in the day and age

"A free race cannot be born" and no woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother"(Sanger A 35). Margaret Sanger (1870-1966)said this in one of her many controversial papers. The name of Margaret Sanger and the issue of birth control have virtually become synonymous. Birth control and the work of Sanger have done a great deal to change the role of woman in society, relationships between men and woman, and the family. The development and spread of knowledge of birth control gave women sexual freedom for the first time, gave them an individual

Nearly 70 years ago, one woman pioneered one of the most radical and transforming political movements of the century. Through the life that she led and the lessons she taught us, many know her as the “one girl revolution”. Though Margaret Sanger's revolution may be even more controversial now than during her 50-year career of national and international battles, her opinions can teach us many lessons. Due to her strong influence in history, our society has increased health awareness for women, made sexual protection a choice for all people, and also introduced family modification as a choice for mankind.

She created many foundations, leagues, pamphlets, and articles concerning birth control. Margaret Sanger revolutionized the 1900’s that later led to all generations by giving women the possibility of contraceptives as well as changing the Comstock laws that did not allow the knowledge of female reproductive systems. Margaret Sanger’s pledge to birth control rooted from losing her own mother as well as the background she grew up in and her struggle to get through school. Sanger’s own hardship led to her lifelong commitment to end the struggle for unwanted pregnancies. “At age nineteen Margaret watched her mother die of tuberculosis.

Many also believed it was the man’s decision as to how many children his wife should have. Sanger continued her quest opening a birth-control clinic in Brooklyn, New York, in 1916; one year later, the authorities arrested her for giving contraceptives to immigrant women (Bowles, 2011). At first glance it appears that Sanger had good intentions. “Others criticized her for involvement with eugenics, which was a scientific movement in which its practitioners advocated the notion that all mental and physical "abnormalities" were linked to hereditary and, with selective breeding, could be eliminated. They questioned whether or not Sanger's insistence on birth control and abortion was in fact a way to limit the growth of ethnic populations” (Bowles, 2011). “Of course, her activism put her directly at odds with law-enforcement officials and the Catholic Church, but little discussed is the actual extent to which her early Marxism guided much of what she managed to achieve. Her good friends included ultra-radicals like John Reed and Emma Goldman, and the truth is that Margaret’s feminism, and her support for eugenic ‘sexual science’, were both simply part-and-parcel of her own unique Marxist vision. Humanitarianism, per se, had little to do with what motivated Margaret Sanger” (Spooner, 2005). Sanger’s actions and motivations are a controversial topic that have been analyzed and debated for years. “According to her New York Times obituary,

In the midst of the Progressive Era Margaret Sanger Contributed her life career to the legalization of birth control. In the 1900’s women had no voice in how many children they wanted, often forced to endure over 9 child labors. She contributed to America by having birth control, a now legal Running head: MARGARET SANGER 4 drug to prevent pregnancy in women. For example, “Margaret Sanger was a pioneering feminist who advocated the right of women to control their bodies sexually and reproductively. She educated women about contraception and worked tirelessly for its legalization”

To add onto this, Sanger’s mother died from what was most likely tuberculosis, and Sanger believed that this was caused by too much childbirth, (Commire, ed., 1994). This led Margaret Sanger to search for a form of birth control to prevent deaths such as her mother’s from happening and to help the rapid population growth decrease. These influences helped mold her motivations to become the huge feminist figure that she is known as today. Preparation Margaret Sanger was the sixth child out of eleven children in her family.

The arrival of the pill in the spring of 1960 represented both an important step towards bodily autonomy for women, and a ‘new era in the long history of birth control’. For the very first time, there would exist a method of contraception that separated brith control from the act of sexual intercourse, and allowed women total control over their fertility. This caused many commentators to fear that the pill would ‘wreck moral havoc’ on the sexual behaviour of the nation, with some even going as far as to claim that it would lead to adultery and the destruction of the ‘nuclear family’. It was, after all, overwhelmingly mothers who rushed to fill their prescriptions when the pill hit the market at the peak of the baby boom. However, other parties claimed that the pill would cure the ‘social, sexual and political ills of the day… The pill was, bearing in mind the military metaphors that permeated the Cold War, the ‘magic bullet’ that would avert the explosion of the ‘population bomb’.’ By reducing the population, they argued, the pill would alleviate the conditions of poverty that so often seemed to lead to an embrace of communism among ‘third world’ nations. The pill would also booster the nuclear family with the promise of marital bliss, and would foster happy families along the way. ‘As one euphoric husband gushed; ‘with my wife on the pill, any moment is the right moment for love!’. In the eyes of its champions, the pill would be a powerful asset in the fight to maintain

In order to break free from the shackles of predestined breeding, Sanger suggests that women “assert their right to voluntary motherhood.” Through thinking on their own, women can be in command of their own bodies and in turn determine how to live their lives. While this may seem absurd to a modern mind, this was truly innovative and dangerous for Sanger to suggest. She was challenging traditions that dated back hundreds of years. “Even as birth control is the means by

The 1960’s was a decade that forever changed the culture and society of America. The