Essay A Decision Made

I. Introduction. There are many remarkable personalities in our history, which made revolutionary changes in women’s lives. Two of them were Margaret Sanger and Eleanor Roosevelt. They contributed immensely to change the women’s fates and lives and to position them equally with men. Margaret Sanger was born in 1879, in Corning, New York; she was sixth of eleven children of Michel Higgins, an Irish Catholic stonecutter, and religious Anne Purcell Higgins. Her mother went through eighteen pregnancies and died at the age of forty-eight. She studied nursing in White Plains and worked as nurse in one of the poorest neighborhood of New York. In 1902 Margaret Sanger married architect and radical William Sanger. She didn’t finish her studying. Margaret gave birth to three children. In 1912 Sanger’s family moved to Manhattan. All her life Margaret Sanger was a courageous, dedicated and persistent American birth control activist, advocate of eugenics, and the founder of the American Birth Control League. She was first woman opening the way to universal access to birth control.

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

Sanger’s word choice enabled her to place herself in the audience, and reach out to the listeners and show she was one of them. With her statement, Sanger was conveying to the spectators that the life of everyone needed to be bettered, and the intelligence that was growing needed to be used in a way that benefited themselves and others, starting with the enhancement of birth control knowledge in all social classes. Though the speech is about the morality of birth control, it also spruces up the fact that many churches did not allow birth control, and how lack of knowledge to women about this contraception was unfair (Sanger, par. 15). Though this issue was still standing, Sanger allowed her words to flow into the ears of eager listeners, place herself into the slot of an average citizen, and show how persuasion can be used to manipulate others.

Margaret Sanger founded a movement in this country that would institute such a change in the course of our biological history that it is still debated today. Described by some as a "radiant rebel", Sanger pioneered the birth control movement in the United States at a time when Victorian hypocrisy and oppression through moral standards were at their highest. Working her way up from a nurse in New York's poor Lower East Side to the head of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Margaret Sanger was unwavering in her dedication to the movement that would eventually result in lower infant mortality rates and better living conditions for the impoverished. But, because of the way that her political

In addition to What Every Girl Should Know, Sanger created other propaganda, which informed women that they deserved the right to prevent births. The purpose of her first publication of this type, a magazine called The Woman Rebel, was to inspire women to demand rights. She wanted "to stimulate working women to think for themselves and to build up a conscience, fighting character" (Douglas, 50). In each issue of the "Rebel", she discussed topics such as child labor, women and children in industry, health and cultural opportunities. She believed that women must determine her own maternity-"This was the most precious freedom" (Douglas, 50).

"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.

Margaret Sanger’s Goals and Objectives in Creating Social Change for Women’s Reproductive Freedom Margaret devoted her life’s work to create social change by fighting to make contraceptives and sexual education universally available to women. Sanger actively participated in movement to challenge the Comstock Law, which was a U.S. Federal Law that made it illegal to send “obscene” materials in the mail. Contraception was termed an obscene material (biography.com, 2014) of the time.  How Margaret Sanger Ignited the Movement for Women’s Reproductive Freedom : 

Margaret Sanger is one of the top ten most influential women in united states history for her role as an American Birth Control Activist. Margaret fought adamantly for women’s rights throughout her life, becoming the first to open a Birth Control Clinic in the U.S.

Sanger made huge changes in how the society viewed women at that time period. She was influential to women who felt like their life revolved around giving birth only. She also gave many women birth control options which allowed them the freedom of sexuality in everyday life. Sanger advocated and fought for women's rights throughout her life. Her determination and hard work gave women social rights, which later led to their right to control their own body through birth control.She advocated repeatedly that without birth control women will never be free (Sanger).

Margaret Sanger was an amazing women who organized many health clinics throughout the country as well helping in the legalization of birth control, she also worked in the creation of the first birth control pill. Sanger opened the first birth control center in the US in 1916, she spent thirty days in jail for opening helping women receive birth control. Sanger started a feminist publication in 1914 called The Woman Rebel, it promoted a woman's right to have birth control. She had many struggles with the laws surrounding providing information on birth control but she stayed fighting. Around the 1950s Margaret Sanger had won many legal victories which helped her to provide contraceptives to all women in America. In 1960 the release of enovid

She believed it was her duty to “place motherhood on a higher level than enslavement and accident” (Sanger) and in doing so, make motherhood an option. Up to this point in history, that was considered a woman’s duty to have and raise children, but Sanger saw things differently. Sanger saw the desperation of the women who had more children than they could handle and wanted to make a difference. Sanger collected 250,000 letters from women and published them in a book called Motherhood in Bondage, which contained messages from these women. One particularly moving one reads “I have two small children twenty months apart, the baby now seven weeks old and am twenty-one years myself. You might know what this means to me to care for two babies at this age when it simply stopped my being with my friends who can still be free to go, although I would do anything for my two children to help them go through a decent life. I am constantly living in fear of becoming pregnant again so soon” (I am a prisoner). This seems to be an accurate account of motherhood in this time period and shows the great need for birth control which Sanger responded to with her continuous work. By creating the ability to control the number of children a woman had, Sanger enabled families to escape the financial and health troubles that often

Margaret Sanger’s obsession with population control by the use of birth control can be linked back to her own home and family. Sanger was one of the eleven children in her home that grew up in poverty. Sanger often associated wealth with families containing fewer children and poverty and aggression with larger families. Sanger was exposed to the difficulties of pregnancy early on in life, as she was aware of her mother’s seven miscarriages. After seeing her family and mother struggle with un-wanted pregnancies and miscarriages Sanger began to believe that these issues may have caused the death of her mother. In the 1910’s-1920’s Sanger prepared to fight to have the Comstock Law amended or abolished,

Born to a socialist father who was also an early advocate of women’s suffrage, from him Margaret Sanger inherited her political pluck. This woman spent her life helping women take control of their own bodies and be educated; she is responsible for the plight of women in being able to reversibly prevent pregnancy through the use of a drug she pushed to get created known as “The Pill”. Margaret Sanger was over 80 years old when the first pills became available and by the end of the 1960’s there were many millions of women using the new form of birth control even though the Catholic Church and some states considered it vulgar and obscene and outlawed the use in preventing pregnancy. Ultimately this progressive change in thought and culture to women being able to control their own fertility and therefore be able to work outside the home; this also created a counter culture “sexual revolution” where women felt freer to express their own sexuality without the fear of becoming pregnant – while others saw this a moral decay of individuals and family. Conclusively the majority of people are happy with the results of Margaret Sanger work to provide women with a safe and healthy choice in preventing pregnancy but other are happy that only part of her philosophies were adopted by

Margaret Sanger was born as one of eleven kids in 1879 in New York. She lived in Corning, New York until 1910 where she moved and started a publication on a woman’s right to birth control. In 1912, she started to write a column in a local newspaper called “What Every Girl Should Know.” She was also a nurse—she helped many women who had tried to go through so-called “back alley abortions,” or attempting to