Throughout history, women have been fighting for their rights. They fought for their right to speak publicly, their right to work, and their right to vote. Today, women have the rights to control their lives as they wish. However, as close as the early 1900’s, women still did not have the basic right to control their fertility. Working as a nurse, Margaret Sanger believed that women should maintain the right to protect themselves against unwanted pregnancies. Margaret Sanger is The Woman Rebel who, despite overwhelming opposition, pioneered the way for modern family planning and, more importantly, the female sexual revolution.
The subject of birth control and the debate on whether birth control should be used is not a new subject. For centuries, women were using primitive and unsafe means of birth control to prevent pregnancies. Women had little education on the matter of pregnancy prevention. Many cultures were against birth control, including the Roman Catholic Church who strongly opposed the use of any birth control or artificial means of preventing pregnancy. In the United States, women face an especially stubborn resistance in the Comstock Laws. Disgusted by growing prostitution and pornography in the United State, Anthony Comstock lobbied that distribution of birth control and information to prevent conception promoted such lewd acts. In 1873, Congress eventually passed the Comstock Act which stated “That no obscene, lewd, or lascivious book, pamphlet,
If Margaret Sanger did not influence birth control and contraceptives like she did, the world would be very different today. Birth control is mainly used as a contraceptive but it is used for medical reasons also. When Sanger believed women should have the right over their own bodies she was determined to provide women with those rights. Sanger’s personal life influenced many of her beliefs and led her to be the strong leader she was, after she was left heartbroken by so many things she experienced. The grief caused by her personal life determined Sanger to make a difference not just for other women, but for the whole world and she was determined to fight for their rights no matter what stood in her way.
Margaret Sanger was a controversial and historical nurse. She lived during a time of revolutionary change when the women’s rights movement was in full motion. Born in 1879, to a large impoverished family, she was the sixth of eleven children. Sanger was part of a family of devoted Catholics. During that time it was a common practice for women to birth as many children as possible. As a result, she was a witness to the effects of diseases, miscarriages, and multiple pregnancies that eventually led to her mother’s premature death. This had a significant impact on her ideologies. She eventually became known for advocating women’s reproductive rights and founding what is now known as Planned Parenthood.
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
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
"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
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,
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
Sanger fought a life-time crusade to help women gain control over their health, legal and civil rights. She became a woman even today of heroic accomplishments for sexuality and birth control. This empowered legal rights today such as American civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights and AIDS- action movements. Margaret Sanger sincerely changed the world for the better and the destiny of the human race. She established the American Birth Control League in 1912;
Thesis: Margaret Sanger changed the world by rallying for the availability and use of contraceptives for all women.
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
The early twentieth century was a turning point in American history-especially in regards to the acquisition of women's rights. While the era was considered to be prosperous and later thought to be a happy-go-lucky time, in actuality, it was a time of grave social conflict and human suffering (Parish, 110). Among those who endured much suffering were women. As Margaret Sanger found out, women, especially those who were poor, had no choice regarding pregnancy. The only way not to get pregnant was by not having sex- a choice that was almost always the husband's. This was even more true in the case of lower-class men for whom, 'sex was the poor man's only luxury' (Douglas, 31). As a nurse who assisted in delivering
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.
Birth control ended up being the most effective way of choosing to prevent pregnancy. It grants women the choice to not get pregnant if they do not want to. Abortions stay lower rate when birth control is used. In 1965 states started legalizing contraceptives due to the right to sell them to married couples (“Our history”). They decided every women should have the right to be on birth
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,
Ashley Wilson History 110 Professor Rosalski November 14, 2017 The Birth Control Movement Outline I. Introduction a. History of The birth control movement i. During the Progressive Era, the birth control movement was an essential cause for many activist women to fight against the prevention of birth control methods. The birth control movement was a social reform campaign from 1914 to 1945 of which women began to gain sexual freedom and sexual education. b. The cause of The birth control movement i. Many Americans were opposed of birth control because they believed that it promoted promiscuity and gave the approval to men to pursue greater sexual urges outside of their marriages.