Feminist Oppression Of Women In The 1920's

In the 1900’s, women began to fight the battle that would eventually be the win of a lifetime: the right to vote. The 19th amendment finally granted them their wishes. In 1920, women wanted the same rights and equality as men. Women during this time were treated as minorities because they were immigrants, or people of color, but all were unable to vote. These strong and encouraging women put together large groups and organizations to fight for what they wanted. They were fearless and ready for anything that came their way.

Founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, in her speech at the 1925 Birth Control Conference, “The Children’s Era,” explains the downfalls in American society when it comes to raising children. Through her speech, Sanger attempts to further promote her nonprofit organization and display the benefits of birth control. She appears to show compassionate characteristics towards children, more specifically future American children as she adopts an urgent tone to encompass her listeners into her ultimate goal: widespread, effective birth control methods.

Public discussions of birth control were criminalized under the Comstock Act of 1873 because people believed it was immoral. Margaret Sanger, who had opened the first birth control clinic in 1916 in spite of the Comstock Act of 1873, was a feminist and advocate of eugenics. After serving prison time, Sanger returned publicly and illegally with drive to present a strong argument that defended the moral use of birth control. Prior to her morally controversial 1921 speech, Sanger was arrested in New York for her intent to advocate public knowledge pertaining to birth control. Although the ethical nature of using birth control is still controversial in America, Margaret Sanger’s 1921 speech “A Moral Necessity for Birth Control” was undoubtedly a catalyst for American women to be empowered with the flexibility to choose when to procreate, thus allowing women the economic ability to escape oppression. As a result of such empowerment, I will argue that the speech’s sententious delivery of the morality of birth control use was causal to the increased demographic of women with professional degrees.

In 1917, Margaret Sanger was arrested for distributing contraception pessirie to a immigrant women. Margaret Sanger, was a nurse, mother, sex educator, writer and most importantly an activist. Sanger, fought for women’s rights which one of the main one was to legalize birth control in America. During the process of fighting Sanger establish the American Birth Control League, now called Planned Parenthood. Sanger fund money to Grisworld the created of the hormonal birth control pill the dream of Sanger. Sanger, “wanted to have it all, and was birth control as the necessary condition for the resolution of their often conflicting needs.” (Chesler 25). Birth control has always been a colossal issue since it was invention in the 1960s by Griswold and has remained and extraordinarily controversial topic since. Therefore, if teenagers get their parent’s consent for birth control, teens will still manage to get their way and have sex, parent will think they are unhealthy, and last some parent would want their female teenager conserve until marriage. Meanwhile, if they do not get the parental consent, teenage will be encouraged to be more sexually active, female teenage will know they are safe on not getting pregnant, and it will encourage female be promiscuous.

Margaret Sanger’s hard work to legalize and promote contraception was rooted in her belief that those who were impoverished should not procreate. In her book My Fight for Birth Control, Sanger claims, “I associate poverty, toil, unemployment, drunkenness, cruelty, quarreling, fighting, debts, and jails with large families” (Planned Parenthood). Sanger set out to “sterilize the unfit” and make known methods to control the population (Planned Parenthood). Many of her colleagues were racist and believed contraception should be used for the purpose of maintaining

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

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 1921, Sanger established the American Birth Control League, which is now is recognized as Planned Parenthood Federation of America. While working with the association she opened the first legal birth control clinic in the United States in 1923. The clinic was called the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau. Sanger started the National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control in 1929 by progressing her cause through legal networks. The committee pursued to make it permitted for physicians to distribute birth control without any

"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

     Although she had met her goal of legalizing birth control, Margaret Sanger still desired to assist women who were already pregnant but didn’t wish to keep the child. After returning from a national tour in 1916, Sanger opened the nation's first birth control clinic in Brownsville, Brooklyn (Katz 1). This, however, was a minor advancement considering that the clinic was raided in its first nine days of operation and she was taken to prison. The

Sanger’s movement to push for birth control caused her to be closely watched by the law enforcement. She repeatedly sent informative brochures about contraceptives out to the public and opened a birth control clinic in Brooklyn; it impudently went against Comstock Act and several other laws. In 1920 Sangers methods became less extensive and that same year she founded the American Birth Control League, now known as Planned Parenthood. This was one of the biggest milestones in her career as a feminist. In 1925 she gave her memorable speech “The Children’s Era” at the first birth control conference. When she delivered the speech she

She did this by being determined to bring women the right to their own bodies. Sanger did not care what she had to do to eventually get what she was fighting for and she was not going to stop fighting until she did. Not until United States v. One Package in nineteen thirty-six, did Sanger achieve her goal of reversing the Comstock Act’s classifications of birth control obscene ( Mikula). Once Margaret Sanger accomplished what she believed was right, which was give women the right to birth control if they wanted to use it, doctors also came up with medical reasons that could be solved by birth control and began to support birth control as a group of doctors. Birth control is still used today in women of all ages for health related problems not just as a contraceptive.

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,

Sanger grew up in a large family and while working as a nurse, she saw first the many problems that overpopulation was causing and had the potential to cause (Sanger). In the 1910s, Sanger began to publish articles on birth control, and initiated the National Birth Control League (Women in the Progressive

“A wider freedom is coming to the women in America” (Foner, Give Me Liberty, 677). An influential figure in the women’s movement was Charlotte Perkins Gilmen who wrote ‘Women and Economics’ in 1898 which set forth and challenged the ideas of gender roles that a women’s life was not to be bound to her husband and children in her home but is to be out in the workplace earning her own wages and be able to experience firsthand, true freedom. In her book, she stated “If that change is for the advantage of individual and the race, we need not fear it”, (Give Me Liberty, 710). Another shift in the women’s era was the idea and use of birth control for women. Social reformer Margaret Sanger advocated for the right for women to be able to enjoy sexual intercourse without the worry of falling pregnant and provided sex education to those in the urban poor communities. She also gave out contraceptives to poor immigrants but was later jailed for corrupting the minds of women with the birth-control movement. Having or not having children was an issue for all women regardless of social status, it brought together women part of the poor, middle and upper class economic society. Women could work but having a child made it more difficult for the women to do so, thus the birth control movement gave women so many more options than just being a wife and mother. They can now go pursue their careers, enjoy their