Summary Of The Children's Era By Margaret Sanger

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.

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.

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 argument is about birth control. She wants to get out women’s stories so that people can see genuine reasons why women are for the Birth Control Movement. What she uses to support her argument is strong evidence to get the people that are not for the Birth Control movement to see the real problem. Though there may be many with true knowledge about what women with so many children go through, there must be a handful who may be blinded by their religious beliefs or other reasons. Even today we see this huge controversy about abortion and we see those who are strongly against it refer to abortion as murder. Even though things are different in today’s world with just about everything, people still feel strongly about the situation in general. I thought I was against this, but I belonged to the group of people who made a decision based on my limited knowledge and what I vaguely think is right or wrong. Sanger even brings up that it is a “type of slavery.” She brings up solid points and follows them with real life examples. These are teenage mothers that she is talking about or women who became mothers in their teen years. As she tries to continue what she considers a battle, she also voices in from abstinent couples. She uses a letter written to her about a couple who had to become abstinent because it was basically a matter of life or death for the woman. She has several women contacting her for help puts her in a position where she feels she has to reach the public, as she sees how the number of women ask her for help increases, she sees this is something the rest need to see. It is too big of a problem for people to continue to say that it is just a matter of it being wrong. It is true when she says that it is a disgrace to American ideals and constitution which guarantees to every citizen the right to life, liberty, and the pursue of happiness (Sanger 202).

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

     In addition to the articles she composed, Margaret Sanger decided to make sexual protection an option for all people. Previously, contraceptives and spermicides were only distributed to those who had information on the matter and access to them (Margaret 1). Sanger was past 80 when she saw the first marketing of a contraceptive pill, which she had helped develop, although legal change was slow. It took until 1965, a year before her death, for the Supreme Court to approve the use of contraception, but Sanger had accomplished a goal (Margaret 1). Now, contraceptives were available to all women, in all walks of life, regardless of their financial situations. In her mind, poor mental development was largely the result of poverty, overpopulation and the lack of attention to children. This was definitely one of the reasons why Sanger desired to make protection available to lower class citizens, along with the wealthy.

Margaret Sanger starts by arguing that controlling reproduction by practicing birth control would lead to women's freedom. Once she reproduces she cannot get away with the responsibility handed upon her which causes her to sacrifice her freedom for a long period of time. Only she has the choice of freeing her from the burden of being a mother. A free country cannot be born with a mother who has the responsibility of a child. Women cannot be considered free until she controls her own body and has the choice to become a mother or not (Sanger).

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 this speech, Sanger is trying to further promote her nonprofit organization and display the benefits of birth control. She appears to show compassionate characteristics towards children, more specifically the future American children, as she adopts an urgent tone to encompass her listeners into her ultimate goal, widespread, effective birth control methods.

Imagine being a married woman in your 30’s during the beginning of the twentieth century. You are worn out from giving birth multiple times and you are desperate to know of a way to prevent yourself from having more children. This was the exact case for millions of women in the twentieth century. Women had no rights as a person, nor did they have any rights to their own bodies. In this era, the topics of sexuality, sex or birth control were all taboo subject matters and never discussed between married or un married couples. It wasn’t until the year of 1912 that a woman by the name of Margaret Sanger started her crusade to promote the right for women to use contraceptives to prevent unwanted pregnancies. In this essay, I will discuss what inspired Margaret Sanger to stand up for birth control rights. I will also explore the trials and legal issues that Sanger came up against. Lastly, I will talk about the victory and the difference Sanger made for women in the twentieth century. Margaret Louise Higgins (Sanger was her married name) was born in the year of 1879 in Corning, New York. She was sixth of eleven children and was born into an Irish-American family. Margaret knew at a very young age that she wanted to make a difference to empower women and to leave her mark on the world. Margaret was first inspired to go into the nursing field after witnessing her own mother die at the young age of forty from tuberculosis (TB). Margaret’s mother endured eighteen pregnancies but, she

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,

During the early 1900’s many women would get pregnant without any means of doing so. Most of the women that were becoming pregnant were financially unstable and could not afford to support another child. In order for women to feed their large families they began to work and on top of working they had to take care of things at home. Countless kids that came from large families were forced into child labor in order to help support their families. These women were forced to become mothers when they did not want to be. A majority of women during this time period would die while giving birth.Women began to want to control their own bodies. Margaret Sanger took notice of the problems that women had to face and decided to do something about it.

Margaret Sanger, a women’s health activist, was one of the most influential women of her time. She was one of the first people to open a birth control clinic, along with writing multiple books on the health and values of women. She was also one of the first people to change the way Americans thought of women. She wanted more respect not just for herself, but the million of women around her. Sanger established the first birth control clinic in the United States, founded the Birth Control League in 1921, and fought for the legalization of the birth control pill.

Regardless of one’s views on the topic of contraception, Margaret Sanger’s Woman and the New Race helped to break new ground through encouraging women to take control of their bodies. Early in her writing, Sanger brings up overpopulation and how women’s primary role as mothers have contributed to this issue. “While unknowingly laying the foundations of tyrannies and providing the human tinder for racial conflagrations, woman was also unknowingly creating slums, filling asylums with insane, and institutions with other defectives. She was replenishing the ranks of the prostitutes, furnishing grist for the criminal courts and inmates for prisons. Had she planned deliberately to achieve this tragic total of human waste and misery, she could hardly have done it more effectively.” This artfully formed passage shows the passion behind Sanger’s beliefs. While on the surface it may seem that she is attacking women, the point of her idea is to frame the passive nature of women in Western Society up to this point.