Margaret Sanger Essay Research Paper The early

Margaret Sanger Essay, Research Paper

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 babies, Margaret Sanger was very aware of how unwanted pregnancies affected lives. She witnessed the affects of self-induced abortions, the transferring of diseases from mother to child, and the deaths of mothers and children due to poor health conditions. Feeling strongly about the problem unwanted pregnancies, Sanger devoted her life to acquiring the right for women to prevent pregnancies through the use of contraceptives. After years of dedication and hard work, Margaret Sanger not only accomplished what she had hoped for-making people understand the importance and necessity of birth control, but also accomplishes something greater by extending women’s rights as well.

In a society where it was considered inappropriate for girls to know about their anatomy and its functions, let alone talk and read about it, Margaret Sanger realized that she must create literature that informed girls about their bodies. She produced a pamphlet titled What Every Girl Should Know. In it, she discussed subjects like physical growth, mental development, puberty, menstruation, sexual impulses, reproduction,

hygiene of pregnancy, and various venereal diseases (Sanger-Girl, 1). While her book was considered “obscene, lewd and lascivious material” (Gray, 43), Sanger was convinced that education about these topics were necessary. Through the publishing of What Every girl Should Know, Margaret Sanger demonstrated to common women, to her adversaries, and to the government that women deserve the right to learn about and understand their bodies.

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).

Following The Woman Rebel, Sanger wrote a pamphlet called Family Limitations. In this pamphlet, Sanger discussed such topics as the use of condoms, the importance of douches, and the practice of “coitus interrupts” or withdrawal (Whitelaw-Every, 50). For this informational writing, Sanger called a “heinous criminal who sought to turn every home into a brothel” and it was denounced as “indecent, immoral and a menace to society” (Douglas, 85). By writing these works of propaganda, Sanger was trying to inform women that there were ways of preventing births. She wanted to lower the birth rate for several reasons. Doing so could improve the quality and health of their lives.

Lower birth rates could also prevent the transfer of disease to their children and would not require their young children to work in factories in order to earn money (Whitelaw-Every, 54). Sanger advocated contraceptive devices and practices saying, “Birth Control will make parenthood a voluntary function instead of an accident as it is today. When motherhood and children are free, we then can go hand in hand toward the emancipation of the human race” (Sanger-Fight, 40).

Another one of Margaret Sanger’s contributions to women’s rights was her demand that women and men have equal treatment and conditions. This demand was brought on by the knowledge that men and women did not have equal access to condoms. Sanger knew that they were being used in various other countries as methods of birth control and that they were available for purchase within the United States. Although condoms were legally available, they were not to be used between married couples. Their only legal use “was to protect the male from venereal disease” when engaging with prostitute, “and not to protect the female from contraception” (Douglas, 69). This did not make sense to Sanger-“Contraception was only legal if its purpose was to promote male promiscuity” (Douglas, 101). The men who wrote and voted for this law barred women from protection that might save a mother’s life. It seemed that “Their only tolerance was for “phallic frolics” (Douglas, 101). Sanger made the public aware of this inequality in an attempt to encourage women to work to change the laws and common practices of society.

One of Margaret Sanger’s most important contributions in her demand for woman’s rights was he physical demonstration that their rights were important and that woman

could not be overlooked. Throug