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Margaret Sanger Essay, Research Paper

When a motherhood becomes the fruit of a deep yearning, not the result of ignorance or accident, its children will become the foundation of a new race.” (Margaret Sanger, 1) Margaret Sanger, known as the founder of birth control, declared this powerful statement. It is reality that the rights that are customary for women in the twentieth century have been the product of the arduous physical and mental work of many courageous women. These individuals fought for the right for women to be respected in both mind and body by bestowing on them the rights to protect their femininity and to gain the equivalent respect given to men. A remarkable woman named Margaret Sanger is the individual who incredibly contributed to the feministic revolution that took place in the 1920 s. Her legacy of making the right to use birth control legal for woman is a precedent in history for the foundation of the equal rights battle that is still being fought today. By giving control back to the women in their sexuality, Margaret Sanger also restored confidence in those women who felt that their lives revolved around pregnancy. She has become an influential icon to women all around the world who enjoy the security of birth control that gives them the freedom in their sexuality on a daily bases.

Margaret Sanger, a feminist and birth control pioneer, was born in Corning New York, the sixth of eleven children and the third of four daughters of Anne Higgins and Michael Higgins, both of Irish descent. Michael Higgins, an atheist and socialist, owned a monument shop and carved statuary for tombstones. Anne Higgins, a devout Catholic, was a strong-willed woman who died at the age of forty-nine of tuberculosis, worn out, in her daughter s view, and died from bearing and birthing and raising 11 children (Murphy, 1). This destiny was an important element in Margaret Sanger s desire to find a way for women to achieve control over their own reproductive power. Her father s influence was also a strong one. Her father was said to be a free thinker and outspoken radical (About Margaret Sanger, 1) Although he was something of an autocrat, she admired him for his advocacy of liberal issues, including woman suffrage and tax reform, which he discussed with her as his intellectual equal. He was an indifferent businessman, and the two eldest daughters were compelled to leave school early to go to work. Sanger recognized the bravery in her father and was driven to measure the amount of courage within herself. Margaret resented the family s poverty and lack of status and blamed the Catholic teaching, which promoted the bearing of many children without regard to the parent s ability to support them. Her early life consisted of a search for personal power and autonomy. Margaret, at a very young age, was convinced that she would always be able to do what she set out to do. When her eighth grade teacher teased her in class, she refused to return to school. With the help of her older sisters, she attended Claverack College. (Katz, 1) This was a secondary school in New York, where she earned her room and board by waiting on tables and washing dishes. After graduation, she taught briefly in Little Falls, New Jersey, and then returned home to take care of her mother, who died in March 1896. Michael Higgins expected his daughter to continue taking care of the household, but in the spring of 1899, she acquired a job as a nurse probationer at White Plains Hospital in White Plains, New York. She underwent several operations for tubercular glands, but by 1902, she had completed two years of practical-nurse training. In August, she married William Sanger, and architect, artist, and socialist. Through her work as a nurse, Margaret witnessed many traumatic experiences that would change the course of her life forever. Through her working experience, she saw women deprived of their health, sexuality, and ability to care for their already born children. During this time, she saw many women die of very preventable deaths due to child labor, and horrible methods of self-induced abortion. (About Margaret Sanger, 1)

It was during the 20 s that the battle between modernization and traditionalism was at it s highest. (About Margaret Sanger, 2) The 1920s was a time of great revolution and change for America. During this time, many new ideas and leads in arts and entertainment, sports, politics, public and social affairs, and crime and punishment skyrocketed like never before. While artists, inventors, and thinkers were changing the world in their own way, brazen free-thinking social reformers were causing status-quo old timers bewilderment . (Rayburn, 5) The loosening of restrictions on women was one of the most significant legacies of the 1920s. In both America and certain countries in Europe, women were voting for the first time. The Gibson Girl look was now out, and in her place was a girl known as a flapper who smoke, drank, and had sex as she pleased. Working women were more pervasive, and after work they were smoking, drinking, and speaking freely shocking their Gibson-girl-era mothers. (Rayburn, 2) Though certainly not unknown before the 1920s, youthful rebellion struck at the very foundations of tradition and morality. Young women were wearing dresses and shockingly tight bathing suits that showed leg skin from the knee on down, an unprecedented flaunting of flesh. From 1920 to 1925, dress hemlines raced upward from the ankles to the knees heights that only a few years before were seen only in houses of prostitution. (Rayburn, 1) Girls were caking on makeup. Girls and young women caked makeup on themselves in a fashion previously seen only on women of ill repute. (Rayburn, 2) The 1920s was the decade in which dating as we know it today was invented. The unchaperoned date was something new, and the rebellious youth along with the flappers were sure to cause an uproar when put together.

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