Birth Control: Salvation for Working-Class Women
Although societies with rigorous rules such as the ancient Greeks practiced the use of birth control and the invention of modern contraceptive methods---such as condoms, diaphragms, and douches---have been around since the early 1800’s, birth control still did not prevail in the twentieth century and was highly controversial. Margaret Sanger gave people a new and radical ideology stating how birth control helped women in many more ways than their sexuality. Sanger published many literature pieces about her opinions on options and freedom for women in society. Several other women and doctors acknowledged her argument by broadcasting it during the Progressive Era. When the 1920’s came around,
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These two pieces jumpstarted Sanger’s campaign for a woman’s right to access birth control. The Notably, Margaret Sanger debuted her tabloid---The Woman Rebel---in 1914. In regards to this, Sanger argued in “Why the Woman Rebel?” that deep down in every woman lies a spirit of revolt. Women in the early twentieth century were accustomed to listening to their husbands and having no voice of opinion. Women never felt the freedom of independence. The government ruled it illegal to distribute information on birth control, but that did not stop Sanger from rebelling against this law. When Sanger states, “…I believe that not until wage slavery is abolished can either woman’s or man’s freedom be fully attained,” she compared women to slaves, held down by the chains of restriction from gaining their own wages. Sanger argued for women’s freedom to make their own decisions. Falling into the child-bearing standard did not give women a choice on whether they wanted to be a part of the working class or to spend their lives as housewives. Publishing tabloids influenced many women across the country to reconsider their lives, but it was never easy for radical feminists to voice their opinion …show more content…
Anthony Comstock worked as a special agent of the U.S. Post Office Department. He served as a high position in government, which crippled Sanger’s campaign to spread the word about birth control and allow women to gain their freedom outside the household Comstock opposed birth control in a very strong manner and even disapproved Sanger’s newspaper to be distributed. In the interview, Comstock explained about how women sunk down to the level of the beast by choosing to have sex instead of having self-control. He argued that if women bore the strength of abstaining, then there wouldn’t be a need for birth control or abortions in the first place. With regards to blaming, Comstock not only antagonized the parents for succumbing to sin, but also blamed women for sexualizing themselves in the first place. Furthermore, he stated that preventing a woman from getting pregnant would work the greatest
Margaret Sanger’s obsession with population control by the use of birth control can be linked back to her own home and family. Sanger was one of the eleven children in her home that grew up in poverty. Sanger often associated wealth with families containing fewer children and poverty and aggression with larger families. Sanger was exposed to the difficulties of pregnancy early on in life, as she was aware of her mother’s seven miscarriages. After seeing her family and mother struggle with un-wanted pregnancies and miscarriages Sanger began to believe that these issues may have caused the death of her mother. In the 1910’s-1920’s Sanger prepared to fight to have the Comstock Law amended or abolished,
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
Most men tried putting a stop to birth control. Even some women tried to put a stop to birth control from the influence of men. The government thought birth control would hurt more than aid the people of America. Sanger did not want to live in a sexist, men dominated world, she believed that it “is not to preserve a man-made world, but to create a human world by the infusion of the feminine element into all of its activities." Sanger desired for men to think of women as more than just a children making machine.
Margaret Sanger was an influential figure during the turn of the twentieth century. She was born in 1879 to a typical American family. Her parents were Irish immigrants but despite their financial issues, Margaret went on to do amazing things for women. Margaret attended nursing school and graduated in 1896 (Witherbee, 2005). She hosted protests and stand in’s in an effort to help achieve justice for those who otherwise wouldn’t receive it. However, her main contributions to science surround her huge strides in social reform for woman. An article by Chesler explains that after seeing a young girl die from an illegal at home abortion, Sanger made it her personal agenda to achieve freedom for women over their bodies. This took the form of contraception
Margret Sanger emphasized to America on the need for birth control and how it could help America. Having birth control would save many of woman from unorthodox methods of abortions. Having birth control would save people from the burden of bringing a child into a life that they couldn’t afford to raise. Although her thought challenged many views of American standard Margaret Sanger helped change and save many
Margaret Sanger, Also known for being a feminist and women's rights activist, and coined birth control to become legalised. Margaret started her mission to legalise birth control in 1916, she was know as a racist for the reason she wanted to have birth control was to “get rid of black babies”, but she had also believed in women's rights. In a 1921 article, she wrote that, “the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective.” which is why she helped start the women's rights movement and coined birth control.
An American sex educator, birth control activist, author, and nurse, that’s who Margaret Sanger was. Sanger “created” the expression "birth control", established the first birth control clinic in the United States, and set up associations that later developed into the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. A fervent women's activist, human rights lobbyist, and supporter of sex-positivity, Sanger was additionally a eugenicist, trusting that anti-conception medication was at any rate as imperative an apparatus for restricting the generation of 'the unfit' as it was for women's freedom. Sanger concurred with numerous driving researchers and progressives of her day in attributing to purported Social Darwinism, a problematic term since it doesn't
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.
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
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
To add onto this, Sanger’s mother died from what was most likely tuberculosis, and Sanger believed that this was caused by too much childbirth, (Commire, ed., 1994). This led Margaret Sanger to search for a form of birth control to prevent deaths such as her mother’s from happening and to help the rapid population growth decrease. These influences helped mold her motivations to become the huge feminist figure that she is known as today. Preparation Margaret Sanger was the sixth child out of eleven children in her family.
This organization she created gave physicians the opportunity to distribute contraceptives. It took some time and obstacles to overcome such as the Catholic Church and doctors who did not agree with this course of action. “In 1936 the U.S Court of Appeals ruled that physicians were exempt from the Comstock Laws ban on the importation of birth control materials.” (The Margaret Sanger papers). In the 1920s and 30s Margaret began to travel and speak about birth control in Europe. Along for the ride was Edith How- Martyn, a British feminist who wanted to accomplish the same outcomes as Sanger. Together they both created the Birth Control International Information Centre. This being after World War II, the population has increased in third world countries so they deemed it necessary in being there to support this
Sanger was a demonstrative and powerful voice for women during the late 1800s, and advocated their right to their own bodies and their own pregnancies. Because she believed in women's right to control their reproductive health, she pushed for accessible birth control when it was not openly spoken about or even conceptualized. Sanger created the first legal birth control clinic in the United States: the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau in 1923 and later had a hand in creating the first oral birth control pill (“Margaret Sanger”). Even though these companies and medications were established none of the progress was not without legal threat. Sanger’s mission was one that shook the laws that were already in place at the time. Before Planned Parenthood could even be conceptualized there had to be tremendous push-back and a movement towards a bright future on the part of women. Sanger is responsible for the brunt of the progress made in the women's rights movement at the time and without her Planned Parenthood would likely not become one of the largest providers of women's health in the United States
The birth control pill was the first form of oral contraceptive approved by the FDA in 1960. What began as a matter of population control and family planning for low income individuals grew into a massive feminist movement including upper and middle class women demanding oral contraceptives in the context of a sexual revolution in the 1960’s
The deliberate use of artificial methods or other techniques to prevent pregnancy as a consequence of sexual intercourse become norm in 21st century, though in 20th century American society, it was debatable. In New York in 1920, a debate about birth control took place between Margaret Sanger and Winter Russel. They argued on the following issue “Resolved, that the spreading of birth control knowledge is injurious to the welfare of humanity.” Even though, the main core of the debate was about the spreading of birth control knowlage, both debaters argued and focused in their values. Mr. Russel a New York attorney argued from Christian point of view and Mrs. Sanger argued more from scientific and logical point of view. When Mrs. Sanger launched her campaign about birth control, she found herself in big trouble. She said “In August, 1914, a Federal Grand Jury returned three indictments against me, based on articles in the March, May and July issues of The Woman Rebel. The articles branded as "obscene" merely discussed the question and contained no information how to prevent conception. But the authorities were anxious to forestall the distribution of this knowledge.”. In this particular debate She argued not having large family can help women to be a productive citzens and it can prevent health risks that came with repeated pregnancy. In other hand her opponent belived giving birth control to a women is against law of nature, it is a race-suicide and not telling people about