Margaret Sanger Woman and the New Race (1920) Brandi Cullipher

Background Information She was born September 14, 1879; died 1966She was born September 14, 1879; died 1966 SocialistSocialist FeministFeminist Rights for Women and ChildrenRights for Women and Children She was educated as and worked as nurse/midwife.She was educated as and worked as nurse/midwife. She worked with the poor women of Lower East Side New York; Irish working-class.She worked with the poor women of Lower East Side New York; Irish working-class. Her mother’s health suffered due to 18 pregnancies and 11 live births.Her mother’s health suffered due to 18 pregnancies and 11 live births. Her father was a “Free thinker”, outspoken radical.Her father was a “Free thinker”, outspoken radical. She gave up nursing to dedicate herself to distributing Birth Control Information in 1912.She gave up nursing to dedicate herself to distributing Birth Control Information in 1912.

Background Information She wrote articles for the Socialist Party paper, the Call.She wrote articles for the Socialist Party paper, the Call. Collected and published articles: What every Girl should know (1916) and What every Mother Should know (1917).Collected and published articles: What every Girl should know (1916) and What every Mother Should know (1917). Traveled to Europe and distributed pamphlet, Woman Rebel (1913)Traveled to Europe and distributed pamphlet, Woman Rebel (1913) National Birth Control League founded in 1914National Birth Control League founded in 1914 Founded the 1 st Birth Control Clinic in US in 1916Founded the 1 st Birth Control Clinic in US in 1916 She helped organize the 1 st World Population Conference in Geneva in After merges, founded Planned Parenthood Federation in She married William Sanger in 1900 and was divorced by She remarried J. Noah H. Slee in 1922, but kept her infamous name. She was awarded Humanist of the Year 1957.

Historical Significance Aware of the Effects of unplanned and unwelcome pregnanciesAware of the Effects of unplanned and unwelcome pregnancies Comstock Laws of 1873Comstock Laws of 1873 –Legislating public morality –“act for the suppression of Trade in and circulation of obscene literature and articles for immoral use” Arrested in 1913 “mailing obscenities“, 1917 “creating a public nuisance”, 1929 police raid and seizure (8 arrests total)Arrested in 1913 “mailing obscenities“, 1917 “creating a public nuisance”, 1929 police raid and seizure (8 arrests total) Compelled by the restraints of Victorianism; violation of normsCompelled by the restraints of Victorianism; violation of norms Birth Control is needed to “Liberate” the womenBirth Control is needed to “Liberate” the women Largest opposition was the Catholic ChurchLargest opposition was the Catholic Church –Did not change with societal norms; traditional

The ails of America are brought to society by women and cheapen life through overpopulation. This is due to women’s ignorance, inferiority, and willingness to be subjects to “sex servitude”. –“The creators of over population are the women. While wringing their hands over each fresh horror, submit anew to their task of producing the multitudes who will bring the next tragedy of civilization.” –“Whether it was the tyranny of monarchy, an oligarchy or a republic, the one indispensable factor of its existence was, as it is now, hordes of human beings— human beings so plentiful as to be cheap, and so cheap that ignorance was their natural lot. Upon the rock of an unenlightened, submissive maternity have these been founded; upon the product of such a maternity have they flourished.” –“In the mass, women went on breeding with staggering rapidity those numberless, undesired children who become the clogs and the destroyers of civilizations.” –“War, famine, poverty and oppression of the workers will continue while woman makes life cheap. They will cease only when she limits her reproductively and human life is no longer a thing to be wasted.” “Women continuing to produce explosive populations will convert the pledges into proverbial scraps of paper; or she may be controlling birth, life motherhood to the plane of a voluntary, intelligent function, and remake the world.”

Women owe a “debt to society” due to ignorance of reproduction causing an overpopulation of “unwanted evils” in which society cannot afford or tolerate. It is women’s responsibility to recreate our society and govern the problems with conditions and facts not theories and dreams. In her submission lies her error and her guilt. By her failure to withhold the multitudes of children who have made inevitable the most flagrant of our social evils, she incurred a debt to society. Women unknowingly: 1.lay foundations of tyrannies 2.provide the human tinder for racial conflagrations a. Create slums b. Fill asylums with insane people c. Defective children d. Prisoners/criminals e. Replenishing ranks of prostitutes F. Furnishing grist for the criminal counts and inmates “Regardless of her own wrongs, regardless of her lack of opportunity and regardless of all other considerations she must pay that debt.” –“She cannot pay it with palliatives: child labor laws, prohibition, regulation of prostitutions, and agitation against war.” “The world is hers to remake, build and recreate.” “Her own ignorance of the extent and effect of her submission” –Until she knows the evil her subjection has wrought to herself to her progeny and world at large, she cannot wipe out that evil.

Through education of reproduction and Birth Control, women will be liberated and gain free motherhood. This is the only way to emerge from ignorance and assume responsibility. First step is Birth Control…attain voluntary motherhood, basic freedom of her sex, cease to enslave herself and the mass of humanity. “She virtually knew nothing of reproductive nature and less about the consequences of her excessive childbearing.” “Birth control is woman’s problem. The quicker she accepts it as hers and hers along, the quicker will society respect motherhood. The quicker, too, will the world be made a fit place for her children to live.” “Obeying the inner urge of their nature, some women revolted…infanticide, abortion.” However, individual not mass revolts In the mass, they sank back into blind and hopeless subjection. Millions of women are asserting their right to voluntary motherhood. They are determined to decide for themselves whether they shall become mothers, under what conditions and when. This is the fundamental revolt referred to. It is for women the key to the temple of liberty. “Even as birth control is the means by which woman attains basic freedom, so it is the means by which she must and will uproot the evil she has wrought through her submission.” On this day in 1916 Margaret Sanger, founder of America's birth control movement, was arrested in Portland for selling "obscene" literature. The literature in question was a booklet entitled, "Family Limitation" which supported and explained birth control methods. On August 5th, Ms. Sanger was found guilty and fined $10, which was then suspended.

Women’s bondage needs to be through herself and education and not through “sex servitude”. “The problem of birth control has arisen directly from the effort of feminine spirit to free itself from bondage.” “Bondage through her reproductive powers and while enslaving herself has enslaved the world” “She remained a dominated weakling in a society controlled by men.” She goes through the vale of death alone, each time a babe is born. As it is the right neither of man nor the state to coerce her into this ordeal, so it is her right to decide whether she will endure it. That right to decide imposes upon her the duty of clearing the way to knowledge by which she may make and carry out the decision. “Indeed, the pressure of law and custom upon the woman not legally married is likely to make her more of a slave than the woman fortunate enough to marry the man of her choice.” What she asked for: 1. Property equality rights 2.Regulation of labor hours 3.Claimed the right of suffrage