Transcript Margaret Sanger the 1920 Women and

Margaret Sanger
Women and the New Race
(1920)
"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."
History
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Born September 14, 1879
One of Eleven Children
1902 Married William Sanger
1912, a fire destroys her home and moves into the East
Side slums of Manhattan
Begins writing a column for the New York Call: “What
Every Girl Should Know ”
Also distributed a pamphlet Family Limitation to poor
women
1916, “What Every Girl Should Know ” becomes
published as a Little Blue Book
History
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October 16, 1916, opens a family planning and birth
control clinic in Brooklyn. It was shut down 9 days later,
due to violating the Comstock Act
Founded the American Birth Control League in 1921
(Formally National Birth Control League, founded in
1916. Later becomes Planned Parenthood in 1942)
Known as a Free Speech advocate, champion of Birth
Control and Women’s Rights
Controversial. Her crusade landed her in jail numerous
times, and even caused her to flee to England for awhile
Main Points
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The most important force in the remaking of the world is a free
motherhood.
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“…or she may, by controlling birth, lift motherhood to the plane of a
voluntary, intelligent function, and remake the world. When the world
is thus remade, it will exceed the dream of statesman, reformer and
revolutionist.”
A woman’s status in society is such, due to an inability to govern her
ability to bear children. Suffrage, and overall equality are
inconsequential compared to her reproductivity.
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“Woman’s acceptance of her inferior status was the more real because
it was unconscious. She had chained herself to her place in society and
the family through the maternal functions of her nature, and only
chains thus strong could have bound her to her lot as a brood animal
for the masculine civilizations of the world.”
Main Points
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The woman’s position of
submissive reproduction has lead
to over-population.
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“No period of low wages or of
idleness with their want among
the workers, no peonage or
sweatshop, no child-labor factory,
ever came into being, save from
the same source.”
This over-population is the fault of
Women and has unleashed evils
upon society and allowed her to
incur a debt to society.
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“War, famine, poverty and
oppression of the workers will
continue while woman makes life
cheap. They will cease only when
she limits her reproductivity and
human life is no longer a thing to
be wasted.”
Main Points
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There are two obstacles impeding repayment of this
debt.
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1. Laws prevent women from obtaining knowledge of her
reproductive nature.
2. Ignorance of the extent and effect of her submission has
wrought.
Main Points
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Woman’s submissive role is due to ignorance of her
reproductive nature.
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“Woman’s passivity under the burden of her disastrous task was
almost altogether that of ignorant resignation. She knew
virtually nothing about her reproductive nature and less about
the consequences of excessive childbearing.”
For women to obtain true liberty, they must take control
of their ability to bear children. They will obtain this
through birth control. A woman’s freedom is dependent
upon her having control over her body.
Main Points
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“Birth control is woman’s problem. The quicker she
accepts it as hers and hers alone, the quicker will society
respect motherhood.”
Once freedom has been obtained, it is a woman’s duty to
infuse the world with her feminine spirit.
 “…[A woman’s mission] is not to create a human
world by the infusion of the feminine element into all
its activities.
Questions
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Just how powerful is birth control in considering a
woman’s position in society?
According to Sanger, what is a man’s responsibility in all
of this?
Does a woman’s ability to bear children bind her into
slavery? Can this slavery compare to black slavery?