Margaret Sanger’s Autobiography 1936: Who is she?

I am reading about Margaret Sanger as part of a loosely structured project for a graduate level history seminar that I am taking at UH Manoa. She was a crusader for bringing birth control to women. You could argue, as some historians do, that the availability of birth control is the single biggest catalyst for social change in modern society. That may seem like a bold statement but if you think about what a woman's place in society was before the pill and what it is now you couldn't argue that the change is monumental. The pill gave women the sexual freedom that had previously been reserved only for men. This is a very simple explanation of the importance of the pill, if you would like to learn a little more there is a documentary by PBS's American Experience series titled "The Pill." Here is the website is you are interested www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pill/. Also, the doc can be seen on youtube.

Getting back to Margaret Sanger, she dedicated her life to making a simple birth control pill available for all women. She was arrested and criticized by the government, the church and much of society in general. Despite all this opposition she was obstinate in doing whatever it took to achieve her goal. These are all things that I knew before I started reading her autobiography. What I am learning now are the details of what she thought and why she did the things she did. I am also interested in how her dedication to her cause affected her personal relationships. Her story telling is energetic and entertaining but she never lets you forget her intent. Each lesson learned in early life seems to have been a step towards her ultimate purpose, the pill.

Where I am currently reading in the autobiography Sanger is living in New York City and rubbing elbows with famed socialists of the pre-WWI era. Her emotion laden descriptions of the hard ships of laborers led me to want to learn more about life at that time. This is why I began reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. In 1912 Sanger guided over 100 children of laborers on strike in Lawrence, MA on a trek to NY to live with foster families in order to ease some of the burden off of the "Bread and Roses" strikers. Disgusted with the conditions that these children were living in she saw only more evidence for the need of birth control.

"I always came back to the idea which was beginning to obsess me—that something more was needed to assuage the condition of the very poor. It was both absurd and futile to struggle over pennies when fast coming babies required dollars to feed them." (p. 85).

I am about 1/5 of the way through Margaret Sanger's book and I look forward to learning more about her struggles and successes. Because I am reading this book for a project I am taking a lot of notes and reading rather slow. I imagine I will continue reading slowly and will bring her up continually throughout this blog. I plan on reading more books that will help me learn more about her. Please let me know if you have any suggestions.