Margaret Sanger Biography Essay

Biography of Margaret Sanger

“No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her own body”. Margaret Sanger stated this quote for the purpose of letting all women know that they should have the choice to make decisions about their own body whenever plausible. She seemed to feel as though, if women can’t obtain control over what they want to do with their body, then they can never truly be free in other manners as well. Sanger is an amazingly determined woman who was able to give all women the chance to gain control and power over their body. Margaret Sanger is an important figure in the 1920s American History because not only did she create and establish the first birth control clinics, but she also gave women the chance to take control over their body.

Margaret Sanger was born on September 14, 1879 in Corning, New York. She was the sixth of eleven children to her parents, Michael H. Higgins and Anne P. Higgins. Sanger attended public school through 8th grade, and when she grew older, attended Claverack College

and Hudson River Institute. It was during her time at the Claverack College and Hudson River Institute that Sanger gained her leadership skills and qualities. Four years later, she started her career of nursing at the White Plains Hospital. However, it was during her early life when she witnessed events that impacted the person that Sanger would eventually evolve into. Sanger witnessed her mother go through several miscarriages, many of which she believed led to her mother’s early death at the age of 50. Due to these traumatizing experiences, Margaret Sanger was impacted in a way that eventually led to the person that she would become.
Margaret Sanger’s main influence, her mother, impacted her in such an indirect manner that it led to who she would later grow to be. Her mother suffered through numerous miscarriages, which Sanger believes is the reason as to why she wasn’t able to recover to her original health. Following after her mother’s death, Sanger went to school to become a nurse, which she succeeded in doing. Throughout her career as a nurse, she witnessed hundreds of women dying from painful deaths during labor. As Sanger became more aware of the dangers of pregnancy, she began to stray away from her career as a nurse and drifted towards being an advocate for the use of birth control.
Margaret didn’t have to “do much” to become famous. Since she was a woman, who was pushing for the right to have access to forms of birth control, which was something not regularly fought for at this time in our society, she was looked upon for it. She advocated for the rights of all women, not simply the wealthy, to have access to birth control and contraceptive methods. Later on in Sanger’s career as an advocate for women’s access to birth control, she was able to establish the first birth control clinic in 1916. On top of creating the 1st birth control clinic, Sanger lobbied for the repeal of the Comstock Laws. The Comstock laws were put in place to ban the distribution of contraceptive medications, devices, and information through the mail. A few years after establishing the birth control clinic, Sanger founded the American Birth Control League in 1921. This league later became the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. This establishment of the Federation led to the legalization, and widespread usage of contraceptives in the United States. However, on top of the major accomplishments of Margaret Sanger, she did encounter problems throughout her career as an advocate. In 1915, she was charged with illegal distribution of contraceptives through the mail. A year later Sanger was arrested for opening a birth control clinic, however it later continued to provide and distribute contraception methods.
America, as a country, was impacted by what Margaret Sanger accomplished in her lifetime. She allowed women to have access to birth control methods no matter the income rate that they may have had at the time. Sanger also impacted the world, in that she gave all women the right to have access to contraceptive methods. While what she did is an ongoing controversial impact, she did accomplish something that was meaningful to some women at the time. As well as helping others gain access to the rights they desired most, she inspired women who believed that they wouldn’t be capable of making a change in their industry. Being a woman at this time in our society was very limiting to some, and witnessing or even hearing that a woman, such as Margaret Sanger, was able to accomplish what she did is motivating at the very least.
Margaret Sanger was a woman who possessed many character traits.

Personality wise, she was persuasive, determined, confident, ambitious, risk-taking, and hardworking. Some of those personality traits are those of which I do not possess. However, they are traits that I desire to be able to portray and use in my life. I am, personally, not a very confident or risk-taking type of person so to attempt to apply these two traits to the way that I go about my life, might influence the way that I decide to try and accomplish certain things. I could use the personality trait of being confident for school presentations, or even sports events. Being the type of person who is risk-taking would allow for myself to be daring enough to go for what I desire in life, both academically and athletically. Margaret Sanger is someone to look up to because she wasn’t willing to back down, and stood up for what she believed in as well as what she thought was

right.