Margaret Sanger: The Pioneer For Women's Rights

565 Words2 Pages

Shiloh Niemela
HIST 037
Margaret Sanger :The pioneer for Women’s Rights

“No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother”. Margaret Sanger quoted this during her years of birth control reform for women everywhere who have benefited from her relentless leadership towards this cause. Although her fight for women’s rights to birth control and family planning was vast, her journey began long before she was widely known for being an iconic figure to the beginning era of the feminist revolution. Her early years of personal tragedy influenced her to choose her career path in the medical field. Margaret’s direct experience working with underprivileged women in poverty, putting their lives at risk with self induced abortions motivated her …show more content…

Her early years became one of the biggest turning points in her life which helped create her views centered on women, pregnancy, and death. Margaret came from a low income Irish Catholic family residing in Corning, New York during the late 1800’s. She was eighth of eleven children born from Anne Higgins who was very active in her local Catholic Church. Michael Higgin’s, Margaret’s father, was a stonemason who was seen as an outspoken rebellious figure. Her father was one of the biggest influences in her life who constantly reminded her to question society and to not conform to its constant and demanding standards. He was considered a socialist and greatly believed in the support of women’s rights and viewing them more as equals. His cynicism towards society taught Margaret to think for herself in unconventional and more defiant ways. Living in a strictly religious town her family was under constant ridicule created from the disapproval of her father’s radical political

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