Margaret Sanger 1920's Feminist Analysis
The fundamental underpinnings of women’s liberation from their biological constraints lie in the heart of the first wave of feminism; a wave which although is characterised by the suffrage movement and political equality; does not provide a comprehensive view of feminism in the 1920’s. In order to correctly analyse the evolution of birth control in relation to the waves metaphor I am therefore encouraged to start with the first ‘wave’ and recognise the emergence of bodily autonomy against a political equality background which is so often associated with this period of feminism. For more than half a century of her life, Margaret Sanger dedicated herself to the liberation of women from their female autonomy through the development of birth control
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This exposure to the extremes of society allowed Sanger to see this difference between what we assume is the characterisation of the first wave in terms of suffrage with a more comprehensive view of the 1920’s and accessibility to the realities of life for women in this wave. The primary challenge for Sanger was the legality and availability of contraception where means of acquiring condoms and cervical caps were very difficult and even when women did manage to use one they found them both impractical and ineffective. It wasn’t until the winter of 1950 , a period of second wave feminism, when Sanger approached a scientist called Gregory Pincus that she proposed the idea for the first time of there being an oral form that women could take which would prevent them from getting pregnant. Something a woman could have control of, something a woman would be able to choose and something that would give a woman her sexual freedom. A revolutionary suggestion which later led to the birth of the pill in 1960 . Sanger’s works on birth control and the concept of this being “the pivot of civilization” allows us to gain an understanding on the mind-set of this feminist activist who intertwines both her personal life and public life to present herself as the forefront pioneer of the birth control movement and the association between bodily autonomy and
This exposure to the extremes of society allowed Sanger to see this difference between what we assume is the characterisation of the first wave in terms of suffrage with a more comprehensive view of the 1920’s and accessibility to the realities of life for women in this wave. The primary challenge for Sanger was the legality and availability of contraception where means of acquiring condoms and cervical caps were very difficult and even when women did manage to use one they found them both impractical and ineffective. It wasn’t until the winter of 1950 , a period of second wave feminism, when Sanger approached a scientist called Gregory Pincus that she proposed the idea for the first time of there being an oral form that women could take which would prevent them from getting pregnant. Something a woman could have control of, something a woman would be able to choose and something that would give a woman her sexual freedom. A revolutionary suggestion which later led to the birth of the pill in 1960 . Sanger’s works on birth control and the concept of this being “the pivot of civilization” allows us to gain an understanding on the mind-set of this feminist activist who intertwines both her personal life and public life to present herself as the forefront pioneer of the birth control movement and the association between bodily autonomy and