Margaret Louise Higgins was born on September 14, 1879 in Corning, New York. Margaret learned from her nonconformist father to be a rebel and to reject prejudice. Margaret, the sixth of eleven children, pointed to her mother's frequent pregnancy as the underlying cause of her premature death. She claimed that a poor woman named Sadie Sachs, who died after trying to end an unwanted pregnancy, made her determined to take up the fight.

Margaret Sanger's work as a visiting nurse focused her interest in sex education and women's health. Margaret was shocked by the inability of most women to obtain accurate and effective birth control, which she believed was fundamental to securing freedom and independence for working women. Margaret was consistent in her search for simpler, less costly, and more effective contraceptives.

Margaret Sanger was arrested several times in her attempt to educate and promote birth control. However, she never gave up in her efforts. She was persuasive, tireless, single-minded, and unafraid of a fight. A wife, mother and nurse, Margaret Sanger dedicated her life to making birth available to all women in the world to increase the quality and length of women's and children's lives. After seeing the physical and financial devastation of large families on her patients and from the emotional scars of watching her mother die an early death after the birthing of her children, Sanger confronted the political establishment by opening the first US birth control clinic. After several arrests for these actions, she moved to her next goal: education.

She founded what would later become Planned Parenthood and several magazines for the education of women about birth control. She was arrested for these actions as well, but continued her fight in the last prong of her assault: legislation. She lobbied the AMA as well as Congress to get the Comstock laws, which made the giving of information about birth control to women illegal, overthrown. Through her single-minded zealousness she managed to succeed at all three goals in her lifetime.

Ms. Sanger's photograph appears to be the classic photograph of a young woman from the "roaring '20s". Her hairstyle and manner of dress are reminiscent of the period pieces from the early 1920s. Her facial expression is "softened" somewhat by the small lilt of a smile. Her dress, although we are unable to see much of her wardrobe, appears to be in the classical vein. Her gaze is directed at the viewer, and she gives the impression of being a lady on a mission.
 

Author:    Deborah Cremeans and Debra McCarter
Last updated:    October 7, 2000