Margaret Sanger was one of the most well-known, influential feminists in the twentieth century. She was born Margaret Louisa Higgings in Corning, New York in the fall of 1879 to Anne Purcell Higgins and Michael Hennessy Higgins. They did not have a midwife or doctor at the birth. Jean H. Baker states that Michael “eased her labor pains with his inimitable charm and a little whiskey from his flask” (1). They had eleven living children and went through seven miscarriages. Both did not believe in birth control and believed that it was their purpose to create children. Sanger had to help with chores and care for her five younger siblings. Sanger was sent to boarding school in 1895. She left after a teacher and fellow students made fun of gloves that her sister Mary gave her, saying that they were too fancy for someone like her. She refused to ever go back there.
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In 1912, she published articles on birth control and sex education called “What Every Girl Should Know” and “What Every Mother Should Know” in the New York Call, a socialist newspaper. She issued her own magazine The Woman Rebel, which only lasted six months. It promoted contraception using the slogan “No Gods, No Masters.” The magazine created the term “birth control.” It also encouraged women to think that they should have control over their own bodies. She also distributed a pamphlet, Family Limitation, around the same time. It had details about contraception. In August 1914, she was charged for distributing The Woman Rebel through the mail. She fled to Canada and then England under the alias “Bertha Watson.” Sanger learned about diaphragms, a form of birth control, in 1915 at a Dutch birth control clinic. She learned that they were more effective than douches and suppositories, which were more commonly used in the United States. She began importing them and teaching women more about
In 1912, she published articles on birth control and sex education called “What Every Girl Should Know” and “What Every Mother Should Know” in the New York Call, a socialist newspaper. She issued her own magazine The Woman Rebel, which only lasted six months. It promoted contraception using the slogan “No Gods, No Masters.” The magazine created the term “birth control.” It also encouraged women to think that they should have control over their own bodies. She also distributed a pamphlet, Family Limitation, around the same time. It had details about contraception. In August 1914, she was charged for distributing The Woman Rebel through the mail. She fled to Canada and then England under the alias “Bertha Watson.” Sanger learned about diaphragms, a form of birth control, in 1915 at a Dutch birth control clinic. She learned that they were more effective than douches and suppositories, which were more commonly used in the United States. She began importing them and teaching women more about