The Women's Rights Movement: The Birth Control Movement

Husband and wife, mother and father; seemingly to be equal to one another, but in reality from the Progressive era, 1900-1920s and onward a woman would be one rung lower on the ladder of social acceptance. This was known throughout society and was aided to be culturally engrained by the acts of the United States federal government. From the early 1900s to the 1940s, the Federal government of the United States has either promoted or condemned the advancement of women, specifically regarding the birth control movement with the combination of beauty, to their own benefit to attempt to be on the right side of the social norms of the time.
Feminism is much more radical than the Women’s suffrage movement, which fought for women’s right to vote in …show more content…
“In 1912, Margaret Sanger, a daughter of Irish immigrants, a trained nurse and a socialist, followed Goldman’s lead to write and speak on behalf of women’s right to control the frequency of their childbearing. She invented the term “birth control” to describe a practice that had long existed but had not been openly discussed or publicly advocated.” People knew that some form of birth control did exist, for example practices like the rhythm method as well as having one chart their menstrual cycle and avoiding having sex during ovulation. As a result of some of these “birth control” methods the birthrate had declined over 100 …show more content…
Margaret Sanger had taken the lead on fighting the restrictions on child bearing placed by the federal government. Although from the outside it may have seemed to only deal with birth control and child bearing but the underlying issue was the restrictions put on a woman’s choice by the federal government. Birth control and a woman being beautiful, to the federal government, was a sign for disaster. The restrictions placed by the government was a way to try and stick to the conformities placed by society. With the wake of the 1920s and the idea of flappers and pre-marital sex looming around the country it was clear that society was still not comfortable of the thought of having easy access to formal forms of contraceptives, other than methods like the rhythm method and pulling out. The crash of the market in 1929 and the Great Depression had forced the federal government to understand that times were rough and children were expensive. The increase of birth control clinics was a reflection of the understanding that money was tight, if it was there at