Abstract
Margaret Sanger is born on September 14th 1879 in the State of New York. She is the daughter of Michael Henessey Higgins and Anne Purcell Higgins. She was the sixth of a family with eleven children. She followed a nursing program at White Plains Hospital in 1900. Two years later she married William Sanger and gave birth to three children. The family quickly settled in theNew York Suburb. Not satisfied by the suburban life, Margaret Sanger decided that the family should move to the city. She became a nurse there and started her activism, dedicating a long time in circles and committees such as the Liberal Club and the Ferrer Center and Modern School (of anarchical tendencies).
Her personal marital sexual deviations are not without link to her personal fight. She was really young convinced that multiple pregnancies was a curse for women when she saw her mother dying after eleven childbirths and seven miscarriages. But the triggering factor of her decision to dedicate her life to birth control followed one case she had as a nurse. Sadie Sach a poor new yorker died after having a second illegal abortion made in sordid conditions. The first time Sadie asked the doctor how she could prevent another another pregnancy the doctor curtly told her «There's only one way, tell Jake to sleep on the Roof ». This time, Margaret Sanger decided to put down her uniform and to devote her life spreading birth control advices. Her time was over «with doctors and nurses and social workers who were brought face to face with this overwhelming truth of women's needs and yet turned to pass on the other side» she wrote. The doctor's remark enlighten us about the conception of women sexuality in the US at the beginning of the XXth century. Indeed, to avoid having children, women didn't have other choices than abstinence. Sexuality was totally curbed, and deprived from the notion of pleasure.
No matter the consequences for herself, this incredible woman fought during her whole life, to improve women's rights, particularly concerning their sexual liberties. At a time when women had less rights, were less educated and less liberated, I found it interesting to study the difficulties she went through, how her fight improved women's life, and the sexual liberation she triggered.
