Margaret Sanger's argument for women's control over birth decisions

Birth Control - a Parents' Problem or Woman's?

A free race cannot be born of slave mothers." Herein, perhaps, lies the crux of Margaret Sanger's argument that the responsibility for birth control should be that of a woman's alone. for, there can be no denying that historically the burden of bearing and bringing up children has belonged to the woman. As such, Sanger is absolutely right in her contention that "a woman enchained cannot choose but give a measure of that bondage to her sons and daughters."

Although Sanger wrote this article in the early part of the twentieth century, the fundamental argument she makes is as valid today, as it was perhaps then. True, that women have made a great deal of progress in terms of achieving economic independence and gender equality. But the fact remains that it is still the woman who continues to bear the burden of child birth and upbringing. Therefore, it is better if woman alone chooses "whether or not she shall be a mother."

Viewed from the perspective of the ideal, however, there appears to be an inherent contradiction in Sanger's view that a woman's eyes should be "more clearly upon what should be," and her argument that it is utopian to expect that birth control can equally be the concern of man. Sanger's observation that women are too inclined to follow in the footsteps of men and that they need to understand that their mission should really be to "create a human world by the infusion of the feminine element" is a valid one.