Margaret Sanger - 1920

Margaret Sanger (1879–1966)


Woman and the New Race. 1920.

I. Woman’s Error and Her Debt


excerpts:





To-day, however, woman is rising in fundamental revolt. Even her efforts at mere reform are,
as we shall see later, steps in that direction. Underneath each of them is the feminine urge to
complete freedom. Millions of women are asserting their right to voluntary motherhood. They
are determined to decide for themselves whether they shall become mothers, under what
conditions and when. This is the fundamental revolt referred to. It is for woman the key to
the temple of liberty. 11

Even as birth control is the means by which woman attains basic freedom, so it is the means
by which she must and will uproot the evil she has wrought through her submission. As she has
unconsciously and ignorantly brought about social disaster, so must and will she consciously and
intelligently undo that disaster and create a new and a better order. 12

The task is hers. It cannot be avoided by excuses, nor can it be delegated. It is not enough for
woman to point to the self-evident domination of man. Nor does it avail to plead the guilt of rulers
and the exploiters of labor. It makes no difference that she does not formulate industrial systems
nor that she is an instinctive believer in social justice. In her submission lies her error and her guilt.
By her failure to withhold the multitudes of children who have made inevitable the most flagrant of
our social evils, she incurred a debt to society. Regardless of her own wrongs, regardless of her lack
of opportunity and regardless of all other considerations, she must pay that debt. 13

She must not think to pay this debt in any superficial way. She cannot pay it with palliatives—
with child-labor laws, prohibition, regulation of prostitution and agitation against war. Political
nostrums and social panaceas are but incidentally and superficially useful. They do not touch the
source of the social disease. 14

War, famine, poverty and oppression of the workers will continue while woman makes life cheap.
They will cease only when she limits her reproductivity and human life is no longer a thing to be wasted. 15



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"...interesting enough, though not really radically new, but I did piss myself when I clicked Next at the end of this article 'II. Women’s Struggle for Freedom' only to see the piece 'Tip of a Flat Belly: A Surprising New Way to Burn Fat Quickly' ironically appear..." remarks Jats "...although its all the Romans fault you know, the women's movement was fine amongst the so called Barbarians and there was no birth control then, nope there is still a lot if history to unwrite first, and it might just help the cause if women could recognise who are on their side, but only for 'equal' rights of course..." as Jats pours a nice glass of red to drink by the fire now

I know... I had to snip from her essay because it was really from her work on abortion & birth control
and some of it was pissing me off .... but hey, it was 1920 .... I'd have to re-check but I think the white boys
threw her in jail for her unseemly radicalness