Margaret Sanger’s Revolution
And Its Impact On Adult Education

Back To Top

The following is an interview with Margaret Sanger, who speaks to us from beyond about her passion and crusade.

Welcome. Could you tell us a little about yourself and your opinion about the purpose of education/
education = what?

Thank you for having me here today, it’s so nice to be in a time where women have made some advances in freedom.However, let me begin with a warning—Do not become complacent, there is still much to be gained, our world-wide population is still increasing too fast, the women in Afghanistan have seen their rights disappear, nowhere on the globe are women guaranteed of earning the same pay as men and the rights of women to control their own bodies are still not secure.

My name is Margaret Sanger; some call me the mother of birth control.My friends and I did, in fact, coin the term.It was one part of our vital struggle to empower and educate women about their own bodies.What is education?It is empowerment.You see, I was born in 1879 as a middle child of eleven.I watched my mother’s health deteriorate with each of her pregnancies.She died when I was a teenager.A few years later, I was working as a nurse in the poorer neighborhoods in New York and often witnessed the ill effects of incessant childbearing on women, children and families.When I would go into a building to nurse someone, many other women would stop by.They had noticed that the rich had few children and wanted to know the “secret.”But there was no information about woman-controlled contraceptives in the U.S., so I went to France in 1913.I brought that information back and started a newspaper in 1914 called The Woman Rebel, to educate and empower women.

What is the straightest path to literacy?

The straightest path to literacy and every other component of education is access.If people do not have the time, the energy or the legal right to information, education is impossible.It is imperative that people have access to information and in order for that to happen, they must have freedom to determine their own lives.It is important to remember that unless a woman can be the absolute mistress of her own body, all other gains—suffrage, economic equality, education—are peripheral.

One of the greatest threats to education, therefore, is censorship.Much of my life’s energy was spent struggling with the evil perpetrated by Anthony Comstock and his campaign of censorship.The Comstock laws were passed in 1873 and forbade any distribution through the mail of materials deemed lewd, lascivious, or obscene, including any form of contraceptive information.The idiot could not tell the difference between art, biology, and pornography!So much time was wasted and so many lives lost while we battled through the courts to try to get the information out to the women.In the 1930’s we finally won a partial legal victory that enabled doctors to give out contraceptive information despite the continued existence of the Comstock laws.

Who should participate in education?Who do you feel a call to reach/who particularly needs to be educated?

Everyone should be able to participate in education.My heart and my struggle have always been particularly focused on women, especially the poor or underprivileged.During the years, I had an opportunity to not only start family planning clinics and organizations in the U.S., also around the globe including places like India and Japan, where they still flourish today.

How does a teacher establish a positive learning environment?

One word—empowerment.If we can empower learners to have control over their lives, including their education, then we have truly made a difference.When I began publishing The Woman Rebel, my focus was to stimulate working women to think for themselves and to build up a conscious, fighting character.

What is the role of an adult educator?

If we can provide access to information that is empowering, enlightening, and challenges people to look at what surrounds them carefully and critically, then we are doing our part to educate adults.It is not for me to tell a woman how many children she ought to have or what path her life ought to take.It is, however, my calling to make sure she can get the information she needs in order to make those decisions for herself.

Thank you for honoring me by including me in this group of educators.The advice I would give to you educators of adults is to think radically, challenge injustice, empower yourselves and those you teach and follow your passion without wavering.

Back To Profile Links

Back To Top