Margaret Sanger founded a motion in this state that would establish such a alteration in the class of our biological history that it is still debated today. Described by some as a “ beaming Rebel ” , Sanger pioneered the birth control motion in the United States at a clip when Victorian lip service and subjugation through moral criterions were at their highest. Working her manner up from a nurse in New York ’ s hapless Lower East Side to the caput of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Margaret Sanger was unwavering in her dedication to the motion that would finally ensue in lower baby mortality rates and better life conditions for the destitute. But, because of the manner that her political scheme changed and evolved, Margaret Sanger is seen by some as a dissembler ; a shred to riches narrative that involves a complete backdown from her committedness to the poorer categories. My research indicates that this is non the instance ; in fact, by all histories Margaret Sanger was a courageous reformer who recognized freedom and pick in a adult female ’ s generative life as critical to the issue of the release of adult females as a gender. Furthermore, after old ages of being blocked by resistance, Sanger besides recognized the demand to switch political schemes in order to maintain the motion alive. Unfortunately, misjudgments made by her in this country have left Margaret Sanger ’ s bequest unfastened to unfavorable judgment. In this paper, I would wish to research Margaret Sanger ’ s life and calling every bit good as become aware of some of the trips that she made and how they reflect on both.
Margaret Sanger was non born a reformer, she became one. A great trade of her early life contributed to the defining of her positions in respects to deliver, decease, and adult females. Born Margaret Louise Higgins on September 14, 1879 in Corning, New York to Michael and Anne Higgins, she was the 6th of 11 kids. Anne Higgins was a devout Catholic while Michael Higgins was a stonemason with iconoclastic thoughts and a genius for rebellion. It was her male parent that fascinated Margaret. Corning, being a purely Catholic town, disapproved of Michael Higgins and, accordingly, the rock cutting committees that kept the household fed were frequently missing. The kids did non just much better than their male parent in footings of public ridicule. The Higgins kids would get to school to chants of “ Children of the Devil ” . One twenty-four hours, her instructor proverb to it that Margaret was made the brunt of the torture in category, at which point she merely picked up her things and left the schoolhouse vowing ne’er to return. Margaret was exceptionally bright in school and her male parent pleaded with her to travel back. Margaret refused. Margaret ’ s two older sisters, Mary and Nan, offered to pay for the cost of a private school out of their payroll checks if Margaret agreed to wait tabular arraies for her room and board. So, in 1896 Margaret ended up at Claverack, one of the first co-ed schools in the East. It was at that place that her natural leading accomplishments blossomed in the signifier popularity and buffooneries ( Miller 199-203 ) .
After graduation, Margaret taught foremost grade in a public school in New Jersey ; she loved it. Unfortunately, Margaret had to go forth her occupation that same twelvemonth to care for her female parent who had become critically ill. Anne Higgins had suffered from TB since before Margaret was born, but Margaret still tried her hardest to nurse her female parent back to wellness. All of her efforts failed and, in March of 1896, Anne Higgins died. Margaret ever believed that it was her female parent ’ s frequent gestations ( 18 sum ) that led to her sick wellness and premature decease. Recognizing that it was her bend to flip in and assist the household, Margaret stayed at place and took over most of her female parent ’ s responsibilities. Margaret did non mind the housekeeping much, but it was the alteration in her male parent that she could non manage ; he had turned in to a acrimonious autocrat that rant the misss ragged. Margaret reconciled with her male parent, but left shortly after to prosecute nursing as a calling ( Miller 204 ) .
In 1900, Margaret enrolled in the nursing plan at White Plains Hospital with pregnancy work as her focal point. The work was grueling and the TB that she had caught from her female parent flared up twice, doing Margaret to necessitate operations both times. Still, Margaret excelled at her work and finally realized the extent of the job that she had before merely associated with her female parent ; childbirth was easy killing most of the adult females that she saw as patients. Furthermore, the patients themselves would implore Margaret for the “ secret ” to forestalling any more babes. Margaret had no advice to give them, but finally made up her head to inquire the physician what she could state these adult females. The physician merely looked at her aghast and commented on what a atrocious thing that was to hold asked a nice miss ( Miller 204 ) .
During her clip at White Plains, Margaret met, was courted by, and married William Sanger. In the clip that followed her matrimony to Bill, Margaret moved with him to the suburbs of New York and bore him three kids: Stuart, Grant, and Peggy. Margaret ’ s TB was so awful with each gestation that after Peggy the physicians forbid her to hold any more. Time went by, and in 1910, after the three kids were in school ; Margaret realized that she could no longer bear the life of a suburban homemaker. Margaret talked to William about it and shortly thenceforth they moved back into the metropolis. Bill ’ s mother moved in with them to take attention of the kids and, at 31 old ages old, Margaret returned to nursing ( Miller 206-207 ) .
In 1910, most adult females still had their kids at place and so Margaret felt that she was most needful in her old field of pregnancy nursing. She worked dark and twenty-four hours be givening to the adult females in the households that crowded the Lower East Side of New York where 3,000 people lived miserably crowded together ( Clark 74 ) . The conditions in the tenements were flagitious ; they were sweltering in the summer and frozen in the winter, some ne’er even saw any sunshine or fresh air. Margaret shortly realized that gestation was a lasting status for most of these adult females. An estimated 204 babies was deceasing for every 1,000 Born ( Clark 74 ) . Time and clip once more adult females would plead with Margaret to assist them, to state them the “ secret ” to avoiding a gestation. Their supplications were so despairing that Margaret could non maintain herself from believing about their predicament. To her it made no sense that the hapless should ever hold such big households, did the poorness breed the big households or did the big households breed poorness?
The difference between the universe where she worked and the universe where she lived amazed Margaret. At place, Bill would host dinner parties for outstanding socialists and groups ; in this he was much like her male parent. Margaret one time pointed out to them, “ Poverty and big households seem to travel and in manus. If brotherhoods are contending for better rewards and hours, they should be every bit concerned with the size of the workman ’ s household ” ( Miller, p.209 ) . It was so that she realized that neither the suffragettes who demanded ballots for adult females, nor the extremist socialists who wanted to strike for better labour conditions recognized that the existent issue for adult females was childbearing and that until adult females could command that, they would non be free ( Miller 209 ) .
One dark, in the summer of 1912, the disturbing connexions between gestation and unwellness, poorness and big households became all excessively apparent for Margaret to chew over over any longer. That dark she was called to the tenement place of Sophie Sachs, a adult female in her 20 ’ s who had tried to abort herself. The scene was atrocious ; Jake, Sophie ’ s hubby, sat shouting nearby and Sophie herself could hardly sit up. Sophie was informed that another kid would kill her. Upon shouting out to the physician for advice on what to make to forestall that result, the physician replied that the lone thing to make was to hold Jake slumber on the roof. After the physician had left, Sophie pleaded with Margaret for the secret, as one adult female to another. Unfortunately, Margaret had no advice for Sophie and the following clip she was called to the Sachs ’ flat, merely a few moths subsequently, it was already excessively late ; Sophie was dead from the effects of another self-induced abortion. Margaret merely could non maintain still any longer ; she resolved to make whatever she could to assist the infinite adult females who were left to the clemency of hubbies and physicians ( Sanger 88-92 )
On Sunday, November 12, 1912 the column “ What Every Girl Should Know ” appeared in the socialist newspaper The Call. The article was the first of what was intended to be a series of articles for adolescent misss that focused on educating and switching their attitudes on sex. The column did non run for really long. This was to be Margaret Sanger ’ s first quarrel with the Comstock Torahs.
Anthony Comstock was the laminitis and secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. In 1873, Comstock persuaded Congress to go through a really powerful and embracing censoring jurisprudence, the Comstock Act. Furthermore, he was so made a particular agent of the station office with the authorization to open letters, bundles, books, anything at all that drew his intuition. There was no rime or ground, no guidelines or regulations about it ; it was merely his judgement. Comstock personally decided what was excessively obscene or vulgar for the American population to direct or have via the mail ( Miller 210 ) . Though the impact of this may be lost on us today, it is of import to retrieve that every major magazine, round, and diary was sent though the mail and that these were the primary beginnings of information for most people at the clip. So, while wellness governments were praising Margaret ’ s work, Comstock informed The Call that he would call off their mailing license if they ran the following article in Margaret ’ s series ( Miller 210 ) .
On February 9, 1913 readers of The Call opened the newspaper to happen:
WHAT EVERY GIRL SHOULD KNOW
Nitrogen
Oxygen
Thymine
Hydrogen
I
Nitrogen
Gram
By Order of the Post Office Department
No more articles in that series ran, but it was excessively late to halt Margaret ; she had already made her determination. Finally, Margaret came to see her battle as against one adult male ; Anthony Comstock ( Douglas 42 ) . It became evident to Margaret that the lone manner unfastened to her was to dispute the Comstock Torahs in tribunal ; foremost, though, she needed information.
For months, Margaret read through the dust-covered books and medical diaries available in public libraries for information on preventives. Most of the information she found was no better than tips on abortion and infanticide, until she came across a booklet written in 1832 by a physician from Massachusetts. The physician believed that excessively many gestations could be damaging to a adult female ’ s wellness and outlined the known methods of contraceptive method, though none of them placed the control with the adult female. ( Miller, 211 ) Margaret was frustrated and felt that she had made no advancement in the months she had spent researching. It was on the suggestion of an old friend that Margaret decided to travel to France for her information. So, in 1913, the household packed up and moved to France.
France was a particular instance as the Torahs of the land made it practical to maintain bound the size of one ’ s household. Under the Napoleonic Code, a adult male ’ s kids must portion his estate every bit after he is gone and so the households in France were normally really little. From infinite interviews with adult females from the hapless and in-between category quarters of Paris, Margaret learned all about the douches, sponges, and solutions every bit good as where to obtain the stop and diaphragms that she so urgently sought. Margaret packed all of her freshly acquired information and, on the last twenty-four hours of 1913, set canvas dorsum to America with her kids. William Sanger chose to remain in Paris and pigment. Unbeknownst to both of them, they would ne’er populate together as adult male and married woman once more ( Miller 211-212 ) .
Upon her return to the States, Margaret rented an flat for herself in Manhattan and began her ain newspaper called The Woman Rebel. In it she advocated “ militnet feminism ” and the right to pattern birth control. The slogan of her freshly founded newspaper was: “ To look the universe in the face with a go-to-hell expression in the eyes ; to hold an thought ; to talk and move in rebelliousness of convention. ” ( Douglas 50 ) . Money was ne’er of any concern to Margaret ; she had no demands that could non be met merely and she paid out no wages as she did all the work for the newspaper herself.
The first issue of The Woman Rebel was published in 1914 and was 8 pages long. Praised by some and condemned by others, The Woman Rebel was the first solid measure taken in the birth control motion ; in fact, it was at this clip that Margaret and her friends came up with the term “ birth control ” . Margaret was quickly informed that the Comstock Torahs deemed her 2nd issue unmailable. Soon after, Margaret was informed that the following three issues of The Woman Rebel were besides banned ; she ne’er received an account as to why. Despite get offing the “ unmailable ” issues of The Woman Rebel, Margaret ne’er felt that she had broken any Torahs ; now, though, she set out to make merely that ( Miller 2120213 ) .
Margaret put together a booklet entitled “ Family Limitation ” in which she answered her readers straight and outlined all of the known prophylactic methods that she had learned abroad. Due to the fact that the booklet was in direct misdemeanor of the Comstock Laws, she had them printed in secret and shipped out to friends in the labour motion for safekeeping. Shortly thenceforth, Margaret was officially indicted on 9 counts of go againsting the Comstock Torahs for her adventures with The Woman Rebel. If convicted, Margaret could confront up to 45 old ages in prison. A hearing took topographic point in August of that twelvemonth and the test was postponed. Then World War I broke out in Europe and when it became obvious that her motion and test would take a backseat, Margaret Sanger set canvas for Europe under the name Bertha Watson. In what has been referred to as “ the tactical determination of her life ” ( Douglas 56 ) , Margaret put herself in a place to be tried at a clip that she felt would be advantageous to her motion. After she had been at sea for three yearss, Margaret cabled four of her friends and, utilizing a codeword, released a inundation of 100,000 transcripts of her “ Family Limitation ” pamphlet into the mainstream population of the U.S. Finally, Margaret accepted that she had broken the jurisprudence.
In Europe, Margaret worked, studied, and researched anything she felt could be of usage to her new motion. She traveled from England to the Netherlands in hunt of utile information until a wire informed her that Bill Sanger had been arrested for passing out transcripts of “ Family Limitation ” . This was
an old Comstockian device geared at obtaining her whereabouts from her alienated hubby. Margaret knew that Bill would non state them where she was and she refused to allow him travel to gaol for her ; so, she headed place. Margaret arrived in New York, in October of 1915, and instantly began to travel about the undertaking of leaving upon the Nation’s doctors the valuable information she had gathered in Europe. She was impolitely rebuffed. Following, the freshly formed National Birth Control League turned her away informing her that her methods were “too violent” ( Miller 217 ) . Margaret’s attempts to circulate her cognition were cut short when her girl, Peggy, caught pneumonia. Margaret instantly dropped everything to nurse her girl, but, as with her female parent, all efforts were ineffectual and Peggy died. The loss left Margaret numb. Public understanding and backup were with Margaret at the clip and the territory lawyer offered to drop the charges if she would merely assure ne’er to interrupt the jurisprudence once more. Tidal bore for her twenty-four hours in tribunal to dispute the Comstock Torahs, Margaret refused ; moreover, she decided to look without an lawyer ( Miller 216-218 ) .
On January 18, 1916, the twenty-four hours her test opened, the courthouse could non even keep the figure of people who had turned out to back up Margaret. The territory lawyer asked that the test be postponed and the justice granted the delay, despite Margaret ’ s expostulations. And so it followed that there was delay after delay until the instance was eventually dismissed. Margaret was being congratulated by all on her “ triumph ” , but she was left unsated by the fact that the Comstock Torahs had yet to be challenged in unfastened tribunal.
To foster her cause, Margaret next set out on a whirlwind talking circuit of the United States. From Pittsburgh to Portland, Margaret would talk to packed halls ( when they were non locked and barred against her ) and in her aftermath she left 100s of local birth control leagues. It was Margaret ’ s premise that “ the first right of every kid is to be wanted, to be desired, to be planned with an strength of love that gives it ’ s rubric to being “ ( Miller 218 ) . After the circuit, back at her flat, Margaret, who was both physically and emotionally exhausted from the circuit, found that there would be no remainder for her ; adult females would strike hard on her door at all hours of the forenoon on their manner to work, her letter box was ever jammed to capacity with letters from adult females imploring for information, her phone rang invariably. Margaret knew what she had to make and when a $ 50 contribution came in the mail to her, she felt it was plenty to get down with ( Douglas 103 ) .
With merely those 50 dollars, Margaret and her sister, Ethel, set out to open the state ’ s first birth control clinic in Brownsville, Brooklyn. They wrote to the territory lawyer and outlined their programs ; the two adult females waited for a answer from him every bit long as they felt they could, but none of all time came. Finally, on October 16, 1916 the Brownsville Clinic was opened. The staff consisted merely of Margaret, Ethel ( besides a nurse ) , and Fania ( a voluntary ) . Of class, the adult females had advertised, but none of them had anticipated the consequences ; by seven ante meridiem, on opening twenty-four hours, there were 150 adult females lined up around the block. In the following few yearss, adult females began to get from as far off as Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. On the 9th twenty-four hours of operation, constabulary raided the clinic and the staff arrested by an clandestine police matron. Margaret spent the dark in gaol, but headed directly back to the clinic the following twenty-four hours merely to happen that the metropolis had made the landlord evict them as a “ public nuisance ” . The constabulary were waiting for her and she was taken back to gaol for go againsting subdivision 1142 of the province ’ s penal codification that stipulated that no 1 may give prophylactic information for any ground. Margaret posted bond and began working on a program ( Miller 219-221 ) .
Section 1145 of the province ’ s penal codification declared that doctors could administer prophylactic information for the remedy and bar of disease. Margaret knew that, lawfully, the jurisprudence was intended for work forces ; to protect them from the diseases acquired through sexual contact, but she believed that the jurisprudence could be interpreted to include adult females who were susceptible to disease and decease from excessively much childbirth. She was in despairing demand of money and turned to rich adult females like Mrs. George Rubilee and Mrs. Charles Tiffany, who responded by organizing the “ Committee of 100 ″ to assist fund Margaret ’ s motion ( Miller 221 ) .
The test, which had been postponed several times, opened in January of 1917. Margaret was offered lenience in return for a promise that she would ne’er interrupt the jurisprudence once more. Margaret replied, “ I can non assure to obey a jurisprudence I do non esteem ” and was sentenced to 30 yearss in a workhouse ( Douglas 122 ) .
On January 8, 1918, the determination that Margaret had been waiting and trusting for eventually came ; Judge Crane of the N.Y. Court of Appeals interpreted subdivision 1145 of the penal codification to include the wellness of married adult females which permitted physicians to give them birth control advice. In the months that followed, Margaret focused her energy on her new monthly publication The Birth Control Review. Aside from inquiring for money from the affluent elites of her clip, this was the first existent interruption that Margaret had with her straightforward grassroots past. After the terminal of World War I, there was a world-wide impulse to stamp down the extremist left. Margaret, astute as ever, realized this and decided to derive support for her birth control motion by “ advancing it in the footing of medical and public wellness demands ” . Despite her attempts, Margaret faced a lifting tide of resistance on from the Church, which, seemingly, could command both the authorities and the constabulary force of New York. Still, the populace, the imperativeness, and the medical profession were all endorsing her now and, in 1921, she founded the American Birth Control League.
The League was portion of Margaret ’ s run to educate the general populace and derive more mainstream support for birth control. In what seemed about a contradictory move, Margaret sought the support of the broad wing of the eugenics motion. In retrospect, it seems like a logical following measure as she was besides seeking support from the socialist reform motion at the clip. Besides, it is in maintaining with the positions that Margaret held at the clip ; she rationalized birth control as a feasible agencies to cut downing, what she felt to be, genetically transmitted mental or physical defects. In her more extremist tempers, Margaret would even recommend sterilisation for the mentally unqualified, though she ne’er felt that birth control should be supported or implemented entirely on the footing of category, ethnicity, or race.
Besides around this clip Margaret met and was courted by Noah H. Slee. Mr. Slee was the president of a successful oil company, wealthy, and in love with Margaret Sanger. After following her around the Earth on one of her many speech production Tourss, Noah proposed matrimony to Margaret. Not eager to do the same error twice, Margaret set forth some conditions ( that included fiscal and sexual independency every bit good as the usage of her ain last name ) . Slee agreed to her footings and they were wed in 1922 ; it is non surprising that he besides became the chief laminitis of Margaret ’ s birth control motion ( Miller 228-229 ) .
Aware that the current resources available to adult females were non plenty, Margaret shortly realized that she would necessitate an extension of the Brownsville Clinic in order to manage the inflow of patients and petitions for information. Margaret decided to strike while the Fe was hot and take the chance to establish a research agency that could be used as a theoretical account for future clinics. For months Margaret labored to convey together a skilled and outstanding group of doctors and scientists, even traveling so far as to obtain a sociologist and a psychologist. The terminal consequence was a group that was to be the board for her new clinic ; all she needed now was a physician willing to take the hazard of heading up the clinic staff. Dr. Dorothy Bocker accepted the place and in January of 1923, the Clinical Research Bureau opened at the same Fifth Avenue reference as the American Birth Control League, though they were to be kept separate so that the League might get away unfavorable judgment when the Bureau came under onslaught. The gap was non publicized, in fact, it was non even announced publically for two old ages ; patients were referred straight from the League. The Bureau shortly became a centre of survey for physicians and scientists from all around the state. The figure of patients grew so fast that the Bureau shortly had to relocate to larger installations ( Miller 230 ) .
In 1928, Margaret Sanger angrily resigned as the caput of the American Birth Control League due to struggles within the organisation. The “ conservativists ” had come to resent Margaret ’ s leading ; they felt that it was excessively personal and unprompted. Margaret, in bend, condemned them for being adult females of high societal place who ever took the easy manner out to salvage themselves. After her surrender, the lone place that Margaret really held was that of manager of the Clinical Research Bureau ( Miller 231 ) .
Then one twenty-four hours, as it had all happened before, her clinic was raided. It happened on March 29, 1929 without warning or proper warrant. The staff was all taken to imprison, the instance files confiscated, and the patients bullied into go forthing. The medical community was outraged, though the magistrate admitted there had been a error made. While the doctors defended themselves on the evidences that there was a doctor/patient privilege to be upheld, Margaret seized the chance to hold the Crane determination enlarged to set up birth control clinics as indispensable to the public wellness of adult females.
The result of the tribunal conflict was a determination that favored birth control. The justice ruled that birth control clinics were “ an of import public wellness step and a valuable assistance in the preservation of household wellness ” ( Miller, p.233 ) . Encouraged by this triumph, Margaret set up the National Committee on Federal Birth Control Legislation ; it ’ s end: to buttonhole for the passing of statute law favorable to the birth control motion. The treasure of the Committee was a “ Doctor ’ s Bill ” that had been written from the land up, get downing on a local degree and deriving support until it was introduced by Senator George Norris in 1931. In the old ages between 1931 and 1935, the measure was killed in Congress more than 5 times, each clip by the direct influence of the Roman Catholic Church. At one hearing for the measure, after hours of expert and emotional personal testimony, the resistance took the base in the signifier of Father Charles Coughlin ; his lone remark being “ All this measure means is how to fornicate and non acquire caught ” ( Miller, p. 235 ) . The measure failed that clip every bit good. The clip exhausted lobbying in Congress was non wasted, though, as Margaret and her motion came to hold the backup of the full medical profession and a bulk of the population ( who, by that clip, was in the thick of the Great Depression ) .
It became evident to Margaret that the motion would travel no farther if it depended on what happened in Washington D.C. , and so, when a bundle from Japan incorporating preventives was confiscated and non delivered to her, she saw another aureate chance. Margaret rapidly wrote to Japan and had another bundle with the same contents mailed to the caput doctor of her Clinical Research Bureau, Dr. Stone. The bundle was once more confiscated and Margaret knew that her confrontation with the Comstock Laws had eventually come. She and Dr. Stone took the affair to tribunal in December of 1935 ; their lawyer argued “ The authorities can non forestall prophylactic stuff from being mailed to a doctor, even from a foreign state, when it is to be used to safeguard the life and wellness of female parents and kids ” ( Miller 237 ) . The tribunal ordered the bundle delivered. The authorities appealed, but lost. In January of 1937, it was announced by the Supreme Court that the authorities would non dispute the 2nd opinion. In a instance that came to be known as U.S. v. One Package, Margaret and her birth control motion had their long awaited twenty-four hours in tribunal and won. With this determination, the Comstock jurisprudence lost a great trade of terms in the federal sphere, so much so that the National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control disbanded, sing itself no longer necessary.
Though elated over her triumph, Margaret realized that the poorest adult females were the 1s that still had to be reached. She took the field organisation of the freshly disbanded Committee and made it a portion of the Bureau, making the Educational Department. The first mark of the Department was the destitute South, from there it moved on to the dustbowl of the Southwest. Then, in 1939, the Department merged with the Bureau to go the Planned Parenthood Federation of America ( Miller 237 ) .
With that done, Margaret tried to turn her attending to the universe attempt, but was interrupted by World War II. After that there was a twine of personal calamities in Margaret ’ s life that conspired to maintain her from actively take parting in the birth control motion, the most detrimental of which was the shot that her hubby suffered in December of 1941. They both moved to Tucson, Arizona in the hopes that the warm conditions and sunlight would assist Noah, but he died less than a twelvemonth subsequently. It seemed to those around Margaret that, at 60, she was content to populate the life of a affluent socialite ( Miller 238 ) .
In actuality, Margaret was merely staying her clip until the terminal of the war and the clip when she could one time once more concentrate her attempts on the remainder of the universe. The first trip after her semi-retirement was to Japan. Then, in 1952, Margaret went to India for the first meeting of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. She so returned to the States to turn the Clinical Research Bureau over to a board of managers to guarantee its continuation ; the clinic was renamed the Margaret Sanger Research Bureau ( which was cardinal to the development of The Pill ) . In her 80 ’ s, Margaret Sanger threatened to go forth the state when she head that a Catholic ( JFK ) would be elected President. Fortunately, John F. Kennedy was the first U.S. President to acknowledge the universe ’ s population job. Margaret Sanger lived to see the right to privacy victory in the tribunals in 1965 with Griswold v. Connecticut. Margaret died a twelvemonth subsequently in September of 1966, merely 8 yearss after her 87th birthday ( Miller 238-239 ) .
At first glimpse, Margaret Sanger ’ s career seems much like that of any dedicated heroine of her clip ; Dorothea Dix, Bessie Hillman, and Carrie Chapman Catt were all adult females with a cause. Upon closer review, though, Margaret stands out as a adult female who, non merely had a cause to contend for, but besides had a motion to establish and a life of illustration to populate.
