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Gilkison, Radeva 1

Mackenzie Gilkison, Helena Radeva

Jennifer Byrd

WGST 2310-001

September 19, 2017

Alice Paul and Margaret Sanger: First Wave Feminism

Often times the terms feminism and feminist can be used in a negative connotation

where stereotypes frequently come to mind. The image portrayed is a movement led by angry,

man-hating, bra-burning, lesbian women. In many cases the impression that repeatedly arises

when thinking about feminism, as with almost any movement, is the radical. However, it is

important to understand that not all followers of a movement fall on the extremes. It is crucial to

note the kind of advancements women in history have made through involvement in the feminist

movement. Such progress is seen in the areas of politics, education, the workforce, economics,

and society as a whole. Women have been fighting for centuries for basic human rights in order

to have control over their own bodies, minds, and overall quality of life. Generations of women

have been a part of the feminist movement to actively exhibit that females are just as capable as

males and just as deserving of fundamental human rights. Notable figures include first wave

feminist such as Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton; second wave

feminists such as Betty Friedan and Simone de Beauvoir; and third wave feminists such as Judy

Chicago and Naomi Wolf. Two famous first wave feminists, famous for their achievements in

the early twentieth century include Margaret Sanger, known for her strides in womens

reproductive rights and birth control, along with Alice Paul, known for her activism in the

American suffrage campaign for women.


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Alice Paul and Margaret Sanger were both twentieth century, female activists who fought

for the advancement of women. Alice Paul fought for womens suffrage while Margaret Sanger

fought for womens reproductive rights, but they both established the first major movements in

these areas in America. They both used writing as a tool for their corresponding movements.

Margaret Sanger started a magazine called The Birth Control Review: a herald of new freedom

for women, dedicated to the principle of intelligent and voluntary motherhood (Baker 134).

Similarly, Alice Paul started a weekly bulletin called the the Suffragist which focused solely

on the federal amendment for suffrage and how it would best the best way for women to attain

the right to vote. Through her writing, Paul urged that collaboration and integration with other

women along with a feeling of dignity in ones self would better help women reach their targeted

goal (Adams and Keene 42-44). Sanger and Paul endured imprisonment, hunger strikes, and

other forms of punishment as a part of their efforts. Their work has changed the lives of many

women today by achieving womens suffrage and establishing birth control and reproductive

rights.

Alice Paul was an American suffragette who headed the Congressional Committee of the

National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). She stated: I believe myself that

women by nature are the great force for all these things that are constructive and upbuilding to a

nation (Fry). She urged for women to attain greater rights as to have them be able to contribute

considerably more to the overall well being of society. Accordingly, she expressed her views

that Women are certainly made as the peace-loving half of the world and the homemaking half

of the world, the temperate half of the world. The more power they have, the better world we are

going to have...if they want to make the best possible home and best responsible community and

so on, you have a force thats not thinking all the time about going out and fighting somebody in
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the economic struggle or in any other struggle (Fry). When Paul was younger, she sided with

the choice of leading a single, independent life . At one point she thought about teaching and

being a positive, inspiring role model for younger generations, but she did not see how this

would provide direct effects in society. In turn she decided to advance her social sciences

instead. In order to gain more knowledge on achieving social reform, specifically on the efforts

for suffrage, Alice Paul joined the Womens Social and Political Union (WSPU). Later through

involvement the WSPU she met Lucy Burns, who later would join alongside Paul in her

campaign movement (Adams and Keene 5-7). Alice Paul believed in taking action in order to

successfully transform womens suffrage, so she started a campaign in 1913 with the idea of

nonviolence (Adam and Keene 76). Her method of nonviolence came from her experience in the

Quaker practice of peaceful protests and her acquired knowledge through school. She was

inspired by Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and David Thoreau and his book Civil Disobedience

(Adams and Keene 21-25). She led the American Suffrage Movement in order for women to gain

control over their lives, as to detest the negative view placed upon women and the perceived

notion that women were the inferior gender. Paul believed that nonviolent rhetoric could first

change her adherents self-image and then their status in society-thus changing everything about

the world in which they lived (Adams and Keene 41). She took the main event of her campaign

to Washington D.C where women all across the country joined to march for womens suffrage

(Adams and Keene 77, 79). However it took many years to see the end result of Pauls

endeavors. It was not until March of 1920 that thirty-five of the states had ratified the

amendment for suffrage. Later that year by mid-September, Tennessee, followed by Connecticut

ratified and secured the final vote, making possible the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in

1920 (Adams and Keene 245). Not long after, Alice Paul proposed the Equal Rights Amendment
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(ERA) and despite how much effort was put into it, the amendment did not succeed (Kyvig).

But despite failure with the ERA, Pauls was able to make a significant impact by helping

women attain the right to vote, something that has had a large impact on women till this day.

Margaret Sanger was an activist and social reformer whose main focus was to educate

women on sex and birth control. Sanger was an active writer on sex education. Some of her most

famous pieces include Family Limitation, The Woman Rebel and her magazine, The Birth

Control Review. Margaret Sanger stated in her first issue of The Birth Control Review that birth

control was the most vital issue before the country; it was far more important than the war

(Baker 133). Sangers strong views date back to her mothers death which Sanger blamed on her

eleven births and several miscarriages. Sanger also worked as a nurse in her early career and

encountered too many women who had improper abortions performed on them. This guided

Sangers motivation to provide sex education to all women, despite the laws placed to prevent

women knowing about their bodies. Sangers pamphlet, Family Limitation, became one of her

most influential pieces and Baker explains that Sanger provided explicit practical coverage of

every known means of contraception as well as side-view diagrams of female reproductive

anatomy (85). Sangers methods werent without issues. Sanger was a eugenicist and, arguably,

a racist. Sanger started The Negro Project, a series of campaigns to teach the black community

about birth control. Some view this advancement as racism, but Charles Valenza argues that even

black leaders expressed concern for the birth control movement not reaching the black

community (46). Whether or not Sangers intentions were due to underlying racism, she did

make a huge impact on the birth control movement. Sanger may not be a perfect feminist, but her

impact has affected womens lives today.


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While Alice Paul focused on the mental aspects of feminism and Margaret Sanger

focused on the physical limitations women face, both made an outlasting impact on the future

generations of women. Feminism takes many faces, not just the flat angry, man-hating, bra-

burning, lesbian stereotype. Both of these phenomenal women created opportunity out of the

little they had, and both of these women added a different dimension to the feminist stereotype.

Margaret Sanger and Alice Paul created some of the first stepping stones used by second and

third wave feminists and distinguished themselves as role models for the future to follow. They

are not perfect feminists because they are people, but they are influential feminists that have

produced astounding accomplishments for future feminists to follow.


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Works Cited

Adams, Katherine H., and Michael L. Keene. Alice Paul and the American Suffrage Campaign.

University of Illinois Press, 2008.

Baker, Jean H. Margaret Sanger: A Life of Passion. Hill and Wang, Farrar, Straus and Giroux,

2012.

Fry, Amelia R. Suffragist Alice Paul's Memoirs: Pros and Cons of Oral History. Frontiers: A

Journal of Women Studies, vol. 2, no. 2, 1977, pp. 8286. JSTOR, JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/3346017.

Kyvig, David E. Historical Misunderstandings and the Defeat of the Equal Rights

Amendment. The Public Historian, vol. 18, no. 1, 1996, pp. 4563. JSTOR, JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/3377881.

Valenza, Charles. Was Margaret Sanger a Racist? Family Planning Perspectives, vol. 17, no.

1, 1985, pp. 4446. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2135230.

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