Margaret Sanger; Voyage Through Debate and Diplomacy

Margaret Sanger had to argue with self-righteous men who believed that women should follow their traditional role in society to bear children before society could accept birth control in their daily lives.

Chief Justice Russell Debate, 1931

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Sanger had surprisingly agreed to participate in a live debate with Chief Justice Russell on May 14th, 1931 in Atlanta. Russell was a traditional man with lots of honorable recognitions by having “legal and literary scholarships of his judicial opinions”. He was famous for having 18 children and always chewing tobacco. There was speculation that Chief Justice Russell participated solely to earn money for his surplus family. 

Russell periodically made references to the Bible saying that humans purpose is to "increase and multiply". Sanger used this as an opportunity to inform the audience of America's current indifferent predicament along by saying, "And it might be opportune to remind my opponent, that when God laid this command upon Noah, there were only five people on earth. My opponent must admit that the situation has altered a little since then." Throughout the debate Chief Justice insisted that a happy family equals an abundance of children, and that the parents must give self-sacrifice and deal with the economic pains for happiness. Sanger never disregarded Chief Russell by bringing his number of children, financial troubles, or infant deaths into the argument. 5 of Russell's children died in infancy.

Benito Mussolini Debate, 1937

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Through 2 articles in 1937 Benito Mussolini, an Italian dictator, and Margaret Sanger debated women's roles in society. “Women never created anything” Mussolini wrote in an article titled What Mussolini Thinks of Women, “look around you in any direction you like-art, drama, law, medicine-and you cannot point to any single instance where a woman has created anything that has been passed down to posterity.” Sanger replied saying, “Women never created anything?What about babies? What about you, Signor Mussolini. You would not be here to rant and shout, nor we to read and fight, if women had never created anything” in the article, What Sanger thinks of Mussolini. 

May 1927 Mussolini held the infamous Ascension Day speech. To achieve full European authority he demanded Italy's population to ascend from forty to sixty million in 25 years. Forcing each women to bear 12 children, Mussolini instituted a tax on bachelors and large family tax exemptions. He lowered the marriage age and created rewards for married couples. Sanger blamed Mussolini for the lack of advancement and women suppression in Italy because he focused on growing armies, expanding power, and opposing birth control programs since he began his dictatorship. In 1925 Sanger began to attack Mussolini's way of leadership in her individual articles.

During the ongoing debate Mussolini stated, “Women cannot look after the future of the human race in the home and in the nursery and govern at the same time. It has got to be either one thing or the other, and since Nature and God have ordained that woman shall be the mother of the human race - then, the sooner she realizes that the governing of the community should be left to the male sex, the better." Sanger replied, “And a fine mess the male sex has made of it. We, the mothers, look today upon a world threatened by war, upon nation arming against nation. We look upon poverty in the midst of plenty… Women cannot look after the future of the human race without taking an active part in shaping their nation's laws… by a fusion of male and female power, by cooperation between the sexes.” 

She saw the suppression of women freedom when traveling to Italy during Mussolini's dictatorship. She heard many first-hand accounts on how, if available, birth control could benefit women's lives. Originally Sanger traveled to Italy with an undercover name, but her inhabitance leaked. Many women began to write to her asking for advice regarding Mussolini's new dictatorship forcing child birth among all women. Sanger held secret meetings to release birth control information to Italian women. Eventually these meetings were known as a “great underground movement”.