The Pill. Birth Control Pill. Social Sciences Essay

Essay Instructions:

Margaret Sanger is credited with the invention of the birth control pill and also the founder of Planned Parenthood. She is most often presented as a heroine and advocate for women's rights and birth control. By reading the following two sources, you will see two very different sides of her.
First View: https://web(dot)archive(dot)org/web/20170227081207/http://www(dot)pbs(dot)org/wgbh/amex/pill/peopleevents/p_sanger.html. to read about her advocacy for women and work to end Comstock laws.
Next view:
https://www(dot)nyu(dot)edu/projects/sanger/webedition/app/documents/show.php?sangerDoc=238946.xml to read a darker look at her early work that supported eugenics and the promotion of infertility among racial minority women and the mentally retarded.
Under "The Film and More," select “Primary Sources.” Read the 1966 article https://web(dot)archive(dot)org/web/20161001211657/http://www(dot)pbs(dot)org/wgbh/amex/pill/filmmore/ps_revolution.html
View the PBS film https://www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=g7QEtv06GMs
Finally, please answer the following questions and submit your answersin a two page paper using the assignment link below:
What did you learn about Margaret Sanger and the eugenics movement? In the early days of her work, why did she target minorities and mentally retarded women? Why do you think this part of the story is not mentioned in Sociology textbooks and women's rights organizations? (4 points)
What connections can you make with Sanger's early attempts to target minorities and the minority populations today that access birth control and abortion clinics?(3 points)
Discuss how Sanger and her scientist can be seen as leaders of a social movement. Both did not live to see the full implementation of this product. (4 points)
What did you think of the 1966 anti-pill article? What connections do you see between what was said here and current discussions of sexuality and reproduction? (6 points)
What are the important points you learned from the video about sexuality and reproduction before the pill and after the pill? How has life for women and families drastically changed due to the invention of this small pill? (3 points)

Essay Sample Content Preview:

Birth Control Pill Name Institutional Affiliation Date
Margaret Sanger is one of the women who advocated for the use of the birth control pills among women. In the early days of her work, Mary targeted the minorities and the mentally retarded women since she felt that if their reproductive life is not controlled, the quality of life of the future generation will be affected. Margaret argued that the rate of the normal people whom she referred to as fit and the minority made up of the mentally retarded women and poverty stricken classes was the greatest menace to civilization and it was necessary to regulate their birth rates so as to avoid affecting the quality of life of the future generation. Margaret also blames the incidences of breeding at the time that led to the increase of the minorities which she felt was not good. In her paper, she says, “Possibly drastic and Spartan methods may be forced upon society if it continues to encourage chaotic breeding that has resulted from our spirituality cruel sentimentalism” CITATION Mar21 \l 1033 (Margaret, 1921)
. There are different reasons as to why the work does not appear on the sociology textbooks and women rights organizations. First, the sociologists felt that the pill that Margaret was advocating for would disrupt the morality of the society. Sociologists insist on morality as one of the guiding principles of a civilized society and use of the pill would lead to cases of sexual immorality. Women rights organizations have not published the information since the pill was targeting the minorities only and that would be seen as a form of discrimination that the organizations are against.
Birth control techniques have evolved ever since the time of Margaret Sanger and there are different methods of birth control in the society at the present time. However, the minorities have not been given access to techniques due to lack of information and ironically most of the people who access the birth control techniques are the ones who are of the higher social class in the society. The poverty stricken and minoriti...

Updated on January 26, 2024

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The Pill. Birth Control Pill. Social Sciences Essay

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