Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

1987

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Frazer, Heather

Abstract

Contraception, and the Comstock Laws suppressing contraceptive information, were widely discussed among Greenwich Village radicals with whom Margaret Sanger lived and worked from 1911 to 1914. However, Sanger's attention was not focused upon contraception until 1914, when she was indicted under the Comstock Laws for birth control articles that appeared in her paper, The Woman Rebel. Misinterpreting the nature of the charges against her, Sanger fled to England to gain birth control knowledge. There she met Dr. Alice Vickery, president of the British Neo- Malthusian League. Both Vickery arrl the organization she headed served as role models for Sanger. Through Vickery, Sanger learned of the Malthusian League's history, and met contemporary birth control advocates such as Stella Browne and Dr. Marie Stopes. Their influence transformed Sanger's radicalism, narrowed her focus, and prepared her to assume her role as leader of the developing United States birth control movement.

Extent

135 p.

Comments

FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1987.|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Identifier

FADT14368

Format

pdf

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