1879-1966
Birth-control Advocate

Accomplishments.

Margaret Sanger was directly responsible for the development of the oral contraceptive pill, though that accomplishment was only a very small part of her life's work. She was convinced at an early age that women had to have control of their reproduction as a matter of health and well-being. Also, she predicted the horrible consequences of unchecked population growth. Thomas Malthus had done this first a century before, but his work was flawed by a failure to realize the potential of new technologies in farming to feed more mouths. Sanger predicted World War II as a consequence of over-population.

Childhood.

She was born in 1879, the sixth of eleven children of Michael and Anne (Purcell) Higgins. Her father encouraged his children to think freely. When an insulting teacher drove Margaret Higgins from public school in the eighth grade, the family pooled their money...