Catalogue Number
NMLH.1993.33.3
Object Name
Pamphlet
Title
'Handbook for Working Mothers. Family Limitation by Margaret Sanger. Forward by Leonora Eyles.'
Place
London
People
Margaret Sanger, Leonora Eyles, Sir William Arbuthnot Lane, Marie Stopes
Description
A yellow pamphlet with a decorative border titled 'Handbook for Working Mothers. Family Limitation' by Margaret Sanger, foreward by Leonora Eyles. Price sixpence'. It is the thirty-sixth edition. Below the title are endorsements of Sanger's work from Sir William Arbuthnot Lane, a consulting surgeon at Guy's Hospital; H. G. Wells; and Mrs Pethick Lawrence.
Reproductive rights and family planning has long been a major issue for the women's rights movement. While hormonal contraception to prevent pregnancy was not available until the mid 20th century, before this, women's rights activists campaigned to educate women about other ways they could choose to plan if or when to have children, how to avoid becoming pregnant while being sexually active, and in some cases how to access abortion to end an unplanned pregnancy. The book being in it's thirty-sixth edition (meaning thirty five previous print runs had all sold out) indicates how popular and sought after the information in the booklet was. The endorsement from Sir William Arbuthnot Lane, a surgeon at the prominent Guy's Hospital in London, discusses the difficulties he had seen successive unplanned pregnancies causing his poorer patients, and his statement 'limitation of families is not subversive of the morals of society' suggests the level of controversy caused by advocating for family
planning.
Pregnancy is an important women's health issue, as the impacts of pregnancy and childbirth can take a substantial toll on a person's body, and can in some cases lead to death from complications associated with pregnancy. Choosing the number of children a woman had, and when, allowed women to access employment which often had a pregnancy bar - until the late 20th century, becoming pregnant was an automatic end to careers in medicine or education. It also allowed families better control of their finances by not feeling forced to continue a pregnancy if their circumstances meant they could not afford to raise a child. However, reproductive rights proponents including Sanger also often engaged in eugenics - a belief system which discouraged different types of people from having any children if they were deemed to be socially undesirable, including advocating for poor people and disabled people to be sterilised and prevented from choosing to have children.
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