Funding the Birth Control Movement: Margaret Sanger’s New York Network of Wealthy Feminists

This paper explores why New York socialites, including Juliet Rublee and Gertrude Minturn Pinchot, transgressed traditional expectations for women by risking jail to support the birth control movement and Margaret Sanger, America’s leading birth control advocate. While some historians blame Sanger’s turn from “radical” to “conservative” on her desire to cultivate wealthy donors, this paper reframes the issue, arguing that rather than driving Sanger to abandon her radical ideas about feminism, this network of wealthy New York women espoused similar ideas and supported Sanger exactly because of her feminist position. Rublee and a network of wealthy New York women others advocated for birth control on the basis on women’s independence and freedom (as opposed to limiting family size or over-population concerns), articulating a radical vision for women’s equality that included control over their bodies. Despite their class and race privilege resented society’s claim on their bodies through the expectations of marriage and motherhood.

Furthermore, the paper shows that these women were crucial to the success of the birth control movement. They injected a needed dose of money and organization into the movement, exercising their philanthropic networks and social capital on behalf of the cause. They wielded their money and their names in court, in defense of Sanger and their own freedom. They also brought additional attention from the New York press due to the controversial nature of society women supporting a scandalous topic.

Organization papers, extensive correspondence with Sanger, and newspaper coverage provide insight into the ideas and actions of these wealthy women who leveraged their money and status in order to promote women’s reproductive freedom.