Margaret Sanger

Margaret (Higgins) Sanger was born on September 14, 1879, in Corning, New York. She was the sixth of 11 children born into a Roman Catholic working-class class Irish American family. Margaret was taught since a young age to stand up for what she believed in and to make sure she always spoke her mind, she got this from her outspoken radical father. Margaret's family lived in poverty as her father was a stonemason, who preferred to drink and talk politics rather than earn a steady wage for the family. At a young age of 50 after eighteen pregnancies, 11 births and seven miscarriages Margaret's mother died from tuberculosis. After her mother's death Margaret decided she wanted to become a nurse and care for women that were pregnant. Wanting to do better for herself, Margaret attended Claverack College and Hudson River Institute in 1896. In 1900, she was wanting to continue her education and transferred to a college in New York City, there she started the nursing program at the White Plains Hospital in 1900. In England in the 1800s, Florence Nightingale led to push the formalization of nursing education with regulations and standards. The United States quickly adopted similar regulations, and the first Nurses Associated Alumnae was established in 1897 to regulate nursing colleges. At this time in the United States nursing was just getting started. Nursing certification and professional training was just being introduced. Healthcare and nursing in the 1900 to 1919 period would change history forever. Nursing during this time would change from the traditional bedside nursing at a home to a more institutional-based nursing within the hospitals. Also during the early 1900's nurses started working at local doctors offices and clinics. Nurses would be in great demand with professional training due to the upcoming wars of World War I and World War II.
Margaret changed nursing by speaking out on women's rights on birth-control, sex education and