Interviewer(MW):Hello everyone, I'm Misti Wiedmann for "Science&you magazine". Today I am very pleased to be interviewing one of the greatest scientists of all time, Margaret Sanger!
MS:Well I wouldn't say of all time
both: *laughs*
MW: So Mrs.Sanger, Why did you get involved in science? I mean what influenced you to do so?
MS: Well I would have to say even as a child I was influenced by my father's work in the Women's Sufferage Movement and the Tax reforms. All the neighbors said that he was a "Radical" but i didn't care;but i didn't really get interested in the medical side of The Women's Sufferage Movement until my mom died. I kept thinking about it and I felt like the American people should be better educated on medicine and how to take care of themselves.
MW: Wow. So would you call your dad your mentor?
MS: Yes I would. I would call my dad my mentor.
MW: What would you say your dad did to help you develop your interests or talents in science or medicine?
MS: I would say that him along with the death of my mom, god bless her soul, helped me open my eyes and notice how uneducated the American people were about health. My father was a free thinker and he encouraged me to be one as well.
MW: What would you say would be some "set backs" you had to face as either a person or a scientist?
MS: Well I would say that as a person, I was female and during WWII women had to help take care of everything while the men were at war and we still didn't have many rights. As a scientist I would say the government. I got arrested twice. Once it was because in my monthly newspaper "Women Rebel" I urged family limitations and used the term "birth control" I was charged with delivering "obscene" material by mail! So i had to flee to Europe to continue my work. Another the other time was actually by the state government because my partners and I built a clinic and started giving out information about birth control.
MW: Wow..Well I have to say Mrs.Sanger I'm really impressed that you didn't quit or give up just because you got in trouble with the law!
MS: Thank you.
MW: So Did everyone get in trouble with the law then or just the scientist? What about some of the musicians or writers or artists?
MS: Well lets see....I remember that Jazz and Swing were really popular...musicians like Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and Ella Fitzgerald were really popular, they didn't "get in trouble" but they were looked down upon. Um some writers (Post WWII) were Harper Lee, who wrote How To Kill A Mocking Bird and J.D. Saingers who wrote The Catcher In The Rye. Some artists were "Combat Artists" and they were both servicemen and civilians who would depict the war and the battles as they saw it.
MW: Wow....I never knew that people actually did that!!! Talk about scary!!
MS: Ya no doubt....I consider my self extremely lucky to have not done that!
MW: So earlier we talked about the set backs that you faced but when you were working what set backs or major events were happening to the country?
MS: Well most of the set backs were associated with the war and everyone was worried about Germany and Japan. There was also the Great Depression which just made things a lot tougher on the home-front.
MW: Ya. Sounds like it. So what would you say would be your major accomplishments?
MS: Oh...major accomplishments would probably be when I spoke before the First World Population Conference at Geneva, and when I helped found Planned Parenthood.
MW: Sounds like you did alot. I'm suprised you didn't help "the academy" of science!
MS: Well, acutually Misti, The Medical part of the academy hadn't been invented while I was working. I think if it had had I would have had more supporters and would have been able to help more people.
MS: No, thank you Misti.
