Controlling Human Weeds and Liberating Womankind: Margaret Sanger's Framing Strategy in the Birth Control Movement.

This paper draws from the social movement theory of framing to identify the multiple frames and analyze the dynamic framing process Margaret Sanger used in the rhetoric of the American birth control movement. Prior research has addressed neither the nature of framing as a process nor the agency of leaders in developing and manipulating this process. I use the case of Margaret Sanger because it has not been adequately utilized by either sociologists or historians. My analysis of Sanger's public writings finds that she used the following frames to justify the legalization of birth control: feminist, maternalist, eugenic, democratic, and responsible parenthood. Historians have criticized Sanger for shifting her views in order to ally herself with more powerful members of society, particularly doctors and members of the eugenics movement. I find evidence that Sanger's combination of both dynamic and static frames in her framing repertoire may have been less a product of her shifting alliances and more a deliberate social movement tactic. Although not all of the frames I analyzed evolved over time, the fluidity of the framing process demands further attention by social movement scholars, especially with regard to the role of leaders in mobilizing diverse and broad audiences. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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