The Icon and the Idealist: Margaret Sanger Mary Ware Dennett and the Rivalry That Brought Birth Control to America - Stephanie Gorton
Published in 2024 by Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins, New York, NY
464 pages
ISBN: 9780063036291
With the overturning of Roe v. Wade (1973) through the Dobbs decision in June of 2022, reproductive rights have once again taken center stage in public discourse. The controversial decision overturned nearly half a century of legal precedent. It revealed the duplicity of newly appointed conservative Supreme Court justices, who stated they had no plans to overturn the precedent of Roe during their confirmation hearings. It has also engendered renewed fervor in the fight for women’s rights, as protestors and activists struggle against a conservative administration.
In his concurring opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, conservative justice Clarence Thomas mused that the Supreme Court should also reconsider previously codified opinions regarding same-sex marriage and access to contraceptives. According to the Guttmacher Institute, fourteen states and the District of Colombia have codified legal protections for accessing contraception while eight have actively sought to enact restrictions on access, pushing birth control further away for many, especially those who are socio-economically disadvantaged. As such, the legally protected status of contraception is once again threatened by a conservative majority in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the United States government.
This is not the first time that women’s rights have been so deeply politicized and under threat in the sordid history of America. Reproductive rights have always had to be contended against waves of conservative backlash, especially in the early twentieth century. In her 2024 book, The Icon and the Idealist: Margaret Sanger, Mary Ware Dennett, and the Rivalry That Brought Birth Control to America journalist Stephanie Gorton provides a dual biography of two of the most influential figures in the fight for reproductive rights in the early twentieth century century: Margaret Sanger (1879-1966) and Mary Ware Dennett (1872-1947). Gorton reveals the deeply personal rivalry that emerged between these two pioneers of reproductive justice in America, as each woman struggled against the other in their opposing visions of how best to secure widespread access to contraception.
Overview:
The Icon and the Idealist recounts the little-known feud that occurred between Sanger and Dennett as they both fought for women’s rights in the early 20th century. While Sanger is widely known as the founder of Planned Parenthood (thus making her reviled among contemporary conservatives), Dennett and her work have been mostly overlooked. Gorton provides a gripping narrative of how they became involved in women’s reproductive health and how the rift between them shaped subsequent generations of women’s rights activism in the United States.
Drawing from a deep well of archival research, Gorton sets the lives of each of these women in the context of a rapidly changing society during the early decades of the twentieth century. While birth control methods such as condoms, douches, and pessaries have been used for centuries around the world, the Comstock Act of 1873 restricted both the distribution of contraceptives and information on how to use them within the United States. Utilizing a web of censors through the United States Postal Service, the Comstock Act effectively criminalized the distribution of contraceptives and any explicit form of sexual education.
As such, a multi-generation movement emerged to combat the deleterious effects of the Comstock Act and provide safe and effective contraceptive care to women in the United States. While Sanger and Dennett began their activism as allies in the fight against censorship and repression through the Voluntary Parent League (VPL), their relationship soon soured. Sanger believed that promoting a doctors-only system that would place access to contraceptives in the hands of the medical establishment was a more realistic compromise in the fight for birth control. Dennett was uncompromising in her belief that access to contraceptives should be codified in a constitutional amendment that would firmly secure reproductive rights free from gatekeepers and the whims of shifting governments. In her effort to gain support wherever she could, Sanger would compromise with any group that would incrementally further the cause of birth control, including more unsavory collectives such as the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) and eugenicists. Dennett, on the other hand, was an ideological purist who believed that a more fundamental change was needed through the legal repeal of the Comstock Act and the enshrining of reproductive rights in a constitutional amendment.
Despite their common goal, Sanger and Dennett grew to loathe one another deeply, even occasionally sabotaging one another’s efforts. Sanger’s method relied more on high-profile arrests, court cases, and massive rallies, placing herself at the center of the fight for reproductive rights through charismatic speeches that mobilized the masses. Dennett, by contrast, deeply valued her privacy, often shying away from the limelight and instead attempting to lobby Congress to pass legislation that would further her cause. While Sanger engaged a wide audience through writing books, testing the limits of the law, and organizing large conferences, Dennett built a birth control lobby that repeatedly tried and failed to find widespread support within the walls of a predominantly male Congress.
Even though Sanger is well-remembered in history (including for her controversial support of eugenics), Dennett’s work laid the foundation for the contemporary women’s rights movement. Sanger and Dennett refused to work together, despite Dennett repeatedly reaching out to Sanger to make amends. While their coordinated efforts would have furthered the fight for reproductive rights, Sanger and Dennett's each revealed a vital component in building a movement that would effect lasting change. By examining the careers of each of these fierce activists, Gorton reveals the productive antagonism at the heart of contemporary feminism.
Sanger’s front-facing and unashamed brashness and her attempts to build coalitions helped to mobilize the masses and dispel the taboo that often surrounded discussions of sex and rearing children. On the other hand, Dennett’s work illustrates the importance (and frustrations) of working within an unjust system and trying to change it from the inside. Sanger eventually borrowed much from Dennett’s efforts of lobbying with Congress members face-to-face, while Dennett’s high-profile free-speech trial caught the attention of the wider public and made her pamphlets and manuals a staple of early sex education. Through Gorton’s retelling of each of these women’s stories, she uncovers a wider history of reproductive justice, contraception, free speech, censorship, racism, sexism, and sex education in the United States during the early twentieth century.
Commendations:
Several aspects of The Icon and the Idealist are quite exceptional. First, in addition to being a rigorously researched historical account of the birth control movement of the early twentieth century, it is also compellingly written and surprisingly engaging at every turn. Both women were fierce activists but were also embroiled in a handful of free love scandals that impacted their public image. Gorton tactfully navigates both the public image that has been shaped around each figure and plumbs the depths of their inner, personal lives. While Gorton eventually sides with Dennett in the feud, both women are given a nuanced appraisal.
Since there is so much context and background that must be established to place Sanger and Dennett in their historical moment of over a century ago, one might expect the writing to be dry at times. Yet, I found myself consistently engaged in the narrative flow of the text, as Gorton strikes a wonderful balance between academic rigor and captivating storytelling. The chapters are broken down into easily digestible segments, and they flow into one another nicely. Gorton does an excellent job of painting a vivid picture of American society in the early twentieth century while also letting the reader draw parallels to the present.
Accordingly, Gorton’s account easily resonates with readers today, especially in light of the current battles being fought over reproductive rights. In the face of overwhelmingly conservative executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government, the policing of women’s bodies is once again at the forefront of political discourse. The Heritage Foundation’s controversial Project 2025 -- which was so extreme that the GOP distanced themselves from it until the 2024 election was over -- explicitly advocates for prosecuting “providers and distributors of abortion pills that use the mail” (pp. 459, 562) through the revival of the Comstock Act, which is the very law Sanger and Dennett fought so tirelessly against.
Conservatives purposely conflate standard birth control methods with abortifacients, which serves to muddy the rhetorical waters and restrict access to all contraceptives. Since the legal right to contraception is codified in merely thirteen states, this policy would have devastating ramifications for those who use birth control, whether for family planning purposes or to regulate hormones due to diseases such as PCOS. Sanger and Dennet fought valiantly for the right of a woman to make decisions about her own body, a right that we are witnessing gradually being rolled back. Gorton’s account shows us that while Sanger was able to obtain temporary access, Dennett was not wrong in her obstinate belief that access to birth control needed to be codified into federal law.
Not only does Gorton’s book have contemporary relevance for the abortion debate, but it also has several salient lessons in organizing, political strategy, and the risks of coalition building. While Sanger focused the bulk of her efforts on utilizing her charisma to write and make fiery speeches to mobilize the masses, Dennett quietly lobbied Congress to pass laws that would secure the right to birth control. Sanger would operate on the edges of the law, often opening clandestine birth control clinics, proposing mass strikes, and finding herself arrested. Dennett, on the other hand, attempted to affect change within the legal confines of institutional law. This is especially intriguing considering that, while Sanger’s actions might have had the veneer of radicality, her vision for birth control access was much more conservative, handing exclusive power to the medical establishment to dole out contraceptives to married couples.
On the other hand, while Dennett’s methods might have been more constrained within the boundaries of law, she saw the necessity of fundamental change at the level of legislation. Gorton’s account offers a balanced and nuanced appraisal of each of these women’s approaches, though Gorton favors Dennett. She shows us that these women were not only brave activists standing up for women’s rights, but they were also deeply flawed human beings, often undercutting one another due to petty slights and differences. As such, The Icon and the Idealist offers a valuable case study into how organizers and activists can adopt a multi-pronged strategy in their movement-building efforts and avoid the pitfalls of privileging one strategy over another.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Gorton always keeps a keen eye on the issues of race and class which often was a blind spot for early birth control advocates, especially Sanger. Gorton fully acknowledges that both Sanger and Dennett allied themselves with the eugenics movement, which was rooted in white supremacist, xenophobic, and ableist ideologies. Eugenicists were primarily concerned that the white race was being overrun and replaced by what they viewed as “lesser races” (an idea echoed in today’s Great Replacement theory) and that the gene pool was being tainted by those with “inferior traits.” Sanger had no qualms about aligning herself with this racist and pseudoscientific movement, especially if it furthered her personal goals and ambitions.
Gorton does well in fully recognizing how the birth control movement intertwined itself with the concept of eugenics for short-term gain. She astutely observes how these women were active in overturning a specific form of oppression while perpetuating another, especially as Sanger abandoned the socialism of her youth after her mentor, anarchist Emma Goldman, was deported back to Europe. Gorton shows how Sanger’s embrace of sterilization (arguing that the genetically “unfit” should not be allowed to reproduce) was morally and politically disastrous, tarnishing her legacy. Dennett, while also embracing some tenets of eugenics, never wedded her activism to it due to her wariness of government interference in the private lives of individuals. While not excusing their abhorrent views, Gorton softens the criticism against Sanger by highlighting her emphasis on genetically eliminating disabilities, instead of racial minorities.
While Gorton’s assessment is not by any means excusing Sanger’s atrocious ableism, it is important to point out, especially since a popular anti-choice theoretical strategy (and the opinion of conservative SCOTUS judges Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas) is to frame Sanger as a genocidal racist who wanted to eliminate African Americans. Sanger never advocated for or against abortion, seeing it as too controversial, especially when faced with the headwind of getting birth control access passed. Gorton points out how Sanger opened clinics in Harlem and had the support of prominent black leaders such as W.E.B. Du Bois, as well as the general mixed feelings about birth control that existed in black communities at the time. While this by no means exonerates Sanger, it does offer a more nuanced perspective of her views and impact, especially among the black communities to which she offered services.
Critique:
There are just a few small weaknesses to The Icon and the Idealist. First, related to the last point, while Gorton offers a nuanced, yet still critical, perspective of Sanger’s relationship with the eugenics movement, it can easily be seen as coming off too soft on Sanger. In her efforts to combat the typical conservative demonization of Sanger, Gorton carefully treads the line between flat-out denunciating her abhorrent views while still appreciating her legacy. I’m not convinced that Sanger’s approval by Du Bois or other leaders of the black community necessarily absolves her from the accusations of racism, but I did appreciate Gorton’s attempt to give a nuanced perspective on Sanger’s legacy.
Additionally, while Gorton constructs a largely engrossing narrative, it can occasionally drag in a few places. This mainly occurs when Gorton details the various lobbying efforts and the proliferation of committee groups that arose around the birth control movement. Due to internal conflicts, factionalism dominated as new groups splintered off from larger associations. As such, it can be difficult to keep track of all of the different acronyms for the various birth control organizations. Also, since there is so much background information and context that must be explained, the book takes a few chapters before it finds its groove. Once it does, however, the reader is easily swept up in the narrative flow.
Conclusion:
Overall, The Icon and the Idealist is a compelling and meticulously researched narrative account of the lives of Margaret Sanger and Mary Ware Dennett, and how their activism for women’s rights in the early twentieth century still impacts us today. While the narrative flow can slightly drag at times, Gorton’s dual biography is a captivating and intellectually rich examination of how proto-feminists organized against seemingly insurmountable odds in turn-of-the-century America. Gorton reminds us of the bravery, audacity, and shrewdness needed to effect substantive change, as well as the personal and political obstacles that can impede such progress.
While they each allowed the seemingly trivial rift between them to hamper one another’s concerted, if differing efforts at securing access to birth control, few could deny the transformative influence that each of them have had within contemporary society, especially within the fight for reproductive justice. While recent legal history has proven Dennett right in her obstinate belief in the importance of codifying access to birth control, Sanger’s work was vital in appealing to emotion to bring widespread awareness to injustice.
Activists and historians alike will find many valuable lessons in Gorton’s work, especially how movements maintain momentum amidst opposition and the necessity for multifaceted strategies. Facing the reality of a second Trump administration, the restrictive effects of the Dobbs decision, the possibility of a revived Comstock Act, and the resurgence of eugenicist, fascist rhetoric particularly aimed at immigrants which claims they are “poisoning the blood of our country,” we who choose to resist and fight against such a proto-fascist regime must learn from the past and uniting in our efforts if we hope to prevent history from repeating itself once again.