History Fair Process Paper

We chose our topic, Margaret Sanger, after reading several books that mentioned her accomplishments and her many contributions to American society. As we constantly saw her name mentioned in books, on websites, and in magazines, we realized that she played a major role in the formation of todays American society. This led us to the conclusion that Margaret Sanger not only changed the availability of birth control for women across the nation, but also allowed American women to exercise their right to avoid having children, and the responsibilities that they have to themselves, their families, and the country. Our research was conducted primarily by use of the internet, where we found very much information about Sangers contributions to history. This research also allowed us to take into consideration the opinions of many influential people in todays society, and to recognize the degree to which Margaret Sanger impacted the lives of so many women through Planned Parenthood and her continuous fight to make birth control available to any and every woman who wished to obtain it. Other parts of our research were found through books about American history, the history of birth control, and womens history. Our research from books is mainly what led us to choosing Margaret Sanger as our topic, because it allowed us to view her from the perspectives of the many authors who wrote about her achievements and impacts on American society. We chose our presentation category for the reason that a website is generally a very accessible and useful source of information. Websites can be easily maneuvered to find the information one wishes to know, and allow for very clear organization of information about the

topic. This medium is especially useful for the topic of Margaret Sanger, because it allows us to create a very manageable source of knowledge about her by the use of separate tabs for the different stages of her life, her accomplishments during her life, and the constant reminders of her impact on society even during the years after her death, all the way up to todays time. A website is the perfect medium to present the information about our topic, because the information being expressed is easy to follow, well organized, and easily accessible. Margaret Sangers contribution to the lives of American women relates to the National History Day theme with respect to the fact that her impact on society led to the vast availability of contraceptives to women all over the nation. Because of this, women of todays time are better able to practice their right to have children, or to refrain from doing so. Also, many women believe that it is their responsibility either to bring children into the world and contribute to the replacement of their portion of the population after they die, and others believe that they are responsible for paving the road for women to take control of their own bodies and fight against oppression from our patriarchal society.