The Children's Era Theme of Hypocrisy

Don't front around Margaret Sanger.

She addresses two levels of hypocrisy in "The Children's Era." First, she calls out her listeners (and on another level, society as a whole) for acting like they care about kids and yet taking charitable social action to improve living conditions only once piles and piles of babies are already born, rather than getting to the root of the problem and making sure all these unwanted, uncared for kids aren't conceived in the first place.

She also calls out the people who say they care about families and yet are actively opposed to birth control…which Sanger sees as the one thing that can lead to happy families. You want happy families, asks Sanger? Better not stand in the way of birth control.

1. Do the Neo-Malthusians and those who are actively opposed to birth control have anything in common, according to Sanger?
2. Why might people who are so concerned about the wellbeing of children not see birth control as a valid solution to the problem of overwhelmed parents?
3. We can assume that Sanger's audience is composed of people who support birth control since they're attending a conference about it. Why does Sanger feel they're not doing enough to promote the use of birth control?
4. Is Sanger hypocritical in the speech? Does she ever contradict herself?

Sanger presents evidence to show that both her listeners and her opponents are guilty of hypocrisy.

For Sanger, the antidote to hypocrisy is action.