[Gutenberg 52888] • What Every Girl Should Know

Originally published in 1916, Margaret Sanger's “What Every Girl Should Know” provides information to adolescent girls on such topics as puberty, menstruation, venereal disease, pregnancy, and menopause.

CONTENTS

I. Introduction

II. Girlhood: Physical Growth

III. Girlhood: Mental Development

IV. Puberty: General Organs, Uterus, Ovaries, etc.

V. Puberty: Menstruation and Its Disorders

VI. Sexual Impulse: Masturbation

VI. Sexual Impulse: Sexual Impulse In Animals—In Men; Its Significance in Love

VIII. Reproduction: Growth of the Life Cell in the Uterus

IX. Reproduction: Hygiene of Pregnancy—Miscarriage

X. Some Consequences of Ignorance and Silence: Continence in Young Men

XI. Some Consequences of Ignorance and Silence: Gonorrhea

XII. Some Consequences of Ignorance and Silence: Syphilis

XIII: Menopause

XIV. Conclusion

Sample passage:

The ovum being carefully protected by nature within the ovaries, leaves its sister cells and travels alone. The sperm cell, however, having more dangerous paths to travel, must provide against the uncertainty of doing its great work by going in numbers, though it takes but one single cell to produce human life.

A number of the male cells go to meet the ovum, but only one enters it. Almost at the moment the head enters the ovum it becomes completely absorbed by the ovum and all trace of it is lost.

This union of the two cells is called” fertilization,” “fecundation,” “impregnation,” or “conception.” Any of these terms may be used. This union usually takes place in the tube, but the fertilized egg does not remain there; it wanders along and finds its way into the uterus.

Now that the ovum has been fertilized, it readily becomes attached to the soft lining of the uterus which has been specially prepared to receive it. No menstruation occurs. The woman is now pregnant. A new being is created, and marvelous changes will now take place within the tiny cell clinging so weakly to the lining of the uterus. At this time the ovum is so small it can scarcely be seen by the naked eye, but in two weeks it has grown to the size of a pea, in four weeks to the size of a walnut and in eight weeks to the size of a lemon. At this time it is three inches long and is completely formed, the head being much larger in proportion to the rest of its body. What has happened to the ovum in these few weeks is briefly this: Immediately after fertilization the ovum begins to divide into sections or lobes, into 3, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc.—cells until they are almost countless. Each cell splits in the middle of the nucleus, forming two complete new cells and so on.

About the author:

Margaret Sanger (1879-1966) was a nurse, sex educator, and birth control activist. In 1916 she opened the first birth control clinic in the U.S.; soon after, she was arrested and jailed for distributing contraceptives. She founded the American Birth Control League in 1921 and became the first president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation in 1953. Other works include “What Every Mother Should Know,” “The Case of Birth Control,” and “An Autobiography.”