Post Civil War America was a time of massive social reform. Women were discovering that their organizational skills and agitation for righteous causes provided them some opportunities to effect social change. In a  time when women were virtually the property of their husbands, with few legal rights, even to their own property and children, and no way to change the laws, many felt that the consumption of alcohol was the cause of the poor moral condition of the family and society  in general. Drunkenness was almost endemic in the 19^th century. Many an alcoholic husband or father spent his rent and food money at the saloon, came home drunk to beat his wife and children, and slowly deteriorated into a nonproductive member of society.

            In 1873 Women’s Temperance Crusaders marched on the saloons of Hillsboro, Ohio. Those first marchers worked with limited success to persuade saloon owners to close their establishments, and that failing, the women kneeled at the saloon doors in devout prayer and hymn singing. In 1874 the Women’s Christian Temperance Union was founded in Mansfield, Ohio to purge the nation of the evils of drink.

            The movement grew steadily from the relatively self-sufficient women of the Midwest to those more traditional dependent women of the south and east. At its height, the W.C.T.U. counted among its members well over 200,000 women from all walks of life. It united women from different backgrounds, including Jew, Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, Unitarian, and Baptist to work toward the common goal of “social purity.”

            Soon that goal had linked the W.C.T.U. with women’s suffrage, since the vote would surely guarantee the elimination of drunkenness and make women full citizens, for these women were experiencing the power to change society and they found it rewarding. This alliance may have indirectly undermined the suffrage movement in spite of the advantages of the addition of the vast W.C.T.U. membership to the 13,000 suffragettes. Many men who may have had no objection to giving women the vote now began to fear that voting women would close their saloons.

            The W.C.T.U. really did achieve great improvements in society of the 19^th century. Its philanthropic work included rescuing wayward children and young women, establishing women’s and children’s care facilities, hospitals for alcoholics, scientific research into the causes of alcoholism, training schools for nurses, Americanization centers for immigrants, salaries for police matrons for women inmates, child labor laws, and kindergartens to encourage education (including learning temperance principals).

            Perhaps the most lasting effect of the W.C.T.U. was the enlightenment which it afforded its members and society in general. People learned that with a central cause, programs which provided real help for people, and fine organizational skills, even the most disenfranchised had real power to shape the world to their vision. Through the Women’s Christian Temperance Union the country felt the political power of the most extensive agency of reform in our history.

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