How Did The Woman's Christian Temperance Union Contribute To The Cause of Woman Suffrage?

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was a major supporter of the National American Woman Suffrage Association's (NAWSA) movement for gaining women political rights. Led by influential reformer Frances Willard, the WCTU shifted from a conservative temperance organization focused solely on alcohol prohibition, to advocating for a broader women's rights agenda that included suffrage. Willard helped the WCTU and NAWSA gain support for women's suffrage by framing it as "Home Protection" - the idea that women voting could help address social issues like poverty, disease, and violence that affected families. This reframing of the suffrage argument made the idea of women participating in politics more widely

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How Did The Woman's Christian Temperance Union Contribute To The Cause of Woman Suffrage?

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Alina Gisca

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How did the Womans Christian Temperance Union contribute to the cause of woman

suffrage?

During the nineteenth century, one of the main issues besides the war for independence or the
economic and social problems caused by a rapid inflation was the alcoholism. People were
consuming a lot of drinks for example at work, at different ceremonies from marriage to
elections moreover there were companies that often paid workers with the drink as well as
money. So one of the most important solutions to this problem was the Temperance Movement
which goal was to make the productions and sale of alcohol illegal and to prohibit the sale of
liquor. When people refused to drink they joined a community called the "Cold Water Army."
This movement was mostly supported by women because the alcohol leads to the increase of
domestic violence and abuse. They believed that prohibition of alcohol would make the society
healthier and more responsible and productive.
Temperance Movement was viewed as a barrier to women suffrage because not everyone who
supported votes for women also supported the abolition of alcohol. Even if the movement for
woman suffrage remained relatively small and weak, during 1890 was established a conservative
group, the National American Woman Suffrage Association, formed by men and women. The
NAWSA elected Stanton as its president, and together with Anthony, they fight for ensuring
women with voting right at the state level. The first state to grant women complete voting rights
was Wyoming in 1869.
Womans Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was the biggest supporter of the NAWSAs
movement for gaining the women political rights. Being led by one of the most influential
women of nineteen centuries, Frances Willard the WCTU have completely changed from a
conservative temperance organization into a broader womans suffrage movement with a plenty
of social concerns, including the working conditions, the right to vote.
Understanding the impossibility of alcohol prohibition, she changed the tactic, so the
alcoholism was seen as a disease rather than a sin and poverty as a cause rather than as drinks
result. With the help of Knights of Labor, the Union starts to focus on the improvement of the
womens working conditions which were miserable. Frances Willards phrase Home Protection
had the role in encouraging women to expand their influence beyond the family circle, to vote in
order to protect their home and family from problems like prostitution and venereal diseases.
Using this slogan Home Protection in their campaign NAWASs idea of womens right to vote
was no longer considered insane, and people started to think about the benefits from womens
participation in politic.
I consider that all these womens movements to change the society had an enormous importance
because they represent the base of the new era, where women can freely vote and to be
responsible for their own decisions.