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From Suffrage to the Senate America's Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues

Woman’s Christian Temperance Union

Founded in 1874, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) sought to obtain pledges of total abstinence from alcohol and later added tobacco and other drugs. According to the organization’s website, “WCTU is the oldest voluntary, non-sectarian woman›s organization in continuous existence in the world.”

When Frances Willard became WCTU president in 1879, she added a political dimension to the moral persuasion used to achieve the goal of abstinence. Using the motto “Do Everything,” the organization expanded its areas of interest to include establishing and managing day care centers, providing housing for homeless people, and setting up medical clinics—

any project that members believed would contribute to achieving abstinence. The WCTU advocated a range of social reforms, from woman suffrage to equal pay for equal work to federal aid for education. Willard’s presidency ended in 1898, and the WCTU narrowed its scope to a stronger focus on temperance. After passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, which started Prohibition, the WCTU returned to a broader social reform agenda. For example, it worked with the Women’s Joint Congressional Committee to establish a federal women’s prison in the 1920s. The oldest voluntary, non-sectarian women’s organization in continuous existence in the world, the WCTU continues to advocate abstinence from alcohol and tobacco and has added marijuana and other drugs to its agenda.

See also: Suffrage; Temperance Movement, Women in the; Willard, Frances Elizabeth Caroline; Willebrandt, Mabel Walker

References: Women’s Christian Temperance Union, www.wctu.org. (accessed August 1, 2012 and April 22, 2019).

Citation Types

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MLA 9th
"Woman’s Christian Temperance Union." From Suffrage to the Senate America's Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues, edited by Suzanne O’Dea, Salem Press, 2019. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Suffrage3e_0999.
APA 7th
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. From Suffrage to the Senate America's Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues, In S. O’Dea (Ed.), Salem Press, 2019. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Suffrage3e_0999.
CMOS 17th
"Woman’s Christian Temperance Union." From Suffrage to the Senate America's Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues, Edited by Suzanne O’Dea. Salem Press, 2019. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Suffrage3e_0999.