American Women And The Prohibition Movement:1873-1933

American women were pivotal in bringing about both national prohibition and the repeal of prohibition in the United States.With the justification of protecting the family and youth,American women made great efforts in promoting prohibition.Women's organization,such as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union(WCTU),served as an important factor for the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.However,after viewing the corruption,hypocrisy and increasing violence against children during the prohibition era,many former female prohibitionists became supporters for the repeal of prohibition and founded the Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform(WONPR),which in cooperation with other anti-prohibition groups,successfully shifted the United States from dry to wet again.As American women made great contributions to both prohibition and anti-prohibition campaigns,they also benefited from their engagement in these events.Although protecting the family was their ultimate goal and their common slogan for both events,prohibition and anti-prohibition campaigns gave American women different results they wanted: one for political right to vote and the other for further gender equality and personal liberty.Supporting for prohibition provided a platform for American women to pursue their political right to vote and anti-prohibition echoed with the second wave of feminism,which called for gender equality and personal liberty.It was through their participation in these two movements that the voice of women was heard,the thoughts of women were transmitted,and the leadership of women was recognized.