The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and the Creation...

The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and the Creation of a Politicized Female Reform Culture In 1879, a group of evangelical churchwomen, all members of the Illinois Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), presented to their state legislature a massive petition asking that Illinois women be granted the right to vote. The architect of this ambitious petition campaign, which resulted in 180,000 signatures of support, was Frances Willard, then president of the Illinois WCTU. In using her position as a prominent WCTU leader to agitate for enfranchisement of women, Willard went against the express commands of the National WCTU and its president, Annie Wittenmeyer, who had made clear only one year earlier that the WCTU would not†¦show more content†¦Difficult because, as the early suffrage battles indicated, the membership was as varied as it was large. Many WCTU chapters—especially those in small towns and those in the South—were narrowly focused gospel temperance societies. Using moral suasion (e.g., affecting change through religion and educ ation rather than through politics), these chapters concentrated on ending the sale and manufacture of alcohol at the local level. But other WCTUs—especially those in the North and in urban areas—were highly politicized organizations committed to wide-spread societal reform. WCTU leaders needed to build a national organization that made space for both these extremes. Between 1874 and 1879, the NWCTU was led by Annie Wittenmyer, an ex-Civil War nurse and a staunch anti-suffragist. During her presidency, WCTU women were encouraged to hold prayer meetings, organize and educate children about the dangers of alcohol, circulate temperance pledges, do â€Å"home missionary† work among the poor and supposedly intemperate, and make their own homes more attractive in order to counteract the lure of the saloon. Although Wittenmyer voiced the belief that â€Å"the world will halt or move in its onward march towards millennial glory, as we [women] halt or march,† she nonetheless cautioned women to be â€Å"thoughtful and prayerful† asShow MoreRelatedOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 PagesPublic Memories Tiffany Ruby Patterson, Zora Neale Hurston and a History of Southern Life Lisa M. Fine, The Story of Reo Joe: Work, Kin, and Community in Autotown, U.S.A. Van Gosse and Richard Moser, eds., The World the Sixties Made: Politics and Culture in Recent America Joanne Meyerowitz, ed., History and September 11th John McMillian and Paul Buhle, eds., The New Left Revisited David M. Scobey, Empire City: The Making and Meaning of the New York City Landscape Gerda Lerner, Fireweed: A Political