The fight for prohibition hindered the fight for women’s suffrage in the United States in the early twentieth century. Women were heavily involved in both the temperance movement and the women’s suffrage movement, which both achieved their goals in 1920. The temperance movement did not significantly provoke women to become politically active. It inspired liquor interests to assemble as major enemies of suffrage, and demeaned women by purposely promoting gender roles.
Though historians disagree, the temperance movement was not a significant factor in making women more politically active. Murdock, who attended the University of Pennsylvania, believed that the temperance movement helped the suffrage movement because “… the controversy over drink …show more content…
The temperance movement was simply another on the list. The temperance movement did not assist women’s suffrage by bringing women into politics; they were already there.
A significant element in some men’s choice to not support women’s suffrage was the fear that due to the rise of women’s desire for prohibition, if women got the vote, prohibition would ensue (QTD in Stewart 145). Primarily, men were the consumers of alcohol, which gave them animosity towards prohibition. Drinking was most common among men, “Historically, it is not America that has had a drinking problem, it is American men” (Murdock 4). A large reason why men drank was to prove their masculinity (15), to which prohibition was a threat. However, drinking exacerbated women’s lives greaty, “A drunkard threatened not only the ideal of a sober and responsible citizenry but also―and much more …show more content…
Mary Livermore wrote in a letter to Alice Stone Blackwell, an anti-prohibition suffragist: “We have a W.C.T.U. of nearly 400 members, and I don’t know one who is not a suffragist” (QTD in Giele 93). Livermore implied that temperance women, by identifying as suffragists, helped suffrage, but this was misguided. Temperance women’s reasons for being suffragists were not for the cause of suffrage, but because “prohibition would be impossible without women’s political empowerment” (Murdock 4). They wanted suffrage to advance their aim of prohibition in order to make home life better for women. While this was important because their oppressed home lives were made much worse by their regularly intoxicated husbands (Murdock 7, 19), they did not advocate that women deserved to be treated equally, like suffragists
Though historians disagree, the temperance movement was not a significant factor in making women more politically active. Murdock, who attended the University of Pennsylvania, believed that the temperance movement helped the suffrage movement because “… the controversy over drink …show more content…
The temperance movement was simply another on the list. The temperance movement did not assist women’s suffrage by bringing women into politics; they were already there.
A significant element in some men’s choice to not support women’s suffrage was the fear that due to the rise of women’s desire for prohibition, if women got the vote, prohibition would ensue (QTD in Stewart 145). Primarily, men were the consumers of alcohol, which gave them animosity towards prohibition. Drinking was most common among men, “Historically, it is not America that has had a drinking problem, it is American men” (Murdock 4). A large reason why men drank was to prove their masculinity (15), to which prohibition was a threat. However, drinking exacerbated women’s lives greaty, “A drunkard threatened not only the ideal of a sober and responsible citizenry but also―and much more …show more content…
Mary Livermore wrote in a letter to Alice Stone Blackwell, an anti-prohibition suffragist: “We have a W.C.T.U. of nearly 400 members, and I don’t know one who is not a suffragist” (QTD in Giele 93). Livermore implied that temperance women, by identifying as suffragists, helped suffrage, but this was misguided. Temperance women’s reasons for being suffragists were not for the cause of suffrage, but because “prohibition would be impossible without women’s political empowerment” (Murdock 4). They wanted suffrage to advance their aim of prohibition in order to make home life better for women. While this was important because their oppressed home lives were made much worse by their regularly intoxicated husbands (Murdock 7, 19), they did not advocate that women deserved to be treated equally, like suffragists