Prohibition and the Suffrage Movement | The Vote | American Experience | PBS

Name: Prohibition and the Suffrage Movement | The Vote | American Experience | PBS
Uploaded: 2021-01-16T14:45:00.000Z
Duration: 6 min 36 s

The Intersection of Temperance and Women's Suffrage

The Role of Susan B. Anthony in the Temperance Movement

Eleanor Smeal highlights that Susan B. Anthony was a significant leader in the temperance movement, which focused on addressing men's behavior related to alcohol abuse and domestic violence.

The temperance movement aimed to restrict alcohol consumption due to its detrimental effects on families, particularly how men would spend their earnings on drinking rather than supporting their wives and children.

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.)

Established in Ohio, the W.C.T.U. became the largest women's organization advocating for alcohol prohibition since the late 19th century, linking suffrage with home protection.

Mary Walton notes that the liquor lobby, including distilleries and breweries, actively opposed suffrage by funding campaigns against it whenever votes were held.

Tactics Used by Opponents of Suffrage

Elaine Weiss describes tactics employed by bars during elections, such as offering free beer to patrons who voted against women's suffrage amendments.

There was a strong fear among liquor interests that granting women political power could lead to national prohibition.

Challenges Faced by Suffragists

Harriet Taylor Upton attempted to distance the suffrage movement from temperance associations but faced skepticism from voters in states where brewing was economically significant.

Despite efforts to clarify this distinction, key referendums for women's suffrage failed in Ohio (September 3rd, 1912), Wisconsin (two days later), and Michigan (November), indicating persistent opposition linked to economic interests tied to alcohol production.

Economic Interests vs. Social Reform

Historian Alexander Keyssar emphasizes that as women connected suffrage rights with broader social reforms—like labor conditions for garment workers or temperance—powerful economic entities resisted these changes due to their vested interests in industries profiting from alcohol sales.

Video description

For many suffragists, control of alcohol and access to the vote were two deeply intertwined causes. Both were critical, in their eyes, women’s civil liberties. But this connection sparked a response, as distilleries, breweries, and liquor distributors took the equation to push back against women’s suffrage as they defended their industry. In the end, the 18th amendment, prohibiting alcohol In the U.S., was ratified on January 16, 1919. Women’s access to the ballot, and the 19th amendment, would have to wait another year and a half, until August 1920. The 18th amendment was ultimately repealed by the 21st amendment’s ratification on December 5, 1933. Learn more about THE VOTE, including where to watch the documentary: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/vote/ One hundred years after the passage of the 19th Amendment, The Vote tells the dramatic culmination story of the hard-fought campaign waged by American women for the right to vote — a transformative cultural and political movement that resulted in the largest expansion of voting rights in U.S. history. In its final decade, from 1909 to 1920, movement leaders wrestled with contentious questions about the most effective methods for affecting social change. They debated the use of militant, even violent tactics, as well as hunger strikes and relentless public protests. The battle for the vote also upended previously accepted ideas about the proper role of women in American society and challenged the definitions of citizenship and democracy. Exploring how and why millions of 20th-century Americans mobilized for — and against — women’s suffrage, The Vote brings to life the unsung leaders of the movement and the deep controversies over gender roles and race that divided Americans then — and continue to dominate political discourse today.