Afaik the temperance movement had a large faction of women who correctly identified alcohol as a cause of domestic violence. And, from what i understand, alcohol consumption was considerably higher before prohibition than it ever was after, so i imagine things really were quite bad.
that’s definitely part of it, and played a role in women’s suffrage
The only hope of the Anti-Saloon League’s success lies in putting the ballot into the hands of women. --Susan B. Anthony
and this is an opportune moment to highlight one of my favorite temperance movement members: hatchet granny
for years she tried to dissuade people from drinking or providing alcohol, but since that didn’t work she eventually resorted to just attacking bars and taverns with a hatchet and destroying their alcohol supplies
Nation died on June 9, 1911. She is buried in the southeastern side of Belton Cemetery in Belton, Missouri. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union later erected a stone inscribed “Faithful to the Cause of Prohibition, She Hath Done What She Could” and the name “Carry A. Nation”.
That was the reason a lot of women join those orgs, but a lot of the women leading the Progressive movement had very eugenicist views. All of it is put through this lens of dealing with social ills by “fixing” the uncivilized. So they rope in women who want to stop abuse from happening, into supporting efforts that destroy labor organizing, and essentially make young women wards of these Puritanical nativists.
A lot of this came from wellborn white women who earnestly wanted to vote and develop women’s spheres of politics and social development, but whose views are inextricable from eugenics. So good social reforms are part of this larger system of “uplifting” lesser people.
https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1541&context=lcp
Afaik the temperance movement had a large faction of women who correctly identified alcohol as a cause of domestic violence. And, from what i understand, alcohol consumption was considerably higher before prohibition than it ever was after, so i imagine things really were quite bad.
that’s definitely part of it, and played a role in women’s suffrage
and this is an opportune moment to highlight one of my favorite temperance movement members: hatchet granny
for years she tried to dissuade people from drinking or providing alcohol, but since that didn’t work she eventually resorted to just attacking bars and taverns with a hatchet and destroying their alcohol supplies
I’ve seen signs in bars saying “we serve all nations except Carrie” and never knew what it meant
That was the reason a lot of women join those orgs, but a lot of the women leading the Progressive movement had very eugenicist views. All of it is put through this lens of dealing with social ills by “fixing” the uncivilized. So they rope in women who want to stop abuse from happening, into supporting efforts that destroy labor organizing, and essentially make young women wards of these Puritanical nativists.
Like Settlement Houses which Protestants in the UK and US created often out of a genuine desire to see immigrant women not go into prostitution or starving on the streets in unhygienic conditions, just as implicitly saw their purpose as a sacred duty to maintain “social hygiene” and assimilate or isolate undesirables. This is the same trend that led to birthcontrol in the US being popularized by some in order to curtail minority birthrates.
A lot of this came from wellborn white women who earnestly wanted to vote and develop women’s spheres of politics and social development, but whose views are inextricable from eugenics. So good social reforms are part of this larger system of “uplifting” lesser people. https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1541&context=lcp