Woman's Christian Temperance Union

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Postcard of the memorial plaque and Baptist Church in Fredonia , the founding site of the first local Woman's Christian Temperance Union (1873).

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was a women's organization that originated in the United States and was the largest women's organization in the United States in the late 19th century. Born out of the temperance movement ( Temperance Movement ) of 1870 grew the WCTU to a highly respected organization that is not only a ban on alcohol and for the rights of women fought, but also for social reform committed. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union was and is represented by independent national organizations, especially in English-speaking countries.

prehistory

Since the mid-18th century, the governments of England and the American colonies tried unsuccessfully to control excessive alcohol consumption among working people. When industrially produced spirits flooded the market from the 19th century onwards and the social problems of the working class increased due to the effects of the industrial revolution , alcohol consumption and alcoholism both increased extremely and led to the misery alcoholism of low-income groups. The main victims of this development were women with their children, who often did not know how to support their families because their husbands converted their wages into alcohol . Gambling and prostitution exacerbated this situation. In addition, the increased use of machines in the factories made drunk workers a production problem.

The middle classes, the church and medical professionals took on the problem and tried to counteract the disastrous development by educating the population and demanding legal restrictions on the sale and serving of alcohol. This was the beginning of the abstinence movement, which started at different times in different countries, but in the United States it started late in the 1870s due to the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865. Above all, however, the growing women's movement with the support of the Evangelical Churches was responsible for the fact that the abstinence movement received greater attention.

History of the WCTU

208 Crusaders (crusaders, as parts of the movement called themselves) met on December 15, 1873 in the Baptist Church in Fredonia , New York, and founded the Woman's Christian Temperance Union as the country's first local organization. Under the leadership of Esther McNeil they occupied and blocked pubs, protested against the serving of alcohol and tried to prevent it. Groups in other regions followed suit.

In view of the need and necessity to organize the movement nationally, a meeting of all relevant groups took place in Chautauqua , in the state of New York in the summer of 1874 with the aim of establishing a national organization of the WCTU. In November 1874, the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union was founded in Cleveland , Ohio .

Annie Turner Wittenmyer (1827–1900) was elected as the first female president of the national WCTU . At her side was Frances Willard (1839-1898) to the Corresponding Secretary (secretary for correspondence ) is selected, that play a role Willard the key role of the organization and the movement goal for. In 1879, Frances Willard replaced Annie Turner Wittenmyer as president after a dispute over the direction . Willard managed to open the Christian conservative WCTU more and more and to bring it onto its line, a policy of Christian socialism . Under Willard's leadership and the years after her death in 1898, the WCTU grew to become the largest women's organization of its time with over 345,000 members in 1921, organized in 12,000 local groups and represented in all 53 states.

Frances Willard also initiated the formation of the World Women's Christian Temperance Union , which was founded in 1883 and which she also assumed presidency. With this claim to be a world organization, a year later, in 1884, Mary Clement Leavit was sent on an 8-year world tour through all continents as a “missionary” of the WCTU.

International

  • In 1875, Canada 's first Women's Christian Temperance Union was founded in Toronto . The foundation in Ontario followed in 1877 and the national organization in 1885.
  • In 1882 the first local organization, the Women's Christian Temperance Union , was founded in Sydney with the assistance of Mary Clement Leavitt . In 1891 the National Women's Christian Temperance Union of Australia was founded in Melbourne with the aim of bringing the regional groups under a common leadership. In 1894 Eleanor Trundle founded the Queensland Women's Christian Temperance Union when she was defeated by Emma Miller in an election for president of the Queensland Women's Equal Franchise Association .
  • In 1884, with the support of the American WCTU, represented by Mary Clement Leavitt , the National Women's Christian Temperance Union of New Zealand was founded by Kate Sheppard .

WCTU today

After the Second World War , interest in the topics of the WCTU declined and the organization lost its importance. In 1992 there were around 50,000 members in the WCTU in the United States. It is estimated that the WCTU is still represented internationally in around 70 mostly English-speaking countries.

In contrast to the restrictions in the period from the founding to the Second World War with regard to membership in the WCTU, the organization is now open to everyone who supports its goals and is therefore no longer a purely women's organization. The WCTU itself states that, in addition to its commitment to social reforms , it is still campaigning against alcohol, tobacco and other drug consumption , against drug trafficking , slavery , child labor and army brothels .

However, since all these socially relevant topics are now represented more strongly in public by other organizations that are not purely feminist and Christian and alcohol abuse is recognized as a problem in almost all modern societies, but is generally accepted as a possible consequence of personal responsibility, the WCTU has today lost importance as a political organization.

literature

  • Annie Wittenmyer : History of the Women's Temperance Crusade . HM Brockstedt , St. Luis 1800 (English, online [accessed July 8, 2019]).
  • Joseph R. Gusfield : Social Structure and Moral Reform: A Study of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union . In: American Journal of Sociology . Vol. 61, No. 3 . The University of Chicago Press , Chicago November 1955, pp. 221-232 (English).
  • Jeanne Wood : A Challenge Not a Truce, A History of the New Zealand Women's Christian Temperance Union 1885–1985 . New Zealand Women's Christian Temperance Union Inc. , Nelson 1986 (English).
  • Hasso Spode : The power of drunkenness. Cultural and social history of alcohol in Germany . 2nd Edition. Publishing house Leske u. Budrich, Opladen 1996, ISBN 3-8100-1709-4 (English).
  • Wolfgang Schivelbusch: Paradise, taste and reason. A history of luxury items . Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt 2000, ISBN 978-3-596-24413-3 .
  • Jack S. Blocker : Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia . ABC-CLIO Ltd , Santa Barbara 2003, ISBN 1-57607-833-7 (English).

Web links

Commons : Woman's Christian Temperance Union  - collection of images, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Schivelbusch: Paradise, Taste and Reason. A history of luxury items . 2000.
  2. Willard, Frances Elizabeth Caroline . American National Biography Online , February 2000, accessed May 29, 2016 .
  3. ^ Women and Temperance in International Perspective: The World's WTCU, 1880s-1920s . Drinking: Behavior and Belief in Modern History , September 7, 2009, accessed May 29, 2016 .
  4. ^ Nikki Henningham : Women's Equal Franchise Association (1894-1905) . The Australian Women's Register , June 21, 2004, accessed May 29, 2016 .
  5. a b The Columbia Encyclopedia . 6th edition. Columbia University Press , 2007 (English).