The Temperance Movement\u27s Impact on Adoption of Women\u27s Suffrage

This paper examines the nature of the Progressive Era and the Prohibition Movement and the important links between the sentiments giving rise to prohibition and those stimulating adoption of suffrage. Though each arose from a somewhat distinct array of reform impulses and overcame varying opposition groups, they were closely related in some ways, supported by overlapping groups of people, advanced by large numbers of women, and, in part, lifted to enactment by similar motivations. Indeed, without the support of many conservative citizens approving both Amendments, it is not clear what the fate of suffrage would have been after World War I. The paper proceeds in two parts—the first on prohibition and the second on suffrage. Each section reviews some of the history leading to the rise of sentiment in favor of adoption of a constitutional amendment, describes the similarities and differences in the two movements, and develops the basis for my overall thesis that adoption of the Suffrage Amendment was significantly enhanced by sentiments that also led to prohibition