The new participation of women in the temperance movement was engendered by the ideas brought about by Jacksonian Democracy. Religious reform gave women a new role to slightly step out of the traditional domestic sphere. A need for temperance in the newly industrialized society, gave women the chance to exercise their limited influence in order to protect the nation from the evil of alcohol. Although these two movements took place long before the formation of the WCTU, without them women would not have had the opportunity to be involved in a movement as influential as temperance.
Women in Reform
“While an impulse to “perfect” people and society helped excite the reform movements of Jacksonian era, social and economic changes helped supply the reformers themselves, most of whom were women” (Tindall & Shi, 516). “Women, in fact, played the predominant role, as they had in earlier revivals. Evangelical ministers repeatedly applauded the spiritual energies of women and affirmed their right to give witness to their faith in public” (Tindall & Shi, 498). This shift gave women a better position in society, eventually leading to their ability to create organizations such as the WCTU. Women would have never been able to exercise the full extent of their power in the temperance movement without the opportunity that early reform movements afforded them. |