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The '''Woman's Christian Temperance Union''' was an American woman's group based in pietistic Protestantism that had the mission of purifying the nation, especially by reducing drunkenness and eliminating saloons. The members soon discovered they needed the vote to become politically effective, so they fought for women's suffrage.  

The '''Woman's Christian Temperance Union''' or '''WCTU''' was an American woman's group based in pietistic Protestantism that had the mission of purifying the nation, especially by reducing drunkenness and eliminating saloons. The members soon discovered they needed the vote to become politically effective, so they fought for women's suffrage.  

The Women's Crusade of spring 1874 led to the organization of the national and state Woman's Christian Temperance Union - the first major women's organization to exclude men. It gave women a sense of solidarity, a public forum in which to train in politics, a broadened outlook, and interdenominational contacts. Members were married, well-educated, affluent, and of main-line Protestant, professional families.<ref>see [http://www.wctu.org/crusades.html WCTU statement]</ref> the WTCU was a prominent support force for [[Prohibition]] in the late 19th century.  It had hundreds of local affiliates across the U.S., Canada and Australia. The WCTU was a watershed in the self-perception of women which represented a real, if only partially conscious, commitment to the idea that women could legitimately function in the public realm. Linked backwards to the national issues of abolition and revivalism in the 1830s and continued by the public debate over liquor licensing in 1873-74, the temperance crusade, by working within the traditional bounds of home and morality, widened the accepted spheres of women's activity.<ref>Bordin (1981)</ref>  

The Women's Crusade of spring 1874 led to the organization of the national and state Woman's Christian Temperance Union - the first major women's organization to exclude men. It gave women a sense of solidarity, a public forum in which to train in politics, a broadened outlook, and interdenominational contacts. Members were married, well-educated, affluent, and of main-line Protestant, professional families.<ref>see [http://www.wctu.org/crusades.html WCTU statement]</ref> the WTCU was a prominent support force for [[Prohibition]] in the late 19th century.  It had hundreds of local affiliates across the U.S., Canada and Australia. The WCTU was a watershed in the self-perception of women which represented a real, if only partially conscious, commitment to the idea that women could legitimately function in the public realm. Linked backwards to the national issues of abolition and revivalism in the 1830s and continued by the public debate over liquor licensing in 1873-74, the temperance crusade, by working within the traditional bounds of home and morality, widened the accepted spheres of women's activity.<ref>Bordin (1981)</ref>