U.S. Prohibition and Women's Suffrage: Key Legislation and Movements

Volstead Act

Took effect on January 17, 1920, at midnight.

Purpose of the Volstead Act

To enforce Prohibition by banning beverages over 0.05% alcohol.

Eighteenth Amendment

Established Prohibition.

Primary activists behind the Prohibition movement

Middle-class women, especially in the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).

Justification for Prohibition campaign

Framing alcohol as a threat to families and using their roles as mothers and homemakers.

Religious groups supportive of Prohibition

Protestant denominations, especially Baptist and Methodist communities.

Regions of the U.S. first adopting local prohibition laws

Parts of the South and Midwest.

Purpose of 'dry counties'

Local bans on alcohol in certain municipalities.

World War I's contribution to Prohibition support

Increased anti-German sentiment, linked alcohol to immigrant communities, and promoted patriotism.

Introducer of the National Prohibition Act

Congressman Andrew Volstead from Minnesota.

President Wilson's veto of the National Prohibition Act

He argued that wartime justification no longer applied and legal changes must follow proper processes.

Congress's response to Wilson's veto

They overrode it with a two-thirds majority.

Drop in alcohol consumption after Prohibition

Estimated between 30% and 60%.

Methods to bypass Prohibition

Homemade alcohol, medical/religious loopholes, and speakeasies.

Major unintended consequence of Prohibition

Growth of organized crime and violent gangsters.

Impact of Prohibition on federal government

Expanded federal power and involved the government more directly in citizens' daily lives.

Effect of Prohibition enforcement on court system

Overcrowded courts and federal prisons, with one-third of inmates jailed for Prohibition-related offenses by 1930.

Prohibition's influence on women's suffrage

Women's activism in Prohibition helped mobilize support for the Nineteenth Amendment.

Nineteenth Amendment ratification date

August 18, 1920.

What the Nineteenth Amendment did

Granted women the right to vote nationwide.

First state to grant women suffrage in 1869

Wyoming.

States allowing full voting rights for women by 1919

Twenty states and territories.

First woman elected to national office in the U.S.

Jeannette Rankin from Montana.

Main women's suffrage organizations

National Women's Party (NWP) and National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).

NWP's method of protesting for women's suffrage

Picketing the White House, chaining themselves to gates, and hunger strikes.

NAWSA's approach to suffrage activism

Moderate, patriotic lobbying, emphasizing women's contributions to WWI.

Public outrage over NWP treatment in prison

Persuaded President Wilson to endorse the suffrage amendment.

Women forming a unified voting bloc after 1920

No; turnout was low, and voting patterns mirrored men.

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

A proposed constitutional amendment guaranteeing no sex-based discrimination.

Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act of 1921

Federal funding for maternal and child healthcare, later phased out in 1929.