Women Suffrage and Temperenace Movement - Research Paper Example

One of the most contentious issues was the issue of abortion. Although women had different reasons for demand and fighting for their rights, the cause was the same – liberation of women from male domination and freedom from discrimination in every field of life The International Woman Suffrage movement was established with the aim of granting equal rights to women in all matters. Although the women suffrage movement began in 1848, the Civil War in America overshadowed it. After the war, the issue of “Black Suffrage” was emphasized, and there were policy differences between the members (Ford, 2009, p.418). The Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was basically the first popular accumulation of women that was devoted to social reform the basis of which were the principles of Christianity, linking it with secular contemplation and long term strategies for social reform (Farmer, 1893, p.356). Julia Ward Howe and Julia Stone were the founders of the American Women Suffrage Movement (AWSA), which also had men as its members.

The mainstay of the suffrage movement was the temperance movement that was established in the United States in 1874 as a Protestant restructuring and modification movement for which the leading and driving element or force were the missionaries that were trying to spread the Gospel in non-western and southern countries. Frances Willard was the founder the WCTU, and she recognized the connection between temperance and allowing women to vote, encouraged the women of her union to support and work for women’s voting rights.

The association, challenges and disagreements between its mission, Christianity and self-control (temperance) posed a predicament for the women on ideological, philosophical, political and practical aspects to change society and also the world. Its supporters dismissed criticism of it being gender biased because of the tremendous number of male