From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is the oldest continuing non-sectarian women's organization in the US. Founded in Evanston, Illinois in 1874, its purpose was to combat the influence of alcohol on families and society. Frances Willard, a noted feminist, was its second president.
They took their definition of Temperance from the Greek writer Xenophon: "moderation in all things healthful; total abstinence from all things harmful." Thus the temperance approach to alcohol was defined as total abstinence.
Current issues for the WCTU are broader than alcohol, which the group recognizes as America's number one drug problem, and their crusades against other, more illegal drugs. The WCTU has warned against the dangers of tobacco since 1875, and gambling and pornography are among the obsessions they are combatting.
