The date was September 28,1839. The place was Churcville, New York. The name? Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard (in Quick Time or AVI). At that time no one would ever guessed that this second child of a teacher-mother and a store-manager-father would became a world leader for social reform.
The story began when the family moved to Janesville, Wisconsin, in 1846. Frances studied at a small schoolhouse built by Mr. Willard for 18 years, before she continued her education at Milwaukee Female College. She was appointed president of the newly organized Evanston College for Ladies by the age 32, and became Dean of Women in 1873 when the college merged with Northwestern University.
Despite of her popular enjoyable academician life Frances resigned
in 1874 to join and worked with National Women's Christian Temperance
Union. Her argument that the only way to have a successful temperance
was through women's right to vote made her known as a suffragist.
Women suffrage was not an issue yet at that time; in fact, not
until 1880 that the WCTU declared the movement, though they had
to wait 40 years before women could vote in national affairs.
The temperance movement has began since the 1840s, but was not much heard yet until the end of Civil War in 1865. The movement was triggered by some religious female activists who tried to outlaw, or at least, limit the use of liquor. They believed that alcohol is the source of many problems in life, especially in a developing nation. After much demonstrations and rallies, finally in 1874 some female reformers decided to form an organization which was called the Women's Christian Temperance Union.
Temperance was considerd 'tamed' and much more women's issue rather than suffrage that it drew many women to join the organization. For that reason, when the first time Frances Willard brought up the idea of women's suffrage, they opposed it. However, Willard argued that by having a say in decision-making women would be able to protect their homes and families. In the nineteenth century WCTU was considered the largest and most powerful American women's organization.
Frances Willard became president of the WCTU for 20 years starting
from 1879 until her death in 1898. During her leadership the WCTU
went far beyond its original goals of alcohol prohibition. They
were also dealing with issues of labor reform, health and hygiene,
peace, arbitration, education, teaching women to public and political
action, etc.
American Association of University Women - Wisconsin State Division.Wisconsin Women: a Gifted Heritage. Amherst, WI: Palmer Publication, c1982.
Kimble, James. "Frances Willard as Protector of the Home: the Progressive, Divinely Inspired Woman." Lives of Their Own: Rhetorical Dimensions in Autobiographies of Women Activists by Martha Watson with James Kimble. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1999.
McElroy, Lorie Jenkins, ed. Women's Voices: a Documentary History of Women in America. Vol. 1: Education, Abolition, Suffrage. Detroit: UXL, c1997.
Sigerman, Harriet. Laborers for Liberty: American Women 1865 - 1890. The Young Oxford History of Women in the United Stated, ed. Nancy F. Cott, vol. 6. New York: Oxford University Press, c1994.
Smith, Karen Manners. New Paths to Power: American Women 1890 - 1920. The Young Oxford History of Women in United Stated, ed. Nancy F. Cott, vol. 7. New York: Oxford University Press, c1994.
Watson, Martha. Lives of Their Own : Rhetorical Dimensions
in Autobiographies of Women Activists. Columbia, S.C. : University
of South Carolina Press, c1999.
Last updated April 2000