The End of Gender Solidarity: The History of the Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform in the United States, 1929-1933

With the establishment of Prohibition in the United States in 1920, the American public believed that women stood solidly behind the legislation because it would reduce the evils long associated with male drunkenness. The formation in 1929 of an anti-Prohibition women's group, the Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform, challenged this notion of a unified woman's voting bloc. This article explores the WONPR, arguing that its members shared with women Prohibitionists the desire to protect the home but opposed Prohibition as an act of state force. The dispute among organized women over Prohibition is important because it shows that the struggle over special labor legislation was not the only sign that gender unity had died.