In 1880s, the women's christian temperance movement (wctu) controversially threw its support behind the

The Women's Christian Temperance Union wanted to make changes in society in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The idea was to get rid of alcohol as many of these people felt that it was morally hurting the society and making people bad individuals. Getting rid of alcohol eventually became the 18th Amendment, which was passed in 1920. A lot of the women in this movement were also supporting women's equality, and some of them also had a strong religious background.

Some people were not in agreement with this group as they did not agree with getting rid of alcohol in society. Some extremists like Cary Nation would go around with her hatchet to saloons, quote Bible scriptures, and then smash alcohol and liquor bottles.