The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international temperance organization. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform with a program that "linked the religious and the secular through concerted and far-reaching reform strategies based on applied Christianity." It plays an influential role in the temperance movement. Originating among women in the United States Prohibition movement, the organization supported the 18th Amendment and was also influential in social reform issues that came to prominence in the progressive era.
Mary Greenleaf Leavitt was an educator and successful orator who became the first round-the-world missionary for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). Setting out on virtually non-stop worldwide tours over a decade, she "went to all continents save Antarctica," where she crusaded against alcohol and its evils including domestic violence; and advocated for women's suffrage and other equal rights such as higher education for women. In 1891 she became the honorary life president of the World's WCTU.
Yajima Kajiko was the founder of the Women's Reform Society and president of Japan's Woman's Christian Temperance Union. An educator, pacifist, and Christian activist, she vigorously advanced the cause for the education of women in Japan. Her name was usually seen as Kaji Yajima in the American press of her day.
Jessie Ackermann was a social reformer, feminist, journalist, writer and traveller. She was the second round-the-world missionary appointed by the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WWCTU), becoming in 1891 the inaugural president of the federated Australasian Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), Australia's largest women's reform group. Although an American, Ackermann is considered a major voice in the Australian suffrage movement.
Lily May Atkinson was a New Zealand temperance campaigner, suffragist and feminist. She served in several leadership roles at the local and national levels including Vice President of the New Zealand Alliance for Suppression and Abolition of the Liquor Traffic (1898–1921); president of Women's Christian Temperance Union New Zealand (1901–1905); and, Vice President of the National Council of Women of New Zealand (1901–1903).
Susan Hammond Barney was an American social activist and evangelist. She was the founder of the Prisoners' Aid Society of Rhode Island, and due to her efforts, police matrons were secured for the station houses of large cities. She worked with the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, and was the first president of the Rhode Island Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). She was instrumental in making prohibition a constitutional enactment in Rhode Island in 1886. Barney is best remembered as the WCTU's National Superintendent of Prison, Jail, Police, and Almshouse Visitation. Her wide sympathies and ministries earned her the title of "The Prisoner's Friend." It was Barney's desire to become a foreign Christian missionary, but, due to ill-health, she was not able to pursue this career; nonetheless, her first public speaking was done in the interest of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Katharine Lent Stevenson was an American temperance reformer, missionary, and editor. She was a successful platform speaker, writer, and officer of the World Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WWCTU) on whose behalf she also visited Japan, China, India, Australia and other countries as a missionary. She also served as president of the Massachusetts WCTU in 1898.
Margaret E. Winslow (1836-1936) was an American activist, newspaper editor, and author of several temperance books. She served at two separate times, and during the longest period of any editor-in-chief of Our Union, the national organ of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). It was a burst of inspiration from Winslow, relative to its simplicity and purity, which at the National WCTU Convention in Chicago determined the union to wear the white ribbon as a badge rather than the red, white, and blue which was strongly urged by many.
Hayashi Utako was a Japanese educator and social worker. As head of the Osaka branch of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, she led campaigns against businesses serving alcohol in 1909, 1912, and 1916. She was also active in the international woman's peace movement.
Tsuneko Yamada Gauntlett, born Yamada Tsune, was a Japanese temperance, suffrage, and peace activist. In 1937 she was international president of the Pan-Pacific Women's Association.
Azuma Moriya was a Japanese temperance activist. She was head of the Loyal Temperance Legion program in Japan, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) outreach to children.
Sarah Jane Kirk was a New Zealand temperance leader, suffragist and human rights activist. She served as president of the Wellington chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union New Zealand for over a decade and served as one of the Union's national vice presidents.
Abby Fisher Leavitt was an American social reformer and one of the prominent figures of the Ohio Women's Crusade. Leavitt also served as Secretary of the Baptist Women's Foreign Missionary Society of Ohio and Treasurer of the Women's Crusade Temperance Union. She was the leader of the "Praying Band", who, in the spring of 1874, daily marched down to the esplanade of Cincinnati, visiting saloons, and holding meetings inside or outside of liquor saloons, and on one occasion, was arrested and temporarily imprisoned for her temerity. She was a co-publisher of the newspaper of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). In 1891, as the "Round the World Missionary of the WCTU", the World's WCTU elected Leavitt its life president.
Women's Christian Temperance Union of New Zealand is a non-partisan, non-denominational, and non-profit organisation that is the oldest continuously active national organisation of women in New Zealand. The national organisation began in 1885 during the visit to New Zealand by Mary Clement Leavitt, the first world missionary for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. The WCTU NZ was an early branch of the World Woman's Christian Temperance Union and a founding affiliate of the National Council of Women of New Zealand. Men may join the WCTU NZ as honorary members.
Fanny Buttery Cole was a prominent temperance leader and women's rights advocate in New Zealand. Cole was a founding member then president of the Christchurch chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union New Zealand and national WCTU NZ superintendent of the Press from 1897 through 1903. In 1906 Cole was elected national president of the WCTU NZ, a position she held until her untimely death shortly before her fifty-third birthday.
Flora Effie Strout was an American teacher and social reformer. Early on, she taught at Lyman School for Boys in Massachusetts and then at Morgan College, where she also served as principal. As an organizer of the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), she served as a foreign missionary and temperance movement worker, for three five-year periods in various parts of Asia. She was also involved in the social purity movement and was active in supporting women's suffrage. She wrote occasional articles on temperance issues and the lyrics for Morgan College's school anthem.
Mary Osburn Adkinson was an American social reformer active in the temperance movement. She took a leading part in the organization of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Madison, Wisconsin, serving four times as its elected president. In Louisiana, she held the position of superintendent of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and matron in the New Orleans University.
Adda Burch was an American missionary-teacher in Latin America. She was also a Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) leader, serving in various positions in the U.S. as well as president of the World WCTU organization based in Chile.
Annie Carvosso was an English-born Australian activist and social reformer engaged in work for women and children in Queensland. She was associated with many philanthropic movements, as well as charitable and social welfare activities, including the National Council of Women of Queensland, the Australian Federation of Women Voters, and the Australian Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.).
