Profiles in Leadership: Exploring the Demographics of Leaders in the Iowa Woman’s Christian Temperance Union

Adam Chamberlain, Coastal Carolina University
Alixandra Yanus, High Point University

As one of the key large, federated voluntary membership associations for women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was a powerful organization. Yet, outside of case studies of a few national leaders, we know little about who became leaders in state and local organizations. These women were pivotal to the association’s success. Relying on a unique database of state, district, county, and local leaders in the Iowa WCTU in 1915 and data from the Iowa State Census, we seek to explore the demographic profiles of these women, both descriptively and empirically. Our findings extend scholarly knowledge about women’s leadership in the WCTU specifically and women’s organizations generally while also revealing that similar studies should be conducted on a wide variety of large, federated voluntary membership associations.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 109. Cruel Optimism? Women Maintaining the Status Quo or Organizing against It