The movement to suppress alcohol was reborn in 1873-1874 as the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. By 1890 it had 150,000 adult members and another 50,000 members in its young women’s auxiliary. It was the largest women’s protest movement in American history up to that time. The WCTU’s leader, Frances Willard was well educated, articulate, and passionate about abolishing alcohol as well as women’s suffrage, workers’ rights, and what she called "Christian socialism." Its membership was predominantly Protestant, white, and middle class. As the movement grew more radical it grew more popular in part because it was using its power and broad-based support to alleviate the problems of a new industrial society.

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