21. Alcohol Manufacturers Became Staunch Anti-Suffragists
The Brewers Association sought to differentiate beer from liquor and even joined those attacking distilled spirits. However, when faced with a common threat, the brewers had no trouble in closing ranks with the distillers to ward off a looming menace to the very existence of their businesses: women’s votes.
America’s women tended to be in the anti-alcohol camp, but so long as they were unable to vote, their sentiments posed little threat to drinking manufacturers’ bottom line. However, some states began to grant women the right to vote, and those female voters usually backed temperance and prohibition candidates. The result was a steady tightening of alcohol-related regulations at the local and state levels, and a steady rise in statewide prohibition laws. So brewers and distillers fought against granting women the right to vote, by generously funding and supporting anti-suffrage politicians and organizations.
