The pure in heart: the New Zealand Women's Christian Temperance Union and social purity, 1885-1930

Abstract

This thesis examines the social purity work of the New Zealand Women's Christian Temperance Union between 1885 and 1930. It argues that social purity ideas underlay every aspect of the Union's work, and focuses on several national campaigns which Union members undertook during the period. It explores the connection between the WCTU's wish for full citizenship rights for women and their social purity work. Union members believed the removal of women's 'disabilities' was necessary in order to establish an equal society, governed by a single moral standard. The thesis begins by examining the WCTU's attempts to ban the liquor trade and the barmaid, using women's votes (after 1893) and other methods including resolutions, petitions, letter-writing, public meetings, as well as direct action tactics. It next looks at their campaign for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act, and their attitudes towards prostitution and venereal disease. Following the repeal of the CD Act in 1910, the WCTU continued to lobby for government to pass social hygiene legislation in accordance with the single standard. A case study of the Public Health patrols reveals that, once implemented, Union ideals could prove less useful than they had hoped. The final chapters examine the dynamic between WCTU ideals of motherhood and marriage and the realities of eugenics-inspired programmes for race improvement, and the implementation of sex education in schools.