Assess The Significance Of Prohibition Essay

Assess the significance of prohibition to the United States in the years 1920-1933

Prohibition was extremely significant to the United states in the years 1920-1933 due to the economical and societal consequences it inflicted. Prohibition had a lasting impact and significance on the United States for various reasons. For instance, it greatly affected society and the way women are and were perceived to this date and also had a drastic economical impact on both the citizens and government. However, it only lasted 13 years because of the negative connotations that came along with it and made the criminal activity and rates increase drastically, meaning that as one of prohibition’s aims was to keep families safe, whilst it did the complete opposite.

For instance, flappers surfaced, something that greatly affected the way women were perceived. Flappers were young women who are characteristically known for breaking through societal barriers by living a life that was not seen as adequate, immoral and outrageous. They also pushed through economical, society and sexual barriers for women in the 1920s. This is especially true because before prohibition, women were seen as being dependent and only useful for housework. In other words, women gained autonomy in their homes and have kept that autonomy to this day, making prohibition extremely significant in how women were looked upon and what would be seen as the cultural aspects and normalization of how they would act. Some sources also state that “By aligning the prohibition movement with the suffrage movement, women were able to drum up strong support for women’s right to vote” In other words, saying that women’s right to vote was pushed due to prohibition and was also made possible because of it. Some might also argue that women joined the temperance movement with the suffragette movement to gain more media coverage and popularity, therefore making the suffragette movement more popular than what it was previously. Not only did it make it more popular, but it also helped them get a direct link to the nation’s government

Industrial alcohols had toxic chemicals added to them such as quinine, methyl alcohol and more to prevent them from being bootlegged. This then caused them to either die or become permanently blind. Because of this, I would personally argue that prohibition was not significant as it was a failure in every possible way. The government tried to enforce it using different methods and techniques, one of which was adding toxic additives to alcohols that were used to bootlegging, but this did not stop the public demand for alcoholic beverages, hence showing how it was a failure. Furthermore, thousands of people were harmed by this, they ended up being crippled, blind, or even dead on some