Bootlegging Mothers And Drinking Daughters Summary

The article entitled Bootlegging Mothers and Drinking Daughters: Gender and Prohibition in Butte, Montana written by Mary Murphy, deals with the prohibition period in the 1920 in a town called Butte. This article dives into the pre-prohibition era and prohibition era in Butte, a town that had a very strong male dominated feel. The main argument within this article was that the act of drinking was thoroughly gender-segregated, with women not being able to indulge in public drinking like their male counterparts due to the judgments they faced. The author was successful in explaining the roles that many women had endured within the time period prior to prohibition and during prohibition by using examples of women in different economic classes

There were many instances throughout the article where it is seen that young females begin to rebel by doing things they once would not have done previous to prohibition. Speakeasies became a place where young women had established their freedom and independence. Not only were they able to drink around men, but they could smoke and many females even decided to cut there hair into bobs. Speakeasies became mysterious and thrilling which resulted in the incline of the female presence within the establishments. It is due to the fact that many young women were participating in the action of chasing the thrill of drinking outside of their homes where the social norms began to change. In the article is it brought to light that prohibition brought on the idea that everyone had to taste alcohol because they became curious as to why it was against the law to consume it. When someone is told you cannot do something, it becomes all the more fun to go out and actually be able to do it once you have the chance to. Mothers began to fear that their daughters were becoming more frivolous instead of settling down and starting