It was a huge womens rights movement at the time. They weren’t all prudes, they just thought it would be a more effective way to cut back on domestic violence than going at it directly (more enforceable and politically viable), iirc. Then everyone hated it.
Changing it is very difficult. It takes 2/3rds of our legislative branch agreeing. We don’t see that much.
It says something about how fucking nuts Prohibition was that the states agreed to it and then agreed that was a terrible idea.
It was a huge womens rights movement at the time. They weren’t all prudes, they just thought it would be a more effective way to cut back on domestic violence than going at it directly (more enforceable and politically viable), iirc. Then everyone hated it.