When Prohibition was repealed, the U.S. government failed to implement any public health programs to address alcoholism. This institutional void created the perfect opportunity for a private, grassroots organization—Alcoholics Anonymous—to become the nation's dominant addiction recovery model.
Early American feminists strategically promoted temperance to gain political influence and protect families. They argued that securing women's right to vote was essential for enacting laws to curb alcohol abuse, thus inextricably linking the two powerful social movements.
AA's foundational text, "The Big Book," was written from a white, male perspective, explicitly framing women as caretakers, not alcoholics themselves. This patriarchal and racially homogenous origin created systemic barriers that have historically excluded women, people of color, and queer individuals.
Despite being one of the most recognizable symbols of Alcoholics Anonymous, sobriety chips are not part of the organization's official doctrine or history. They began as an informal, local custom in the 1940s, possibly started by a nun, and spread organically among individual groups.
Contrary to the era's repressive goals, illegal speakeasies often became more progressive than the saloons they replaced. Many were racially integrated decades before desegregation and provided spaces where women could socialize, drink, and explore newfound freedoms alongside men.
The Washingtonian Society, a popular 1840s sobriety group with a model similar to AA, ultimately failed after its mission became entangled with divisive political causes like abolition and feminism. AA later learned from this, adopting a strictly apolitical, single-purpose focus.
AA's policy of avoiding "outside issues" to remain apolitical effectively silences marginalized members by dismissing their lived experiences, such as racial trauma, as irrelevant. This defines "political" from a white, male standpoint, perpetuating an exclusionary environment.