In the 1870s, groups of women began marching from church meetings to nearby saloons. they knelt in prayer on the saloon's floor or on the street to block the entrance. the main reason women did this was

The main reason they were doing that is because they were protesting alcohol consumption.

This was part of the Temperance Movement.

The Temperance Movement (which still continues to this day) originated in the early 1800s and women were very actively involved from the very beginning. The movement was highly moralist with a strong religious influence.

the reform movements that arose during the antebellum period in america focused on specific issues: temperance, abolishing imprisonment for debt, pacifism, antislavery, abolishing capital punishment, amelioration of prison conditions (with prison's purpose reconceived as rehabilitation rather than punishment), the humane treatment of animals, the humane and just treatment of native americans, the establishment of public institutions for the care of the destitute, orphans, blind, and mentally ill, the establishment of public schools, the abolition of tobacco use, vegetarianism, health reform, homeopathic medicine, woman's rights (including, at first, especially the establishment of a woman's right to own property apart from her husband and her right to sue for divorce), and the amelioration of labor conditions (including higher pay, the right to form unions, the right to strike, and the demand for limits on the number of work hours, and safe working conditions).

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