Matilda B. Carse (November 19, 1835 – June 3, 1917) was an Irish-born American businesswoman, social reformer, publisher, and leader of the temperance movement.

With Frances E. Willard and Lady Henry Somerset, Carse helped to found the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).

Her mission in life was determined soon afterward, when in Chicago, in 1874, Thomas Alexander, who had almost recovered his health, was run over by a wagon driven by a drunken German drayman and instantly killed.

[2][3][7] After the death of her son, Carse became a determined and outspoken leader of the temperance movement in Chicago and nationwide in the United States.

[7] Besides this, several other nurseries, two free kindergartens, two gospel temperance unions, the Anchorage Mission, a home for runaway girls, a reading room for men, two dispensaries for the poor and two industrial schools were established through Carse's management.

[3] The Rehobeth refuge and recovery shelter, as well as the Bethesda Mission, which was specifically aimed at teaching neighborhood women practical household skills also held temperance support meetings.

Carse's social reforms positively influenced the slums of Chicago particularly by providing services and opportunities for members of the poverty-stricken working class.

Carse wrote articles for the Union Signal, a WCTU weekly organ, detailing the mission and work behind her greatest project, the Temperance Temple.

Carse directly oversaw the creation and distribution of The Signal, a low-cost newspaper that featured editorials and articles focused on women and family issues of the day (McKeever, 368).

The WCTU President, Frances Willard, however, was highly supportive of Carse's plan, and by 1882 the Union Signal, a weekly newsletter published by the WTPA, was created.

In 1885, she began planning for the Woman's Temperance Temple in the center of Chicago's financial district, the national headquarters of the WCTU.

She incorporated and acted as the (self-appointed) trustee for the Women's Temperance of Building Association (WTBA), which oversaw donations and sold stocks to finance the Temple.

[12] A large part of the controversy surrounding the Temperance Temple was created by Carse's own personality and her position as a woman in a male-dominated sphere.

In order to succeed in the business world, Carse had to be outspoken, stubborn and aggressive, traits that were considered masculine and hard to reconcile with the traditional image of a Christian woman.

Carse's insistence on bringing the WCTU into the commercial/business sphere led some in the organization to worry that worldly considerations such as money and leases were undermining their mission.

Ironically, Carse's competence in securing the land and overseeing the construction of the building cast doubt on her ability to lead the project, as WCTU members increasingly viewed her activities as speculative and incompatible with a Christian women's organization.

The problem was not Carse's management skills; rather, it was a depression that ruined many of her lessees, and a building cycle that created a surplus of office spaces in the city.