The national organisation began in 1885 during the visit to New Zealand by Mary Clement Leavitt, the first world missionary for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

The WCTU NZ was an early branch of the World Woman's Christian Temperance Union and a founding affiliate of the National Council of Women of New Zealand.

There have been different pledges required of new members over the years: The official badge of the WCTU is a white ribbon: "a symbol of purity of purpose which binds together Christian women around the world.

For example, when Leavitt helped form the Auckland WCTU in February 1885, this club began first with five departments (temperance literature, heredity and hygiene, legislation, education, evangelistic and prison work)[10] and later added more as the organisation matured.

Mary C. Leavitt brought the World WCTU's Polyglot Petition for Home Protection to New Zealand to gain support of their leaders for their awareness campaign against the international trade in liquor and drugs as well as human trafficking.

[4] In June 1895, Kate Sheppard attended the World's WCTU conference in London, and it was there that she was encouraged to start the National Council of Women of New Zealand.

Sometimes the publican was obvious in their advertisements, indicating that a successful hire must be young and attractive, intimating a connection between the liquor industry and prostitution.

A convincing argument of the WCTU centred on the logic that barmaids could not, because of the long hours and everyday exposure to the vices of men, become a good wife and mother.

This double standard supported by law meant that women shouldered all the consequences (real or suspected) of the spread of venereal disease.

[10] In February 1887, the WCTU NZ national convention sent a formal resolution to the Minister for Education in which the Union sought for scientific temperance instruction be made compulsory in public school.

[21] The WCTU NZ paid for literature to support school curriculum including textbooks, charts, songs and teaching lessons.

Many communities were accustomed to and relied on collaborations among Christian churchwomen to provide emergency efforts or long-term resources for the needy.

[13] Now called the White Ribbon Bulletin, the official WCTU NZ publication is in newsletter format and, as with its predecessors, archived in the National Library of New Zealand.

Presidents Constance Toomer (1952–1958, 1966–1968) and Catherine Polglase (1969–1990) stood out as significant figures in women's social and religious activity in New Zealand even as the government began taking over the role of fact-finding and analysis of issues formerly seen as the purview of the WCTU NZ.