What woman took this title before her?
It's been nearly 100 years since women first gained the
right to vote in the United States, and now we have arrived at the next major
milestone for women in U.S. history. Hillary Clinton made history Tuesday night
in Philadelphia when she became the official nominee of the Democratic Party,
making her the first female presidential nominee....of a major party. Despite
popular belief, Clinton is not the first woman to be nominated for President.
That distinction goes to Victoria Woodhull.
In 1872, nearly 50 years before women were allowed to vote,
Victoria Woodhull ran for president as a third- party candidate, of what was
then known as the Equal Rights Party, against Republican president, General
Ulysses S Grant, and the Democratic nominee, Horace Greeley. She became the
first woman to run for President of the United States. She announced her run in
the New York Herald in 1870, stating,
“I…claim the right to speak for the unenfranchised women of
the country, and believing as I do that the prejudices which still exist in the
popular mind against women in public life will soon disappear, I now announce
myself as candidate for the Presidency.”
Her presidential run came to an end when she was arrested days before the election on obscenity charges for writing an article about an adulterous love affair between Henry Ward Beecher, a powerful minister.
Victoria's campaign platform was far ahead of its time. She took a strong stance for women's suffrage, but also believed in free love, the end to the "slavery" of marriage, prison reform, worker's rights and equal pay. She was woman of many firsts- being the first woman to start a newspaper
and the first woman to start a Wall Street Brokerage.
Also check out
Women For President- A Brief History
Also check out
Women For President- A Brief History
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