In 2016, Hilary Rodham Clinton became
the first woman to ever become a candidate for a major party in the United
States. Now notice that wording. She was the first for a “major party.” That
makes you wonder. Who was the first woman to ever run for president for any
U.S. party?
Allow me to introduce to you Victoria
Claflin Woodhull. In 1872, Woodhull became the first woman in United States
history to run for president.
Now I know what you’re thinking. Wasn’t
the 19th amendment, the amendment that gave the right for all women
in the United States to vote, passed in 1920? Why yes it was, which means
exactly what you think it means. Victoria Woodhull ran for president and was
not able to vote for herself.
Awkward, right? Well, that’s only part of
her story, but before we get to those details, let’s get into some background
into Woodhull as a candidate.
Victoria Woodhull was a candidate for
the Equal Rights Party, whose name should make it obvious enough that she campaigned
for equal rights for women and women’s suffrage. This garnered attention for
many across the United States since women had very little rights during the 19th
century. Women had to act and dress a certain way. Women could
not vote, which in turn meant they had very little voice in politics.
A platform for women’s rights would
receive support from many fellow suffragists, such as Susan B. Anthony. They
all supported each other during rallies and especially during another historic
moment for Woodhull.
She was the first woman to ever address
a Congressional committee. Her case was that women already had the right to
vote due to the 14th and 15th amendments. The 14th
amendment helped former slaves and all people born in the U.S. to the same
rights as all other citizens under the Bill of Rights. The 15th
amendment claimed that states could not deny a citizen of their right to vote
on the grounds of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude” (United States Senate). Her petition
was rejected, but she would gain more of a leadership position amongst
suffragists and would bring in large audiences of the thousands.
However, Woodhull’s fellow suffragists
were quick to turn on her due to her “radical” ideas.
You see, Victoria’s major part of her
campaign was “free love”. This isn’t the 70s. This was a controversial part
of her campaign that created many opponents for her. We might not think too
much about it now, but divorce was something that was not possible in the 19th
century. Well, unless you were man.
Victoria sought to expose this double
standard where men could divorce without any recourse but women could not. She
even claimed that marriage was a form of “sexual slavery.” She was very
outspoken about female sexuality and claimed that women had the right to do
what they wanted with their bodies, even wanting to legalize prostitution. Sure
rings a bell, right?
These radical ideas differed from the
moderate point of view Susan B. Anthony took. Anthony believed that women
needed to band together and work within the system to achieve small bits of
liberation at a time. Woodhull believed the system was too broken to be
salvaged and fought to gain equality for all women in all different fronts
whether it be socially, financially, or politically.
She was also bashed in the media as
well. Luckily for her, the Internet was not around, but newspapers were just as
brutal to her. Her most popular nickname given to her by opponents was “Mrs.
Satan!”
Remember before when I mentioned awkward
moments? Well, Election Day would be the beneficiary of more of those awkward
moments for Victoria.
For starters, if Victoria was able to
win the presidency, she couldn’t actually become president due to the
Constitution’s rule of a U.S. president needing to be at least 35 years old.
Victoria would have become only been 34 by inauguration day. Also, if she were to win
the presidency on Election Day, she would have made the acceptance speech in
jail. Let me explain.
Another first[1]
for Woodhull was starting a newspaper with her sisters that was called Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly. A few
days before the election, Woodhull published a piece in her newspaper calling
out a famous, minister, Reverend Henry Ward Beecher for his many affairs and
speaking on the hypocrisy of his actions since his social status and his gender
allowed this behavior to be acceptable. Woodhull and her sisters were arrested
on the charges of indecency[2]
for publishing this piece and were put in
jail for a month.
Despite her run for presidency ending on
a down note, her radical ideas for the time and the ambition she had to break
free from societal norms and actively try to change things for women should be
commemorated.
We may look down on ideas that break the
barriers of society, whether it comes to paying everyone of all genders the
same wage, abortion rights, and even wanting more strong, female protagonists
in films, but it is those exact ideas that institute real change and bring
people of all genders and races together.
So whenever the United States elects its
first female president, they should thank Victoria Claflin Woodhull for
cementing the foundation for a historic moment.
References
Felsenthal, Carol. "The Strange Tale of the First
Woman to Run for President." POLITICO Magazine. N.p., 09 Apr. 2015. Web.
07 Feb. 2017.
Gal, Renegade. "The Great Rivalry of Anthony and
Woodhull." Rebellious Times. N.p., 08 Feb. 2016. Web. 10 Feb. 2017.
Greenspan, Jesse. "9 Things You Should Know About
Victoria Woodhull." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 23 Sept.
2013. Web. 06 Feb. 2017.
Hampson, Rick. "First Woman to Run for
President." USA Today. Gannett Satellite Information Network, 07 Nov.
2016. Web. 5 Feb. 2017.
Lewis, Danny. "Victoria Woodhull Ran for
President Before Women Had the Right to Vote." Smithsonian.com.
Smithsonian Institution, n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2017.
Woodhull, Victoria C., and Cari M. Carpenter. Selected
Writings of Victoria Woodhull: Suffrage, Free Love, and Eugenics. Lincoln: U of
Nebraska, 2010. Print.
"Victoria C. Woodhull." Encyclopedia of
World Biography, Gale, 1998. U.S. History in Context,
libraries.state.ma.us/login?gwurl=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/K1631007058/UHIC?u=mlin_n_umass&xid=c62853be.
Accessed 7 Feb. 2017.
"Victoria C. Woodhull." Gale Biography in Context,
Gale, 2010. Biography in Context,
libraries.state.ma.us/login?gwurl=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/PC4295812349/BIC1?u=mlin_n_umass&xid=5d9ecafe.
Accessed 7 Feb. 2017.
Image References
Photo of women voting taken Oct. 1, 1931
Illustration of Victoria Woodhull campaigning from the Hulton Archive
Photo of women being arrested in Chicago for bathing suits taken in 1922.
2 Quotes taken from A-Z Quote
Video References
“Hundreds of thousands turn out for
Women's March on Washington”. The National. Jan 27, 2017.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-9UEq3T_5A&t=2s
“Mini BIO - Susan B. Anthony”. BIO. Oct
17, 2012.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-suAlXQhMI
“Veep Season 5: Trailer (HBO)”. HBO. May
12, 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYt6r4dY5Ms
“Women are protesting for abortion
rights in Poland”. Al Jazeera English. Oct 5, 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqkslEpgRFs
“[HD] Kylo Ren vs Finn and Rey scene -
Star Wars 7”. Dark Ren. Mar 28, 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV6sjwqCQ2M&t=15s
“scene from Commander in Chief”. unkabnin.
Mar 27, 2008.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lugmNWK3PUg
“Kisses for my President Part 1”. Mei
Kwai. Nov 10, 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfTsMLxHb8g
[1]
Woodhull also founded the first women’s owned stock brokerage.
[2]
This meant that Woodhull and her sister were charged for spreading lies onto a
person without any sort of factual evidence
