Victoria Claflin Woodhull made historical past by changing into the primary lady to run for america presidency over 150 years in the past. It was exceptional, contemplating ladies on the time did not even have the correct to vote. Through the 1872 US elections, Woodhull, a stockbroker, newspaper writer and advocate for social reform, launched into her presidential marketing campaign. At 31, she not solely defied societal expectations, looking for the nation’s highest workplace but in addition confronted constitutional restrictions. She was 4 years shy of the authorized age to function president.
Her candidacy was a controversial one. Though she garnered some assist from fellow suffragists, mainstream advocates akin to Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton distanced themselves from her. They considered Woodhull as an eccentric determine, and her daring stances on free love and spiritualism raised eyebrows. Many thought-about her views radical, fearing they might undermine the broader ladies’s suffrage motion.
On Could 10, 1872, the Equal Rights Celebration nominated her as their presidential candidate at Apollo Corridor in New York Metropolis. The celebration stood for a number of progressive causes, together with equitable wages for ladies, diminished working hours for all and civil rights for African Individuals.
Regardless of her candidacy within the US elections, Woodhull’s identify didn’t seem on any official ballots, and there’s no file of the votes she could have acquired. Nonetheless, her candidacy in 1872 paved the way in which for future ladies who aspired to run for the presidency. Her efforts impressed later candidates within the US elections, akin to Belva Ann Lockwood in 1884 and 1888, and Margaret Chase Smith, who, in 1964, grew to become the primary lady nominated at a significant celebration conference.
Different notable figures, akin to Shirley Chisholm, the primary African American lady to hunt a significant celebration nomination in 1972, and Pat Schroeder, who briefly ran for the Democratic nomination in 1988, additionally adopted within the footsteps of Woodhull.
Woodhull stays a exceptional Nineteenth-century determine identified for her advocacy of ladies’s rights and suffrage. She launched Karl Marx’s concepts to America and have become the primary lady to run a Wall Avenue brokerage agency. Woodhull died in 1927 on the age of 88.
