Fact #14: Victoria Woodhull was the First Female Presidential Candidate

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Victoria Woodhull ran for president in 1872 - making her the female presidential candidate. It would be another 50 years before women would even earn the right to vote.

Victoria was a bit of a renaissance woman. She was a stockbroker, newspaper publisher, and activist. Victoria advocated for things such women’s suffrage, free love, mystical socialism, and the Greenback movement.

Victoria grew up traveling with her sister in family medicine and fortune telling shows. She dabbled in psychic readings and clairvoyance.

Victoria married at the age of 15 but it wouldn’t last. After her divocre, the sisters joined forces with Cornelius Vanderbilt. They set up a stockbrokerage firm and then turned those profits into a women’s rights magazine that advocated for things like legal prostitution and dress reform.

While running for president, she was criticized for her lifestyle. In retaliation, she published a story about an affair between a prominent reverend and a married parishioner. Victoria and her sister were imprisoned for 7 months for sending obscene materials through the mail.

After being acquitted, Victoria divorced again and moved to England. She spent the rest of her life hobnobbing with the British elite and writing a variety of publications. She even started the Humanitarian, a magazine dedicated to eugenics.

REFERENCE:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Victoria-Woodhull
https://www.britannica.com/list/7-female-firsts-in-us-politics
https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-first-woman-to-run-for-president-victoria-woodhull.htm