She Was The First Woman To Work On Wall Street As A Stockbroker, And She Also Was The Very First Woman To Ever Run For President In America
History was made in 2021 when we swore in the first female vice president of the United States. Although America has yet to elect a female president, several women have run presidential campaigns.
Do you know who the first woman to run for president was?
Her name was Victoria Woodhull, and she was also a leader in the women’s suffrage movement and the first female stockbroker to work on Wall Street.
Victoria was born in Ohio in 1838. She was the seventh of ten children and grew up in a brutal household where her father was abusive. Though she only received three years of formal education, she was still a very bright girl. Her family left her hometown when her father’s mill burnt down.
When she was only 15 years old, Victoria married 28-year-old doctor Canning Woodhull. Not long after they married, Victoria learned her husband was an alcoholic and often had to pick up jobs to support her family, which included their two children.
Victoria eventually divorced Canning in 1865 and began to support the ‘free love’ movement, which promoted women being able to get married, have children, and get divorced without any interference from the government.
It was the beginning of her long history of fighting for women’s rights. She married her second husband, Colonel James Harvey Blood, in 1866.
Victoria began working with her sister, Tennessee Claflin, and started a brokerage with her in 1870 on Wall Street, making them the first women ever to do so.
This was a very busy year for Victoria, as it was the same year she and her sister used some of their brokerage funds to start their own newspaper called Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly. The newspaper published pieces relating to women’s suffrage, the free love movement, and political ideas.
f11photo – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
Unfortunately, in 1872, the newspaper was shut down after they published an article about a scandal involving preacher Henry Ward Beecher and the owners were charged with obscenity.
During this time, Victoria continued to advocate for women’s rights vocally and was a prominent public speaker. She spoke at numerous suffrage conventions and was the first woman to testify before a U.S. House of Representatives committee.
In 1871, Victoria bravely decided to run for president of the United States. She became the candidate for the Equal Rights Party in 1872, which she was influential in establishing. But unfortunately, many didn’t take Victoria seriously during her presidential campaign.
Most of the discrimination Victoria faced was due to her gender, and the legal issues surrounding her newspaper during her run didn’t help her reputation. As a result, Victoria lost the 1872 to Ulysses S. Grant with zero electoral votes.
Victoria divorced her second husband and moved to England in 1877. There, she supported the British women’s suffrage movement and published the magazine The Humanitarian alongside her daughter, Zulu.
Victoria passed away in England at 88 in 1927. Although she may not have won the presidential election, she paved the way for women who hope to become the first American female president one day.
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