Throughout history, the American society had always been male chauvinistic, meaning men were often given prejudiced loyalty based on just the fact that they were men. Men were superior to women in all aspects of life, including receiving an education, have a voice in politics, and even the life at home. It wasn’t until the 1800’s that women began to fight for their rights and set new standards that would eventually mold the United States into the country it is today.
Victoria Woodhull, the first woman candidate for President of the United States, was a strong, relentless leader in the fight for women’s rights, and an dvocate for many other human rights we possess as American citizens today. Victoria California Claflin was born in Homer, Ohio on September 23, 1838 to an illegitimate and illiterate mother and a con-man and snake oil salesman father. The seventh of ten children, Victoria was beaten, starved, and sexually abused by her father while very young, which lead her to spiritualism and later guided her in her support of Free Love.
She grew particularly close to her younger sister, Tennessee, whom as adults, moved with Victoria to New York City and collaborated in founding the first women-operated stock brokerage firm on Wall Street and one of the first women-founded newspapers, Woodhull & Clafin’s Weekly. An activist for women’s rights and labor reforms, Victoria Woodhull pushed boundaries and gave a voice to women in politics and the way of life in general. Victoria Woodhull was a strong individual throughout her life and a strong component in the fight for women’s rights.
Other than being the first woman to run for president, she was also known as an advocate for civil rights and the support of Free Love. Married women in the 19th century had limited options of escape from marriage, even if the union was in vain. Divorce at his time was scandalous and taboo, and Woodhull’s belief in Free Love concluded that women should have the choice to leave marriages if they are unbearable. Woodhull also believed in the simple right for women to change their minds, which is still an issue we have in society today.
To Woodhull, the choice to make love or not should be the woman’s choice in every situation, and this choice would then place women as equal to men in the same situation. On November 20, 1871, Woodhull delivered a speech, stating of Free Love: “Yes, I am a Free Lover. I have an inalienable, constitutional and natural right to love hom I may, to love as long or as short a period as I can; to change that love everyday if I please, and with that right neither you nor any law you can frame have any right to interfere. In this same speech, she is known to have said, “Let women issue a declaration of independence sexually, and absolutely refuse to cohabit with men until they are acknowledged as equals in everything, and the victory would be won in a single week. ” (Free Lover. ) Women who felt they had the right of sexual determination were often ostracized by society, and Woodhull was relentless in discrediting this stigma, pointing out the ypocrisy of society tolerating married men who had mistresses.
She was later prosecuted and jailed for highlighting this double- standard and publicly calling out Henry Ward Beecher, a well- known clergyman, for adultery and publishing the accounts in her journal. This trial was one of the most sensational of the era and added national coverage to her candidacy and campaign for the United States presidency. In the year before Victoria Woodhull ran for President, a man named Theodore Tilton published a biography about her, seemingly praising the “.. oung woman whose career had been as singular as any eroine’s in a romance; whose ability is of a rare and whose character of the rarest type; whose personal sufferings are of themselves a whole drama pathos; whose name (through the malice of some and the ignorance of others) has caught a shadow in strange contrast with the whiteness of her life; whose position as a representative of her sex in the greatest reform of modern times renders her an object of peculiar interest to her fellow-citizens…
While in New York City, Victoria and Tennessee explored the brothels, expressed support for the legalization of sex work, and were humiliated by many men’s journals. Although Woodhull’s views and beliefs in regards to her past experiences give insight to her character values, they had easily been dishonored by the government and the opposition throughout the years. As the first female stockbrokers, Victoria and Tennessee were easily targeted by men, who published sexualized pictures of the sisters running the firm, comparing “un-chaperoned” woman to ideas of prostitution.
Although men and the government found “The Scarlet Sisters” an easy target, Victoria found a way into national politics and testified on women’s suffrage before the House Judiciary Committee. In one f her best and most logical arguments, Woodhull argued that women “already had the right to vote, as expressed by the 14th and 15th Amendments, guaranteeing the protection of that right for all citizens. All they had to do was use it. ” After hearing about her address to the Committee, the National Woman Suffrage Association, including Susan B.
Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, recognized Woodhull and stood by her message: “Women are the equals of men before the law, and are equal in all their rights. ” (Constitutional). That being said, these feminists also disagreed with her tactics in pushing for women’s equality, eemingly describing Victoria as opportunistic and unpredictable, relaying back to her relentless ways for doing what’s right. Along with her sister, Victoria Woodhull helped pave the way for women to vote, make their own decisions regarding their bodies and sex life, and obtain jobs in an economy that had always been male-oriented.
In an article titled, “Free Love: Victoria Woodhull,” David D’Amato conveys the sisters’ advantageous steps for women in publication by noting, “The sisters thus launched their own periodical, Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly, in 1870, making it the earliest free love journal… The Claflin sisters filled its pages with unafraid defenses of women as independent moral agents, capable of making their own decisions in business, sexual relations, and the voting booth. ” Although the primary purpose of this journal was to support her campaign for presidency, the Weekly became notorious for publishing opinions of controversial topics.
Like Victoria’s open advocacy, her journal reflected her beliefs, supporting topics such as feminism, sex education, free love, women’s suffrage, short skirts, spiritualism, licensed prostitution, and birth control. Woodhull used this voice as a ay to broadcast her views, and also show women that in a country dominated by men, women can still have a voice and make a change. Victoria Woodhull was not only a role model for women advocates, but she was a voice for those who were scared to be heard.
She took the steps necessary to discredit the stigma of independent and strong women, and broke through barriers that had been in place since the birth of the country. She was the first women candidate for President of the United States, and one of the most important stepping stones in the fight for women’s rights and labor reforms in the country. In 876, Woodhull divorced her second husband, inherited a large sum of money given to her by Commodore Vanderbilt’s son, and left America to start a new life in England.
She continued to speak publicly, eventually meeting her third husband. Woodhull then published the magazine, The Humanitarian, from 1892 to 1901, when her husband passed away. At that point, she gave up publication and retired to Bredon’s Norton, Worcestershire, England, where she passed away 26 years later at age 88. Woodhull’s mark on history is an important one, especially for women and the right to free love, and her many feats will forever impact this country
