Who Was the First Woman to Run for President of the United States?

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They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link font-12 "> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div></div> </div> <article class="topic-content content mt-20"><figure class="md-assembly md-feature-assembly print-false" data-type="1" data-descid="1"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media" data-type="image"><a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/11/113311-050-ED800E5E/Victoria-Woodhull-woman-suffrage-US-House-of-1871.jpg" target="_blank" class="gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center " data-href="*"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/11/113311-050-ED800E5E/Victoria-Woodhull-woman-suffrage-US-House-of-1871.jpg?w=600&q=60" alt="The Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives receiving a deputation of female suffragists, January 11, 1871, a lady delegate (identified as Victoria Woodhull) reading her argument (cont'd)" data-width="1441" data-height="868" loading="eager"><button class="magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10" aria-label="Zoom in"><em class="material-icons link-blue" data-icon="zoom_in"></em></button></a></div><figcaption class=""><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div><cite class="credit d-block mt-5">Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital file no. 3a05761u)</cite></figcaption></figure> <p class="topic-paragraph">When <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hillary-Clinton" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Hillary Clinton</a>, running as the first female presidential candidate of a major political party, won the popular vote but lost the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/electoral-college" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">electoral college</a> vote in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/United-States-presidential-election-of-2016" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">2016 election</a>, the glass ceiling preventing women from reaching the White House’s Oval Office trembled but didn’t break. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kamala-Harris" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Kamala Harris</a>, the first woman to be U.S. vice president, tried to break that ceiling in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-2024" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">2024</a>, but she too was unsuccessful.</p><span class="MOD1"></span> <p class="topic-paragraph">Clinton’s and Harris’s candidacies happened partly because that glass ceiling was already strewn with fissures from more than 200 other women who had sought the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/presidency-of-the-United-States-of-America" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">presidency</a> at one time or another before them. <strong>The first woman to actively pursue the country’s highest office was <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Victoria-Woodhull" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Victoria Woodhull</a>—a stockbroker, newspaper publisher, and champion of social reform who ran for the presidency in 1872, some 50 years before women throughout the United States had achieved the right to vote.</strong></p><span class="MOD2"></span> <p class="topic-paragraph">Woodhull made known her intention to seek the presidency in a letter to the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/New-York-Herald" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true"><em>New York Herald</em></a> on April 2, 1870: </p><span class="MOD3"></span> <blockquote>While others sought to show that there was no valid reason why woman should be treated socially and politically as a being inferior to man, I boldly entered the arena of politics and business and exercised the rights I already possessed. I therefore claim the right to speak for the unenfranchised women of the country…I now announce myself as a candidate for the Presidency. I am quite well aware that in assuming this position I shall evoke more ridicule than enthusiasm at the outset. But this is an epoch of sudden changes and startling surprises. What may appear absurd to-day will assume a serious aspect to-morrow.</blockquote> <p class="topic-paragraph">Woodhull was an outsider candidate in more than a few ways. Not only was she a female candidate at a time when women could not vote, but also, at age 31, when she wrote to the <em>Herald</em>, she was four years too young to serve as president, according to the requirements of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Constitution-of-the-United-States-of-America" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">U.S. Constitution</a>. Moreover, while she was supported by some of her fellow suffragettes, the mainstream, mostly middle-class advocates of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/woman-suffrage" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">women’s suffrage</a>, notably <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Susan-B-Anthony" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Susan B. Anthony</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elizabeth-Cady-Stanton" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Elizabeth Cady Stanton</a>, carefully distanced themselves from Woodhull, whom they considered an eccentric at best. At worst they saw her as an uncouth libertine loony whose advocacy of free love and interest in spiritualism could damage their movement. </p><span class="MOD4"></span> <p class="topic-paragraph">But if free love connoted loose morals to many people, for Woodhull it meant the freedom to love and marry the person one chose and the right to divorce. The Equal Rights Party, which nominated Woodhull as its presidential candidate on May 10, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1872" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">1872</a>, at Apollo Hall in New York City, championed, among other things, women’s right to a fair wage, shorter workdays for all workers, and civil rights for African Americans (selecting renowned abolitionist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frederick-Douglass" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Frederick Douglass</a> as Woodhull’s running mate, though he chose not to respond to the invitation). Ultimately, however, it was Woodhull’s statements about free love that were glommed onto by newspapers, undermining her candidacy.</p><span class="MOD5"></span> <p class="topic-paragraph">Woodhull’s name did not appear on any ballots, and an absence of records has left no evidence of how many votes she received. Her decidedly insurgent candidacy, though, helped break ground for the women who would run for president after her, from the pre-suffrage candidacy of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Belva-Ann-Lockwood" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Belva Ann Lockwood</a> in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1884" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">1884</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1888" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">1888</a> to the candidacies of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Margaret-Chase-Smith" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Margaret Chase Smith</a> (who at the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1964" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">1964</a> Republican convention became the first woman to have her named entered into nomination at a major party's convention), <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Shirley-Chisholm" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Shirley Chisholm</a> (who in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1972" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">1972</a> became the first African American woman to run for the nomination of a major political party as its candidate for president), and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Patricia-Schroeder" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Pat Schroeder</a> (who briefly pursued the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1988" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">1988</a> Democratic nomination). Schroeder, when asked how she was able to be both a mother and a member of Congress, replied “I have a brain and a uterus and I use both.” </p><span class="MOD6"></span> <p class="topic-paragraph"><em><a href="https://www.britannica.com/explore/women-in-politics" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Explore the stories of other women who became leaders around the world.</a></em></p><span class="MOD7"></span> <span class="AM-END-OF-ARTICLE am-inline"></span></article> </div> </div> </div> <aside class="cm-rightrail d-none d-md-block ad-rail"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </main> <div class="grid gx-0"> <div class="col"> <div class="md-loading hidden display-4 font-weight-normal"></div> <div class="text-center my-20 mb-100"> <button class="md-infinite-load-next btn btn-blue" data-value="next-page">Load More</button> </div> </div> <div class="col-md-da-320 hidden-xs"> </div> </div></div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Story","templateName":"DEMYSTIFIED","pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":10,"pageId":6825,"pageLength":null,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-131/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.131.7"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-131/dist/story-page.js?v=3.131.7' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"D","adLeg":"D","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Story","pageSubtype":"DEMYSTIFIED","articleTemplateType":null,"gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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Who Was the First Woman to Run for President of the United States? | Britannica