Back in 1872, there was a long list of things American women were not allowed, or at the very least encouraged, to do. It was a time in America’s history when Susan B. Anthony was being arrested and tried in a court of law for just trying to vote (along with thirteen other suffragists, although Anthony was the only one of the group whose case went to trial).
To have a woman actively involved in politics, let alone running for the office of president of the United States, was a definite shock to the societal system. Such was the case with the first female candidate for the presidency, Victoria Woodhull, whose list of accomplishments to that point included being one of the first female stock brokers on Wall Street and dalliances in newspaper publishing.
An activist who lobbied for the women’s rights movement, Woodhull went even further with her beliefs than many of her suffragist colleagues by demanding women be allowed access to birth control and have the ability to leave unwanted marriages.
And that vote Susan B. Anthony attempted to cast that also landed her in jail at the time? Not for Victoria Woodhull, but for Ulysses S. Grant.
