Victoria Woodhull: The first American woman to run for President — 150 years ago

Awesome link. I had no idea she existed and her story is fascinating. The split with other suffragettes was especially interesting and I'm reading more on her now. Found a longer piece on her by the Guardian.

"If Congress refuse to listen and to grant what women ask, there is but one course left to pursue. What is there left for women to do but to become the mothers of the future government?”

Badass.

But Victoria Woodhull was still subjected to intense personal scrutiny and judgment, of a degree that male candidates did not experience....Similarly, reporting of Woodhull’s activities would, as with female politicians ever since, rarely fail to incorporate comments on her attire.

Some things don't change.

But some of her fiercest critics were women, who feared that her unconventional lifestyle, combined with the claims of clairvoyance and espousal of spiritualism, would detract from the seriousness of the women’s rights movement.

This outlook persists to the modern day. Hilary got critiques for being the "wrong" woman to represent women as President. IMO, we need to get past that view for equality to be reached. Heck, just working in tech I feel this unnecessary burden of representing women in general. If I mess up, it's quiet proof that women aren't good at the job.

From one of the articles that got her arrested:

In an article attributed to Tennie Woodhull, Luther Challis, a prominent trader and Wall Street wolf, was accused of seducing two young girls. Under the headline THE PHILOSOPHY OF MODERN HYPOCRISY, Tennie makes a point about double standards that remains pertinent today.

"Put a woman on trial for anything, let her even so much as go before the courts to obtain pecuniary justice – and it is considered a legitimate part of the defence to make the most searching inquiry into her sexual morality, and the decision generally turns upon the proof advanced in this regard. How is it with regard to men? Who thinks of attacking them in regard to their sexual morality?"

She and her sister were exonerated of libel, but only after the election and libel laws were made stronger because of this. A chilling example of the law being used to fetter her politically.

As night fell on election day in 1872, Woodhull closed her campaign – from prison – with a prophetic letter to the editor of the New York Herald, which showed that she was very well aware of what she had begun:

"To the public I would say in conclusion they may succeed in crushing me out, even to the loss of my life: but let me warn them and you that from the ashes of my body a thousand Victorias will spring to avenge my death by seizing the work laid down by me and carrying it forward to victory."

You go, girl.

That was a nice read. It's crazy that she couldn't vote for herself, nor could she have for another few decades.