An Ugly Game
Shirley Chisholm of Texas, the first African-American woman elected to Congress served seven terms. She is often described as “Unbought & Unbossed.” As successful as her political career was she once observed: “Of my two “handicaps,” being female put many more obstacles in my path than being black.”
When one female writer wrote “Well-behaved women rarely make history,” she surely must have had Victoria Woodhull in mind. Mrs. Woodhull seemed to be insensitive to popular opinion and if she had ever entertained any idea of conforming to the world around her, a domineering, irresponsible father and an alcoholic husband soon convinced her to throw aside the constraints placed on her by a male dominated society.
Victoria and her sister Tennessee Clafin charmed the aging Commodore Vanderbilt with their supposed spiritualistic powers and he became a willing investment counselor. Armed with his tips the sisters dazzled the masculine world of finance on Wall Street. First they operated as private investors and then opened their own brokerage house. They were soon dubbed the “Queens of Wall Street.”
Moving on to bigger and better things, Victoria took to the lecture circuit and she, along with her sister, produced the Woodhull & Clafin’s Weekly. They became advocates of women’s rights. Victoria first outraged New York and then the entire nation by crusading for female emancipation, social justice and outspoken adherence for “free love.”
The leaders for Women Suffrage had long tried to present their cause to Congress but were always thwarted.Mrs. Woodhull skillfully preempted them and in 1871 she became the first woman to testify to Congress on behalf of female suffrage.
In 1872 she ran for President on the Equal Rights Party ticket. The public reaction to her candidacy ranged from mild amusement to moral indignation due to her brazen stance on “free love.” Her campaign was short lived and she would spend the next five years embroiled in law suits and resisting those who sought to drive her from the city. In 1877 she and her sister left for England. It was there that she finally gained a small degree of respect as the reforming wife of a prosperous British banker.
1872, the year Mrs. Woodhull campaigned for President, Belva Lockwood joined the Equal Rights party. Lockwood was born in New York and was educated beyond the level of most women of her day. She began as a teacher and was part of a campaign to obtain equal pay for women teachers. In 1872 she successfully persuaded Congress to pass the bill guaranteeing female government employees equal pay for equal work.
Belva Lockwood went to law school via a private tutor but found her hard-won law degree would not be accepted by the male members of the profession. In 1873 a Judge lectured her soundly. “Women are not needed in the courts.” He stated. “Their place is in the home to wait upon their husbands, to bring up the children, to cook the meals, make beds, polish pans and dust furniture.”
She was not persuaded and finally convinced Congress to pass a bill allowing women to practice law before the Supreme Court. By 1884 she ran for the Presidency and used her campaign to publicize the feminist cause.
Unfortunately pollsters threw her ballot into wastebaskets. Leading suffragettes, who should have supported her, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton disavowed her and backed James Blaine. Although she ran again in 1888 it was clear the male electorate believed woman’s place was in the home.
Another politically minded New York lady and former First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, reminded everyone that nothing has ever been achieved by the person who says, “It can’t be done.”
A century after Belva Lockwood made her bid for the White House another woman came close to the elusive golden ring when she made it on to the Democratic ticket in 1984. She was the first woman to run for vice-president on a national party ticket. Had the Democrats won she would have been but a breath from the Presidency. She and running mate, Walter Mondale, lost to Ronald Reagan in a landslide victory. In 2008 she served in the Presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton who gave Barrack Obama a run for his money, so to speak. In that same year Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, was the second woman to run on a major U.S. party ticket. Although she and running mate John McCain, were soundly defeated, she remained active on the political scene, often speaking at Tea Party rallies.
In the two hundred and twenty-three years since George Washington was inaugurated, only five women had made a serious bid for the office of the Presidency. Since then we have seen Hillary Clinton go down to defeat to Trump in 2016 and currently Kamala Harris is heading the Democratic ticket. Why so few women have desired the path that Sarah Palin and her political sisters had chosen was probably best summed up by her predecessor, Geraldine Ferraro when she said: “In a national election the stakes get higher while the tactics get lower. Politics can be an ugly game.”
