The First Female Candidates challenged America to embrace equal political opportunities for all of its citizens. The nation grew from roughly five million to 76 million people between 1800 and 1900 based on historical census statistics that did not include Native Americans. Despite these numbers, we have only a few names among the first female candidates, and even fewer who won elections.
In 1870, The 15th Amendment was ratified. It stated: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” It applied to all men in American including African American men.
All women were still excluded from voting.
According to Jennifer Helton for High Country News, on election day September 6, 1870, Wyoming officials were concerned. The previous year, a violent mob in South Pass had attempted to stop African American men from voting. Since the territorial legislature had granted full political equality to women citizens, they feared more violence.
“But as the polls opened in Laramie, Louisa Swain, an “aged grandam,” cast her vote, and the watching crowd cheered. Many women voted in Laramie that day, including at least two African American women, who were escorted to the polls by a deputy U.S. marshal.” (High Country News)
Both Utah and Wyoming enfranchised women decades before the 19th Amendment of 1929 finally gave all American women the right to vote.
Following are a few of the First Female Candidates who ran for various government offices.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, First Woman to Run For House of Representatives – 1866
Listed as one of the First Female Candidates, Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) was the first woman to run for the U.S. House of Representatives. Since she ran well before the 1929 ratification of the 19th amendment, she was not eligible to vote. Even so, she ran as an Independent from New York State. She received 24 votes out of 12,000.
One of the most prominent of the American suffragists, Stanton fought to secure equal rights for women, including the right to vote.
In 1848 she wrote “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.” Her famous statement appeared in the Declaration of Sentiments at Seneca Falls, which paved the way for the first organized women’s rights and women’s suffrage movement in the United States.
Among her issues Stanton supported the right of married women to hold property. She believed that a woman’s voice in the public arena must be equal to man’s and that the roles of wife and mother should have equal financial and legal advantage as those of husband and father.
She believed that a woman’s right to vote would be a tool to bring women’s superior sense of morality to issues that concerned their families.
According to Feminists For Life:
“The vote would give women a way to houseclean a society pervaded by the violence of war, poverty, crime, child labor, corrupt politics, and enormous injustice.” (Feminists for Life)
Read Stanton’s favorite public speech, Solitude of Self. 1892.
Victoria Woodhull, Presedential Cancdiate – 1872
One of the most provocative of the first female candidates, Victoria Woodhull (1838-1927) was a stockbroker, publisher, and protégé of Cornelius Vanderbilt, ran for president of the United States on the Equal Rights Party ticket, a minor party based in San Francisco, California that supported women’s rights. Ignoring the fact that she was not old enough to run for office, she pursued her campaign with vigor.
Victoria Woodhull and her sister Tennessee Claflin chipped several glass ceilings. Among them was Victoria Woodhull’s campaign to run for the office of the President of the United States in 1872. Together they overcame a tawdry childhood to become powerful forces for female empowerment.
Woodhull and Claflin challenged the nineteenth-century status quo. Many considered their radical views on marriage, sex, business and politics disgraceful. They were criticized, maligned –even jailed. They were also admired and staggeringly successful.
Woodhull became a devout advocate of the female suffrage movement after attending a convention in January 1869. A charismatic speaker, she developed a following with her lectures and articles in support of the cause. She persuaded one of her admirers, Massachusetts Senator Benjamin Butler, to invite her to testify before the House Judiciary Committee. The only other woman who achieved this honor was suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Woodhull had been actively involved in political reform since the early 1870s. Members of the National Woman Suffrage Association convention created the Equal Rights Party. They elected Woodhull as their presidential candidate on May 9, 1872. She chose Frederick Douglass, the powerful black abolitionist leader as her running mate. He was a popular choice, even if most accounts say he never acknowledged her choice.
Woodhull received no electoral votes in the election of 1872, an election in which six different candidates received at least one electoral vote, and a negligible, but unknown, percentage of the popular vote. (Racing Nellie Bly – Victoria Woodhull Chipped Glass Ceilings)
Belva Lockwood-First Female Lawyer and Presidential Candidate 1884 and 1888
Among the first female candidates, Belva Lockwood (1830-1917) was admitted to practice law before the U.S Supreme Court. In 1884 and 1888 she ran for president on the Equal Rights Party Ticket.
According to the Library of Congress:
“One of her most notable victorious legal battles was the U.S. v. Cherokee Nation, 202 U.S. 101 (1906), which awarded $5,000,000 to the plaintiff for an 1838 land purchase. “
After being denied admission to the Supreme Court in 1876, she single-handedly lobbied legislation through Congress to allow women to practice before the Supreme Court and, on March 3, 1879 at the age of 49, became the first woman to take advantage of the new law.” (Library of Congress)
Although her platform contained many progressive ideas later enacted into legislation, her campaign was not always taken seriously and sexist comments were published by newspaper editors in the press.
Susanna Salter, First Female Mayor In U.S.- 1887
A favorite among the first female candidates was Susanna Salter (1860-1960). She became the first female mayor of a city in the United States when elected in Argonia, Kansas in April of 1887.
According to the National Park Service, A group of men in her town put her name on a slate of candidates as a stunt designed to humiliate women and discourage them from participating in politics. Salter did not know she was on the ballot before the polls opened.
Slater proudly accepted her position as mayor of her town despite opposition and ridicule. She served for one year for compensation of $1.
In the fall of 1887 Slater spoke at the Women’s Suffrage Association’s state convention on the same program with Susan B. Anthony.
Syracuse, Kansas – 1887
The town elected five women to fill all seats of the city council. A man held the position of mayor. (Center for American Women and Politics)
Oskaloosa, Kansas – 1888
Oskaloosa became the first town in America to have an all-woman government, including the position of mayor and the entire council. Among these first female candidates were Mayor Mary D. Lowman, 37)and Councilmembers Carrie Johnson, Sadie E. Balsley, Hanna P. Morse, Emma K. Hamilton, and Mittie Josephine Golden. (Center for American Women and Politics)
1892 – Laura Eisenhuth, Supt. of Public Instruction (D-ND)
Counted among the first female candidates, Laura Eisenhiuth (1859-1937) was elected superintendent of public instruction. This made her the first woman in America to be elected to a statewide executive office. (Center for American Women and Politics)
1894 –Colorado House of Representatives
Among the first female candidates, three were elected to a state legislature in the country. Clara Cressingham (R), Carrie C. Holly (R), and Frances Klock (R), all served in the Colorado House of Representatives.
1895 – Clara Cressingham (R)
Cressingham (1863–1906) became Secretary of the Colorado House Republican Caucus, making her one of the first women to fill a leadership position in a state legislature.
1896 – Martha Hughes Cannon, First Female State Senator (D)
was elected to the Utah State Senate, becoming the first woman state senator in the country.
1904 -Marie Bottineau Baldwin Held A Significant Government Position
In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Marie Bottineau Baldwin to the Office of Indian Affairs (OIA). It was an agency within the Department of the Interior and the forerunner of today’s National Congress of American Indians. (Racing Nellie Bly)
1916 – Jeannette Rankin, First Woman In Congress
Jeannette Rankin (1880-1973) joined the ranks of the first female candidates to become the first woman ever elected to Congress. The Republican from Montana, she served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1917 to 1919 and again from 1941 to 1942. She was the only lawmaker to vote against U.S. entry into both world wars.
1984 – Representative Geraldine Ferraro
Geraldine Ferraro (1835-2911) became the first woman nominated for national office by a major political party when Democratic nominee Walter Mondale announced her selection as his running mate in 1984.
2008 – Alaska Governor Sarah Palin
Palin was the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2008,
2016 – former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Clinton shattered the glass ceiling by securing the Democratic Party nomination for president in 2016.
2024 – Kamala Harris – Vice President of the United States
Kamala Harris shattered the glass ceiling by securing the Democratic Party nomination for president in 2024. Harris is the first female vice president of the United States, making her the highest ranking female official in U.S. history. She is also the first African American, and the first Asian American vice president. She served as the attorney general of California and in 2017 to 2021, she represented California in the United States Senate.
Women Still Lag Behind In Public Office
Despite the fact that women were not allowed to vote throughout the 1800s, the era offers countless examples of trailblazing women. To name just a few of our favorites:
New York reporters Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland
Mary Church Terrell who defined activism for Black Americans and women’s rights from the late 1800s to mid-1900s.
Harriett Tubman who was known as the female Moses for leading more than 70 slaves to freedom before the Civil War.
While we celebrate the electoral victories of these first women candidates and those of all the women who followed them, women are still under represented in the highest political offices.
Anna Danziger Halperin writes for New York History:
“… we are also sobered by the realization that even despite breaking new ground, women still only hold about a quarter of the seats in either the U.S. House of Representatives or Senate.” (NewYorkHistory)
We owe a debt of gratitude to the trail blazing women who fought for the rights we cherish today.
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