Do you know who this woman is? Probably not. This is Victoria Woodhull. In 1872, she was the first female candidate for President of the United States, the Equal Rights Party candidate. She was an advocate of free love, by which she meant the freedom to marry, divorce, and bear children without government interference. She was the first woman to start a weekly newspaper; an activist for women’s rights and labor reforms. She was also a stockbroker, divorced her first husband, who was an abusive alcoholic (and whom she married when she was 2 weeks past her 15th birthday!) and was a major advocate of women’s rights. Many of her quotes still remain relevant today:
To woman, by nature, belongs the right of sexual determination. When the instinct is aroused in her, then and then only should commerce follow. When woman rises from sexual slavery to sexual freedom, into the ownership and control of her sexual organs, and man is obliged to respect this freedom, then will this instinct become pure and holy; then will woman be raised from the iniquity and morbidness in which she now wallows for existence, and the intensity and glory of her creative functions be increased a hundred-fold …Basically, she was a magnificent woman and a woman before her time. Absolutely brilliant inspiration