"Forty-eight years before women were granted the right to vote, one woman dared to run for President of the United States, yet her name has been virtually written out of the history books. Rising from the shame of an abusive childhood, Victoria Woodhull, the daughter of a con-man and a religious zealot, vows to follow her destiny, one the spirits say will lead her out of poverty to become ruler of her people. But the road to glory is far from easy. A nightmarish marriage teaches Victoria that women are stronger and deserve far more credit than society gives. Eschewing the conventions of her day, she strikes out on her own to improve herself and the lot of American women. Over the next several years, she sets into motion plans that shatter the old boys club of Wall Street and defile even the sanctity of the halls of Congress. But it's not just her ambition that threatens men of wealth and privilege; when she announces her candidacy for President in the 1872 election, they realize she may well usurp the power they've so long fought to protect. Those who support her laud Notorious Victoria as a gifted spiritualist medium and healer, a talented financial mind, a fresh voice in the suffrage movement, and the radical idealist needed to move the nation forward. But those who dislike her see a dangerous force who is too willing to speak out when women are expected to be quiet. Ultimately, Mrs. Satan's radical views on women's rights, equality of the sexes, free love and the role of politics in private affairs collide with her tumultuous personal life to endanger all she has built and change how she is viewed by future generations. This is the story of one woman who was ahead of her time - a woman who would make waves even in the 21st century - but who dared to speak out and challenge the conventions of post-Civil War America, setting a precedent that is still followed by female politicians today"--Publisher description.

Describes the adventures of two sisters who tried to overcome the male-dominated social norms of the late nineteenth century and achieved a remarkable list of firsts, including the first woman-run brokerage house and the first woman to run for president.

"A woman will one day occupy the Oval Office because women themselves have made it inevitable, says best-selling historian Ellen Fitzpatrick. She tells the remarkable 150-year story of the candidates, voters, activists, and citizens who, despite overwhelming odds against women in politics, set their sights on the highest glass ceiling in the land."--Provided by publisher.

Examines the life of the nineteenth century feminist, Victoria Woodhull, who was a selected as the presidential candidate for the Equal Rights Party in 1872.

Do you know the first woman to run for president? The first woman to have a seat on the Stock Exchange? The first woman to own a newspaper? To speak before Congress? They were all Victoria Woodhull; this is her story.

"On the night of July 3, 1870, Elizabeth Tilton confessed to her husband that she'd had an affair with their pastor, Henry Ward Beecher. This secret would soon transfix America, for Beecher was the most famous preacher of the day, founder of the most fashionable church in Brooklyn Heights, a presidential hopeful, an influential supporter of abolition, and a leader of the campaign for women's suffrage. When Beecher tried to silence the Tiltons, it was a whisper network of suffragists, notably Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who spread news of the affair, and it was the radical Victoria Woodhull-an outspoken proponent of 'free love'-who seized on it, as political dynamite, to blow up the myth of monogamy among the political elite. Her public accusations led to even more public trials, which shocked the country and divided the most progressive thinkers of the era. In 1953, the journalist Robert Shaplen revisited the Tilton-Beecher affair in a series of articles for the New Yorker, relying on 3,000 pages of contemporary accounts-court transcripts, love-letters, newspaper reports and illustrations, even political cartoons-to reanimate a scandal that shook the American reform movement and to expose a strand of America's cultural DNA that remains recognizable today--Page [2] of cover.