In 1872, decades before women were legally allowed to vote, Victoria Woodhull made an audacious run for the White House. The press ridiculed her stance on 'free love' and she spent election night in jail. But she had put the first small crack in one of the thickest glass ceilings around. Twelve years later Belva Lockwood, the first woman to argue before the Supreme Court, took another swing at it. 

We celebrate Election Day with a look back at some of the first women who dared to run for the highest office in the United States, including Sen. Margaret Chase Smith and Rep. Shirley Chisholm. They ran against long odds, but they had grit and they got the ball rolling.

With Smithsonian curator Lisa Kathleen Graddy, and journalism historian Teri Finneman.

See the portraits we discussed:

Victoria Woodhull, unidentified artist

Get Thee Behind Me, (Mrs.) Satin! by Thomas Nast

Belva Lockwood, by Nellie Mathes Horne

Margaret Chase Smith, by Ernest Hamlin Baker

Shirley Chisholm, unidentified artist

Further reading:

Press Portrayals of Women Politicians, 1870s - 2000s, by Teri Finneman 

Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, by Jill Norgren

The Woman Who Ran for President: The Many Lives of Victoria Woodhull, by Lois Beachy Underhill

No Place For A Woman: A Life of Senator Margaret Chase Smith, by Janann Sherman

The Good Fight, by Shirley Chisholm

Shirley Chisholm: Champion of Black Feminist Power Politics, by Anastasia C. Curwood