The women who paved the way for Hillary’s bid for the White House

If Hillary Clinton wins she will be the first female president of the United States, taking over from the first black president. But who were her predecessors, paving the way to women’s full participation in national politics?

Votes for American women began in the Wyoming Territory in 1869. Wyoming, amid the Rocky Mountains, is remote, cold, and high. Its population was tiny in the 1860s; men outnumbered women six to one. The advocates of female suffrage hoped they could create a little favourable publicity, encouraging more single women to head their way. When Wyoming became a state, in 1890, its women’s right to vote was written into the new state constitution.

Meanwhile, in 1872, Victoria Woodhull had become the first woman to run for president, on the Equal Rights ticket. She was 34 at the time, an advocate of free love, a spiritualist, and a pioneering female newspaper editor with a great nose for scandalous stories.